College Basketball

[Rhom]

Since things are dull around here...

Here's a video of

:stunned:

[RedEyedGhost]

Well the truth on the Pitino saga this past summer has finally come out. (Well Pitino's "truth" anyways)

University of Louisville men's basketball coach Rick Pitino told police that he had consensual sex with Karen Cunagin Sypher at a Louisville restaurant where he'd been drinking on Aug. 1, 2003.

*note to Rhom, don't eat out in Louisville.

He also told police that he later gave Sypher $3,000 to have an abortion, according to Louisville Metro Police reports The Courier-Journal obtained under the Kentucky Open Records Act.

But Pitino denied Sypher's allegations that he raped her at Porcini, after the restaurant closed, and again a few weeks later at a different location, police records show.

Sypher also alleged that toward the end of August 2003, when she realized she was pregnant and met with Pitino at Tim Sypher's condo, Pitino pushed her to the floor and raped her again, while Tim Sypher was upstairs.

But Karen Sypher insisted that the incident occurred between the time she had an ultrasound test confirming the pregnancy on Aug. 26, 2003, and Aug. 29, 2003, when she had an abortion in Cincinnati, according to police records.

And Pitino was able to prove through his calendar that he was in Pebble Beach, Calif,. at the time, the records show.

He noted that Sypher was unable to explain why, “if this man raped you, why would you put yourself in a position where you're going to be around him all the time?â€

She acknowledged in the interview that it also didn't make sense that Tim Sypher would continue to work for Pitino knowing the coach had sexually assaulted the woman who later became his wife. The Syphers were married in 2004 but she filed for divorce in March.

In an interview with the newspaper earlier this year, she also was unable to explain why she had married Sypher, given that by her account, he didn't come to her aid when Pitino allegedly assaulted her and she says she was screaming for help.

And as an aside, one of the ads on that page is fucking hilarious - It's "Are You Snoring Yourself To Death?", and the dude in the ad looks like he's sleeping with a woman's thong wrapped under his chin :lol:

[RedEyedGhost]

I just saw that about Pitino on ESPN. It's not immediately clear to me what all of this means for him. It sounds like he's trying to out the people who are trying to extort him. If it's as simple as that and he's legally in the clear it'll be interesting to see what impact this has on his career.

It's going to be pretty easy to negatively recruit against him now. Adultery, abortion, potential rape... would you want your child to play for him? :unsure:

[Rhom]

*note to Rhom, don't eat out in Louisville.

Not gonna lie... I've never been to Porcini's, but I really want to go now! :rofl: I bet their business picks up in the next few weeks!

The whole story is fairly bizarre. Is that all it takes to have sex with a major celebrity? Walk up to them in a restaurant and ask them to call your kids? And then later you end up marrying an assistant coach of his? Weird.

I think I linked a story a couple months back where a local news station's website had a picture up of Sypher and her son outside the courthouse with him holding a sign that said "What's the cost of an abortion?" and that picture was later edited to crop him out of it. In this day and age of the 24 hour news cycle, I find it odd that it has taken four months for the Courier-Journal to get the open records request processed and to get the story out there.

It's going to be pretty easy to negatively recruit against him now. Adultery, abortion, potential rape... would you want your child to play for him? :unsure:

I agree. I find it all rather interesting as he juggles his faith as a Catholic with supporting an abortion. Quite honestly, its the abortion angle that makes this news. If it was just an affair or even a rape with little supporting evidence, it wouldn't be a blip on the national news scene. When you add in his payment for the abortion, it brings an element of sensationalism that raises the national interest.

It will be interesting to see what kind of a distraction this is for the program as a whole. Can he handle the negetive PR and move on? Or will it be a detriment to the program and we may witness a crash and burn? Only time will tell I suppose.

ETA: Let the rumor mill begin; From WHAS11's coverage...

WHAS11's Sports Director Kyle Draper reports there is a stipulation in Rick Pitino's contract which gives the university the right to fire him for just cause, and that one clause in particular sticks out. It says just cause shall be understood to include all of the following:

“Disparaging media publicity of a material nature that damages the good name and reputation of employer or university, if such publicity is caused by employee's willful misconduct that could objectively be anticipated to bring employee into public disrepute or scandal, or which tends to greatly offend the public, or any class thereof on the basis of invidious distinction."

