Forget the Allegations, Get Ready for Kentucky

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Man, I defend Calipari and suddenly he’s on the verge of losing his 2nd Final Four Appearance. Ouch. Cal is claiming he knew nothing of Derrick Rose’s alleged SAT hookup – “Hey homie, you mind taking my SAT real quick?” –although I find that extremely hard to believe and as I read in Luke Winn’s SI.Com column, is it merely coincidence that Cal could become the first coach to vacate two Final Fours? Eh, and I guess we’re still looking for WMDs in Iraq.

While some folks are screaming and yelling “I told you so!!”, “Cal’s a Cheat!”, and the obligatory – “He’s not a good game coach!”  Hey, it has nothing to do with recruiting, but people feel better pointing that out any chance they can.

But, none of that matters because I believe nothing is going to come out of this. Nothing is going to happen to either school and Memphis had no intention of letting this out until next month at the NCAA hearing. I’ve said this before and most of you know this – the NCAA is a business, and when Kentucky is thriving, business is good. When Memphis is thriving, business is good, and with the economy right now, there’s no way that the NCAA is going to look too much into Cal or Memphis because they don’t want there to be anything else found out and what the repercussions of such a discovery would mean to not just the schools involved, but what it would do to college basketball.

People are talking about Kentucky basketball because they have the chance to be good, National Championship good. And while Cal took some of the luster off of Memphis with him, Josh Pastner is a marvelous recruiter. He can keep Memphis playing at a high level in Conference USA, and he’ll keep them in the Tournament. Not to mention, Memphis loves its college basketball team and the fans have taken to Pastner because they see his pedigree – mentored under Lute Olson and Cal (is that a good thing?) – and the dude works non-stop. He was a great hire and will do well.

So, two fresh starts, rabid fan support in a tough economy, and you think the NCAA is going to start snooping around? No way.

I understand I’ve gone conspiracy theory for a minute, but it’s amazing how money can change just about anything – the NCAA knows this, Memphis, UK, Calipari, everybody, they all know it. Cal’s going to be fine, he’ll just be more careful moving forward.

Lastly, on Cal’s recruiting class, I know everybody wants to compare it to the Fab 5, but give it a rest. The Fab 5 changed the way we looked at basketball, these clowns are just changing the way we look at Kentucky. And I’m bias because I grew up watching the Fab 5, but c’mon, give it a break.

But I will say this, and KU fans, I know a lot of you are pooh-poohing this idea, but UK is legit and will challenge for the National Title. Don’t give me any of this, they’re freshman, they don’t have experience non-sense. They’ve got talent and loads of it. I’m not saying they’re better than KU – although top-to-bottom, whew, it’s close – but I’d be shocked if they don’t make it to the Final Four.

And who wouldn’t want to see KU beat another Calipari-coached team again for another Championship? Especially Kentucky. I’ll take Sherron Collins’ leadership and poise over John Wall, and I’ll take Cole Aldrich over any UK big man, and of course, Bill Self over Cal.

Next year will be exciting. Rock Chalk for life.