John Calipari has spent a lot of time this offseason taking veiled shots at coaches who, like him, are active and already in the Hall of Fame.
In early-May, the University of Kentucky head coach took what was perceived to be a shot at Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski relating to the differences in their recruiting pitches. Calipari later tried to clarify his comments.
On Tuesday, Calipari appeared on Mike Lupica’s podcast, and the subject turned to NCAA violations and whether coaches should be held accountable for what happens under their watch. Calipari made sure to get a dig in on Louisville’s Rick Pitino, and North Carolina’s Roy Williams.
“Well, it depends on who that coach is,” Calipari said. “You know, there will be some coaches where everybody will say there is no way he knew. There will be other coaches that (they) would say, ‘Well, he knew what he knew that that happened with that family in eighth grade. He knew. You know he knew. He knew.’ It’s all what people are going to say.”
“All I can tell you is this: If it happens on your campus, and it happens with your assistants and those people, you probably have a pretty good idea of what’s going on. If it happens back in their hometown, it happens back with their family or other ways, there’s no way you can know. You just don’t know. So all I would say is most coaches have an idea if it happened on their campus. You might not be the first to know about it, but you eventually hear about it.”
“It’s unfortunate. You wish there was more consistency about how they do things in the NCAA. There’s a belief out there of selective enforcement in the NCAA. Some people will call right to Emmert and say, ‘Get these people off of me,’ and it changes. It’s selective.”
There are currently NCAA investigations surrounding both UNC and Louisville. Williams has distanced his program from the school’s academic scandal, and while UNC has received a Notice of Allegations, signs point to the men’s basketball team avoiding major sanctions.
At Louisville, allegations that assistant coaches, specifically Andre McGee, bribed recruits with hookers marred last season. Pitino has maintained plausible deniability throughout the investigation, which he addressed late last month.
As for Calipari’s mentioning of bad things happening in a player’s hometown, the two biggest black marks on his coaching career happened away from campus.
Chicago native and former Memphis star Derrick Rose was ruled ineligible over an SAT taken in Detroit, and Hartford native Marcus Camby took cash, clothes and jewelry while at UMass.
The Rose and Camby incidents led to Calipari’s 1996 Final Four appearance with the Minutemen being vacated, as well as the entire 2007-08 season with the Tigers, which culminated with a trip to the national championship game.
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ZagsBlogJohn Calipari has spent a lot of time this offseason taking veiled shots at coaches who, like him, are active and already in the Hall of Fame.