Yes, there are already people around here claiming Pitino will be gone before the season starts. Personally, I don't buy it.

[RedEyedGhost]

Not gonna lie... I've never been to Porcini's, but I really want to go now! :rofl: I bet their business picks up in the next few weeks!

Ewwwww!!!!

Yes, there are already people around here claiming Pitino will be gone before the season starts. Personally, I don't buy it.

I would imagine that the athletic department has had most of this information for months now, and if they were going to can Pitino there's no way that they would have waited until this late in the summer. Waiting this long is program suicide.

[Rhom]

Every Day Should be Saturday has a hilarious account of Rick Pitino shows Steve Kragthorpe how to recruit.

:rofl:

I suppose I'll have to link this in the college football thread too...

[RedEyedGhost]

Since things are dull around here...

Here's a video of

Meh.

I give you

(and some lay-ins, threes, steals, and one nasty block).

I am so excited to see what he'll do this season. Is it November yet??

[Rhom]

I am so excited to see what he'll do this season. Is it November yet??

They tell me there's a sport with an oblong ball that must be played first. I'm not sure we have that in this state though.

[RedEyedGhost]

They tell me there's a sport with an oblong ball that must be played first. I'm not sure we have that in this state though.

:lol:

Yeah, I'm looking forward to that too, but... basketball always comes first in my heart (if not in the school year).

[Rhom]

Half of ESPN's Super Tuesday games will feature Kentucky!

That's right folks of the boards... now that ESPN has the SEC contract, prepare to be even more saturated with Blue and White than ever before!

I'll be honest... seeing Kentucky get a shot at the kind of love usually reserved for Duke is worth selling my basketball soul for! :devil:

[Rhom]

One never knows when the national title actually comes but they'll have that kind of talent.

That's so unbelievably true. I think back to 1997 and Nazr Mohommed's 10 missed free throws and Derek Anderson sitting the bench in overtime when doctors had cleared him to play or I think about Keith Bogans spraining an ankle in 2003 and being just a step too slow to contain Dwayne Wade. I also think of all the great Kansas teams (sorry REG) of the 90's that were loaded with talent to come up just short. I think of Cincinnatti and Danny Fortson's broken leg. I think of the great UConn team that ran afoul of George Mason.

To seriously contend for the title, you need a lot of talent... but you also need an absurd amount of luck to win those 6 straight games in March.

As long as we're recruiting clean (or at least as clean as everybody else I suppose) and competing for the Final Four every year while being fun to watch, I'll be happy.

[RedEyedGhost]

I also think of all the great Kansas teams (sorry REG) of the 90's that were loaded with talent to come up just short.

No worries, and I think this is a perfect opportunity to compare Roy @ KU versus Self @ KU versus Roy @ UNC.

The talent levels brought in by Self and UNCRoy are much more similar than the talent levels of Self and KURoy. Roy has pretty much the same attitude in recruiting at both places, but (and I freely admit this) the allure of UNC is greater than that of KU. Roy's kind of lazy and he puts in the minimum effort to net a quality team, and this led to some great teams at KU but they never were what I'd call deep teams. KURoy's teams usually went 7 (maybe 8) deep at KU; Self and UNCRoy have teams that usually go 10-12+ deep. FFS we have one scholarship player that was not ranked in the top 100 coming out of high school (and that's Brady Morningstar who was a freaking starter last year), and two of our walk-ons are scholarship worthy (CJ Henry's way is being paid by the Yankees and Conner Teahan would have gotten a scholarship at any mid-major).

Sure most teams play between 7-9 players, but those extra 3+ quality players help the team in more ways than on the court.

These much deeper teams that Self and UNCRoy have are much, much more likely to win a national championship than KURoy teams because the depth creates much more intense practices which leads to increased player development which leads to a better team.

Calipari is a different animal, and I think he'll end up somewhere between KURoy and Self/UNCRoy because he is much more likely to recruit one-and-done players than Self or Roy, and that will lead to less overall depth. Between that and less experience on his teams I think that it will be extremely interesting watching Calipari balance the elite talent he already could corral, the elite talent that the UK name itself brings in, and the revolving level of experience and loss of depth that one-and-dones lead to.

