I know. He's loud and arrogant and perhaps the biggest bandwagoner in college basketball. UK fans have had a love/hate relationship with ESPN's Dick Vitale and I admit, it has been hate the last few years. How dare he jump on the Florida Gators bandwagon in the SEC and then continually dis UK the last few years?Well, times have changed. The Gators have become a perennial NIT team once again and UK is back on top of the basketball world. And once again, Dicky V is showing UK some love and most importantly, is becoming one of the main voices supporting John Calipari and pointing out the absurdity of the NCAA.
In his latest column on ESPN, Vitale blasts the NCAA clearinghouse, shady AAU programs, and players with "entourages". Along the way, he offers up undeniable support for UK's Calipari:
If you are anti-Calipari, you will have your ammunition and you will whack away at him. Whenever you are a high-profile success like Calipari, you are going to take some shots.
When it is all said and done, his days at Kentucky will solve a lot of problems. He will win, win, win in the Bluegrass State.
I recently spoke to Calipari and he is so motivated and fired up to bring success to Lexington. He wants to do it the right way.
Think about this. He has had around 100 players during his days as a Division I head coach. Have any of his players come out and accused him of giving them cash? Have they been given clothes, a car, anything? Has anyone ever said Calipari himself was cheating?
There has never been any complaints in those areas.
That said, this is the second time recently that Vitale has stood on his ESPN soapbox and defended Calipari. So, in the spirit of our soon to be 2000th win, and Coach Cal returning UK to the basketball elite, I am more than willing to extend the olive branch to Vitale and welcome him back to the extended Wildcat family. . Yea, I don't like the Duke love from him, but it's all about a new beginning. And that extends to even Dick Vitale.
And the media outrage against the NCAA continues as more and more columnists are highlighting the penalties against Memphis and the NCAA's lack of attention to the 1999 Duke and Corey Maggette scandal. Here is a sampling of some of the articles being written:
Eric Crawford - "No surprise: NCAA isn't even-handed"
John Clay - "NCAA teaches Memphis an illogical lesson"
Mike DeCourcy - "NCAA let Rose play so why does Memphis have to pay?"
Brett Blevins - "Conspiracy Theory: The Truth Behind the Memphis Allegations"
Gary Parrish - "Selective enforcement? NCAA failed to admonish Duke"
Parrish of course, has bashed Calipari recently but is torn on this story as it gives him a chance to bash Calipari but he feels a need to stick up for his hometown Tigers. So I have to be fair and highlight him for writing a good article as well as bash him when not. Parrish is a bit fairer than his radio counterpart, the nefarious Geoff Calkins, who really needs some of that stuff Michael Jackson used to relax. Today, the ever increasingly shrill Calkins calls for the head of Memphis AD RC Johnson and of course takes more personal shots at Cal. Find it kind of interesting hypocritical that he bashes Johnson for saying he saw nothing wrong about package deals, but he has yet to castigate wunderkid Josh Pastner for his package deal of the Barton Brothers.
Pot meet Kettle.
8 comments:
Calkins has a problem with package deals of catering to a player's family, not package deals of signing two brothers to play. It seems to have worked out ok for Oklahoma's 2008 player of the year and his brother.
Concerning Vitale, why would former players come out and say they were given money, cars, etc? Stupid point. By the way, it's never ok to start liking Vitale again.
Maybe Calkins has not called out Pastner for the package deal because it is not a package deal it is a bonus for Memphis to get Antonio Barton too because after this season are only true point guard is graduting. Also Antonio Barton is a good player and will be an important part of the Memphis basketball team in the years to come.
NCAA Ombudsman --- maybe, but a package deal is a package deal. And people talk to get attention. If all this was going on, it would have leaked out. NOTHING is secret anymore. Any yea, Vitale is on probation. I am sure he will piss me off soon enough.
Anonymous - a package deal is a package deal regardless of it it is good for Memphis or not. You can call it a "bonus" but yea, that's just semantics.
But their is a differnce in signing two brothers that are going to help your team in the long run. The package deal that Calkins had a problem with is Dajuan Wagner where Cal hired his dad and brought a long his friend arthur Barclay who was not very good because he had terrible knee problems before he even got to Memphis. The main difference is that Antonio Barton is supposed to actually benefit the basketball team by his abilities not just by getting his brother to sign.
You can call it a "package deal" and look at it negatively all you want, but that doesn't change the fact that Memphis wanted Antonio Barton because he's a solid PG and they desperately need PGs.
*yawn* a package deal is a package deal
Sounds like someone is just bitter...
Bitter for what?
That UK is ranked number 2 in the country and Memphis is lucky to crack the top 40? Bitter that UK is going to be on national TV every game and you won't be able to find that hot "Memphis-Rice" matchup even on "ESPN 8 - the ocho"?
Get a grip, psycho Memphis fans. I bet you even money that Will Baraton breaks his commitment to Memphis in the next year and UK did not want a 3 star PG in Antonio. We got rid of all our 3 star PG's
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