And as Trisk said, "as long as Calipari can keep out of trouble" I think you're in for a helluva ride.

[RedEyedGhost]

Oooooooo. Just saw this:

The NCAA Committee on Infractions will release its findings regarding Memphis on Thursday morning and the word "vacate" is included in the report, several sources told ESPN.com.

[RedEyedGhost]

Here's an interesting take on the Memphis/Calipari/UK situation by Pat Forde (god, I can't believe that I said that Missourah douche had something interesting to say :sick: ).

Why the fuck would somebody travel nearly 300 miles across two state lines to take the SAT, when you're already in one of the nation's largest cities? Shady!

If I were a Kentucky fan, I'd be very concerned about Cal's connection with WWW.

So what's the over/under on when Cal makes his first final four?

[RedEyedGhost]

No, a title winner has not ever had their title revoked. This would have been the biggest story of the year if it had been Memphis that had won.

It seems that Cal is smart enough that his indiscretions always fall on the school, and not on him. Rhom should be very worried if Cal ever decides it's time to move on from UK.

Here's another question: Who's the current best coach to never make a final four? Cal's got to be up there right? ;)

I wish the NCAA would just declare (whatever the hell it is) that World Wide Wes is an agent.

[Rhom]

I've had time to think on this a bit before responding. First... Pat Forde has had some sort of axe to grind with Calipari ever since he was hired. His interview used a lot of inference and innuendo, and doesn't specifically look at the facts as they pertain to the case. I don't know the deal, but he more than any other national writer constantly brings up the World Wide Wes situation. That's a whole other issue though.

This Derreck Rose situation is an interesting thing all around. Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News (who I've always enjoyed reading) looks a little closer into the circumstances surrounding the invalidation of the test score. Apparently, Rose's score was statistically unlikely to have increased the amount that it did. This caused the Educational Testing Service to send letters to Rose's home in Chicago inquiring about the discrepancy... while Rose was on the road with Memphis playing with in the NCAA tournament. His score was deemed invalid because of a "failure to cooperate." DeCourcy makes the point that Memphis' entire season was essentially wiped out because Derreck Rose didn't get his mail.

Pat Forde also showed his ass as a bad reporter. "I want to know why he took it in Detroit." Well... DeCourcy knew, why didn't you Pat? Rose has stated publicly that the Bulls were playing the Pistons in Detroit that weekend and several of his family members already had plans to attend the game. I had a good friend of mine in high school take his SAT in Florida. Why the hell would he take the test in Florida when we had perfectly good schools here in Kentucky? His family was on vacation that week. So its not too much of a stretch for me to believe this.

I won't go into Forde's ridiculous comments about Kentucky fans. I've never heard a single person say "we want to win and we don't care about how we do it." We want our titles on the books.

Lastly, I think DeCourcy makes a good point about the shameful actions of the NCAA in ignoring their own culpability in this matter. The NCAA clearinghouse told Memphis that Rose was eligible to play. Memphis acted on that and utilized him in the season. On some level, the NCAA needs to accept responsibility for this as well. If their own investigative body doesn't find a problem with a player, why then should a school have to retroactively be held to a higher standard?

The NCAA cherry picks the stories it wants to go after. There are "white hats" like Coach K who can do no wrong and "black hats" who they continually view as trouble makers. Coach Cal is very clearly in the black hat category for them. None of this gets us any closer to the 1999 case of violations at Duke that have never been ruled on by the NCAA despite the fact that Corey Maggette has testified under oath in a court of law that he accepted money from an agent before he enrolled at Duke.

How the NCAA can ignore the sworn admissions of one player and then turn around and ignore the fact that another player asserts his innocence is beyond me. They are willing to accept the shaky evidence of a handwriting expert and the fact that a 19 year old didn't check his mail to cast aspersions on the Universities of Memphis and Kentucky as well on both Derrick Rose and John Calipari.

As to the circumstances behind it, I don't see how any school can ever protect themselves from this sort of thing. A kid allegedly cheats on a standardized test. The testing service initially declares it valid. The NCAA clearinghouse declares it valid. The kid tells you he's successfully completed the testing. What more is a school supposed to do? Hell, even Kansas skated the edge of potential trouble with the changed transcripts of Dwight Arthur. They ended up on the "okay" side.

In the end, the facts of the case really don't matter. Memphis had their best season ever wiped away not because a test score was obtained through subterfuge, but because a player "failed to cooperate." Those are the facts that the majority of the media chooses to ignore. The bigger story and the one that will garner headlines is to resurrect some sort of connection to Kentucky's Shame any way they can.

/end rant

[Rhom]

Totally unrelated post.

Last night, Kentucky unveiled their schedule through a televised event. (With typical local TV level of broadcast quality! :lol: ) It was called Cal's Cats: The CALendar. :rofl: It was obviously unnecessary hype, but it was fun. They looked at all the teams on the schedule and broke them down with showing key returning players, coaches, RPI from last season etc.

I came to a realization about some things while watching the show. Like many fans, I've been somewhat dismayed by the sub-par schedule that we've been playing the last few years. (And losing more games while playing lesser competition!!!!) Many fans are unrealisitc about what they'd like to see on the schedule. They want annual games with the likes of Duke and Michigan State, etc. I wasn't that extreme, but I wanted to see more "name" schools on there.

I even commented on a message board before last night's schedule show that I wish we had a harder opening game in the Cancun Classic this year. We open with Cleveland State and then play either Stanford or Virginia. Ironically, when I watched the breakdown show last night; Cleveland State finished last year with an RPI of 52 and Stanford/Virginia were both in the 110-120 range. I learned that just because a school has a name, they may not be the best competition to get you ready for the NCAA tourney.

Calipari talked about some of the schools on the schedule and how some of them were already locked in and what he'd like to do for the future. He did spend some time talking about how he expects many of these schools to hurry back on defense and get set up in a zone and it will be valuable for UK to learn to deal with those kinds of looks. I'll agree with that, I'd much rather learn to beat a zone against Sam Houston State in December than to try and learn it against Syracuse in the third week of March!

Keep your eyes peeled though, the aforementioned game against Stanford/Virginia is on November 25. Then the Cats come home to play UNC-Asheville before hitting UNC on December 5, UConn from Madison Square Garden on December 9, and IU on December 12. There's a few more games and then Louisville on January 2.

That's a good stretch of ballgames to watch.

Overall, I'm pleased with our non-conference slate. I think you'd be hard pressed to find many teams in the country that play annual series with teams like UNC, IU, and UofL and now we are participating in the SEC-Big East challenge and get UConn this year. The only thing I'd like to see changed for the future (and I think Cal will get this done) is to see us raise up the level of our "cupcakes" from the low 100's in the RPI to the 90-120 range. I'd also like to see us eventually resurrect our annual series with Notre Dame.

[Rhom]

The hits just keep on coming for Billy Donovan.

With his transfer, the Gators’ Men’s Basketball team will have 11 players transfer since the 2003-2004 season.

:stunned:

[RedEyedGhost]

I've had time to think on this a bit before responding. First... Pat Forde has had some sort of axe to grind with Calipari ever since he was hired. His interview used a lot of inference and innuendo, and doesn't specifically look at the facts as they pertain to the case. I don't know the deal, but he more than any other national writer constantly brings up the World Wide Wes situation. That's a whole other issue though.

Pat Forde is a douche, and I'm surprised that he has stopped hating on KU to hate on UK. Maybe he's dyslexic or maybe Cal banged his wife... I don't think we'll ever know.

This Derreck Rose situation is an interesting thing all around. Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News (who I've always enjoyed reading) looks a little closer into the circumstances surrounding the invalidation of the test score. Apparently, Rose's score was statistically unlikely to have increased the amount that it did. This caused the Educational Testing Service to send letters to Rose's home in Chicago inquiring about the discrepancy... while Rose was on the road with Memphis playing with in the NCAA tournament. His score was deemed invalid because of a "failure to cooperate." DeCourcy makes the point that Memphis' entire season was essentially wiped out because Derreck Rose didn't get his mail.

I don't believe that the ETS would send out a letter as important as that, to such a widely known college athlete, with just a 41¢ stamp. You got to think there was some sort of signature or delivery confirmation on that letter.

Lastly, I think DeCourcy makes a good point about the shameful actions of the NCAA in ignoring their own culpability in this matter. The NCAA clearinghouse told Memphis that Rose was eligible to play. Memphis acted on that and utilized him in the season. On some level, the NCAA needs to accept responsibility for this as well. If their own investigative body doesn't find a problem with a player, why then should a school have to retroactively be held to a higher standard?

Because the student himself willfully cheated to make himself eligible, knowing all along that he shouldn't be playing.

Why didn't Rose do what Brandon Jennings did when he knew he couldn't gain eligibility?

The NCAA cherry picks the stories it wants to go after. There are "white hats" like Coach K who can do no wrong and "black hats" who they continually view as trouble makers. Coach Cal is very clearly in the black hat category for them. None of this gets us any closer to the 1999 case of violations at Duke that have never been ruled on by the NCAA despite the fact that Corey Maggette has testified under oath in a court of law that he accepted money from an agent before he enrolled at Duke.

How the NCAA can ignore the sworn admissions of one player and then turn around and ignore the fact that another player asserts his innocence is beyond me. They are willing to accept the shaky evidence of a handwriting expert and the fact that a 19 year old didn't check his mail to cast aspersions on the Universities of Memphis and Kentucky as well on both Derrick Rose and John Calipari.

It's a travesty that Duke has got to skate on that (just as USC has on Reggie Bush).

Do you believe that Rose actually took that test? He had statistically improbable improvement, in an unfamiliar city, with handwriting that did match his normal writing. Plus, he still hasn't gone on record saying he took the test, and he didn't cooperate with the investigation. Yeah, I'm not buying it.

As to the circumstances behind it, I don't see how any school can ever protect themselves from this sort of thing. A kid allegedly cheats on a standardized test. The testing service initially declares it valid. The NCAA clearinghouse declares it valid. The kid tells you he's successfully completed the testing. What more is a school supposed to do? Hell, even Kansas skated the edge of potential trouble with the changed transcripts of Dwight Arthur. They ended up on the "okay" side.

The Darrell ;) Arthur situation was completely different. The high school changed his grades to make him eligible to playing a state championship game (which was vacated), and that change of grade held no bearing on his gaining college eligibility. Not the same situation at all, in fact so different that the NCAA never even bothered to look into it.

In the end, the facts of the case really don't matter. Memphis had their best season ever wiped away not because a test score was obtained through subterfuge, but because a player "failed to cooperate." Those are the facts that the majority of the media chooses to ignore. The bigger story and the one that will garner headlines is to resurrect some sort of connection to Kentucky's Shame any way they can.

/end rant

If Rose was innocent why wouldn't he cooperate?

Here's an article from a Memphis sports writer, and lets just say he's not a fan of Calipari any longer:

Who knows how this all played out? But if you think Calipari didn’t know how his star player qualified to play basketball at Memphis, I have a 2007-08 Final Four banner I’d like to sell you.

Of course he knew. He absolutely knew.

This is a coach who knew the name of the fan who won a big-screen TV in a promotion in FedExForum’s upper deck.

You think he didn’t know how Rose, on the brink of losing his eligibility at Memphis, planned to pass his standardized test?

You think he just told Rose to remember to sharpen his pencils and work on his vocabulary? You think he told him he might have a clearer head if he took the test in a strange place?

Calipari knew that Rose cheated on his SAT. He may well have set it up himself.

And this gem is from a Seth Davis interview about the situation:

SI.com: Calipari didn't get in trouble, but you have to think that the NCAA is watching Kentucky pretty closely.

SD: They're watching Kentucky closely. I know they've been poking around on the John Wall case, and I'm sure they're very interested in what's going on with William Wesley. This is the first time that I heard the invalid test was taken in Detroit -- which begs the question: why is a high school kid from Chicago taking his SAT in Detroit, which is the home of William Wesley?

Have you heard anything about the NCAA looking into Wall? This is the first I've heard of it.

It is shocking to me that Florida has parlayed back-to-back titles into this. One has to wonder a few things:

1) How much did the fiasco with Orlando actually hurt (I didn't think it did too much at the time but now I have to wonder)

2) Did they just have one special group and the program wasn't that strong otherwise?

Interesting on Forde. That's the type of thing that I wouldn't necessarily notice as someone who's not as into Kentucky. I do agree that the NCAA is pretty freaking hypocritical.

I think this Florida is the real Florida. That one class was something special, and I'm beginning to doubt that Donovan will ever replicate it. I'm not saying that he won't ever get back to the final four (because I would be shocked if he does not), but I do believe that he will be flirting with the bubble more often than not.

[Rhom]

Interesting on Forde. That's the type of thing that I wouldn't necessarily notice as someone who's not as into Kentucky. I do agree that the NCAA is pretty freaking hypocritical.

Forde wrote a book with Pitino a few years back called Rebound Rules. Did you ever hear one peep out of Forde last week during the abortion scandal for Pitino? I sure didn't. But he comes out of the woodwork to bash select other programs.

I don't believe that the ETS would send out a letter as important as that, to such a widely known college athlete, with just a 41¢ stamp. You got to think there was some sort of signature or delivery confirmation on that letter.

:dunno: They have repeatedly claimed that they treated him the same as any other student. I don't know if that entails a certified letter in the mail or not.

Because the student himself willfully cheated to make himself eligible, knowing all along that he shouldn't be playing.

Why didn't Rose do what Brandon Jennings did when he knew he couldn't gain eligibility?

Assuming that he cheated, that's true. As to Brandon Jennings, this was the season before Jennings went to Europe wasn't it?

It's a travesty that Duke has got to skate on that (just as USC has on Reggie Bush).

Indeed, but Duke and USC are the darlings of the NCAA. Its not good business to drag them down. Honestly, I think if Chalmers misses that 3 pointer and it was an actual NCAA champion we were talking about here... I don't think the NCAA has the balls to vacate an actual title.

Do you believe that Rose actually took that test? He had statistically improbable improvement, in an unfamiliar city, with handwriting that did match his normal writing. Plus, he still hasn't gone on record saying he took the test, and he didn't cooperate with the investigation. Yeah, I'm not buying it.

I don't know. But I'd like a little firmer proof or at least more facts in evidence. A proctor that said, "I don't remember seeing him that day" or someone else who said "Yeah, we spent all day playing Shoots and Ladders!"

Here's an article from a Memphis sports writer, and lets just say he's not a fan of Calipari any longer:

Just sounds like sour grapes to me. If Cal weren't a public figure, that quote would come dangerously close to libel.

And this gem is from a Seth Davis interview about the situation:

Have you heard anything about the NCAA looking into Wall? This is the first I've heard of it.

I saw the Seth Davis interview you linked sometime last week. Other than that, I've not heard anything about it. I'd say its a safe assumption that the NCAA will be watching Cal very closely for the forseeable future. For these reasons, I'm quite certain that UK Compliance Officer Sandy Bell will be attached to his hip everytime he goes to take a pee anywhere near a recruit's hometown. (Interestingly, she was the lead investigator for the NCAA on the UMass violations from 1996.)

Personally, I'm of the opinion that the NCAA needs to take a hard look at their Clearinghouse. Its obvious to me that its now just another layer of overpaid beauracracy that serves no fundamental purpose. If the NCAA is unwilling to stand by the findings of their Clearinghouse, they should shut it down entirely and put the onus of verifying eligibility completely on the shoulders of the individual schools.

I have read message board posts that say Cal never should have taken Rose. Working on the assumption that Cal didn't know about any cheating (either through willfully disregarding information or through actual innocence), what coach in the country would look the number one player in the eye while they are holding a signed letter of eligibility from the NCAA and tell them "I'm sorry, son. I just don't want you on my team." Coach K, Roy Williams, Bill Self... you name them, they'd be falling all over themselves to take a Derrick Rose. Just like they were all drooling over John Wall this summer.

I think this Florida is the real Florida. That one class was something special, and I'm beginning to doubt that Donovan will ever replicate it. I'm not saying that he won't ever get back to the final four (because I would be shocked if he does not), but I do believe that he will be flirting with the bubble more often than not.

I agree with this. Remember; before the Noah, Horford, Brewer, Green, Humphrey class Billy Donovan's program was peopled with the likes of Matt Walsh, Teddy Dupay, and other stellar citizens. I think we are beginning to see confirmation that the "Oh Fours" as they liked to be called were an example of catching lightning in a bottle. I can only imagine the kind of backlash he'd be seeing from the national media if he had left for Kentucky and then struggled for two years. They'd be saying he should have stayed at Florida.