Only Thing Better Than Kentucky Recruiting Rumors Are The Conspiracy Theories

Paranoid much?

I have knocked back a few beers with Pete on occasion and know he would write the same story about Syracuse in an instant. Bottom line is…I think all D1 schools engage in this behavior so I am not going to get made at Cal (likely not Cal himself but people he knows) being better at it than the other coaches.

As much as it painds me to write this (because I hear their obnoxious crap all the time)… the sad truth is that Syracuse fans and UK fans really aren’t much different.

They are ever the pessimist (sky is falling) team when at the first hint of close games or a couple losses and will say the season is over. At the same time if you say anything negative about their team and are not a UK fan, they will argue with you until the bitter end.

Both groups of fans are notoriously think-skinned and love their basketball. As well as Cuse/UK football ever does, I think most people will recognize them as college basketball cities.

I would not be surprised at all, that if in a completely alternate scenario and roles were reversed…. some Syracuse fan would say the exact same thing about some type of conspiracy against Cuse.

I know Cal is cheating, always has, always does, always will. But please….please…please don’t catch him yet. Just a few more seasons.

He just won’t fit, especially since his end game is one and done. But, UK fans ripped Coach Cal when he was cheating at UMass. They ripped him for stealing their guys at Memphis. But now, they defend him? Sorry, the hypocrisy is thick and slimy.

I personally doubt any of these rumors until there is a little bit of evidence. At least in the Cam Newton case, there was proof he at least solicited another school. Here, there is nothing so far. I hate printing innuendo with confidential sources. Put up facts or shut the hell up. These kids lives and reputation are at stake here. You can’t unring the bell.

it’s the UK fans who are turning this into a potential scandal or at least assuming it could be. If not for UK fans “in the know,” no one would even be aware of Thamel looking at Nerlens (if he, in fact, is). Thamel might find nothing and an article may never get written. Or maybe he is looking into Nerlens, but not from a negative/shady recruiting angle. The kid is obviously interesting, talented, and has a unique story with his late reclassification. But now UK fans are making assumptions and putting this info out there and it actually makes THEM look like THEY are the ones casting a shadow over Nerlens Noel.

I came here as a UK fan and frankly that article was complete BS. Now I know you write for SU so you have to play to that. But the worst part is that the people commenting are really pathetic. I mean all you do is bash UK for what? Cause you think we are idiots. We love our team. You love SU. But somehow you act as though you are better and superior to us.

Thamel never uncovered a damn thing bad about UK. Truth is he dicked around in Alabama with his buddy Pat Forde. Ask the many people in Birmingham whose doors were knocked on. After months and months of investigation you know what came out of that? NOTHING. This was one of MANY things Forde was reprimanded by ESPN from cover anything UK or SEC related.

His article on Kanter also revealed facts that were already known to the NCAA months before. UK knew there was a chance he would not be able to play. We did nothing wrong. Kanter still stayed in school despite being not allowed to play.

Now I know it sucks for you to lose recruits left and right to UK. That does not make it alright to whine like little school girls because you cant get them. If they are considering SU they are ok. The minute they commit to UK your fans turn on them and call them thugs or how they will just be at UK for one year and UK sucks. I have news for you. You will NOT even make the final four. Mark it down. Your team is the very definition of choke artists. How many time have you all been passed to the sweet 16 in the past 23 years? 3 times. You have 1 title in your entire HISTORY and act as if you are some basketball power when really your a joke. How many players have you put in the NBA since 2007? Thats why UK gets the players. Cal does not hold them back. He lets them go and play and tells them to go pro if they can.

So sit here in your little message room and belittle us all you want. Belittle Cal and UK all you want. You are the people that have to live your pathetic lives filled with hate and anger. Grow up.

Slimeball is actively pursuing 3 more recruits-Nerlens, Shabazz and Bennett. They already have 3 of the top ten recruits signed. What is this? Half of their team going pro? Or he just wants them all? Dying to get that 1st championship? He’s like a selfish little kid.

Its like a revolving door.

UK and Syracuse both have very good basketball teams this year,.. agreed?
UK and Syracuse would very much like to settle which is the best team in New Orleans, Agreed?
UK and Syracuse, or Calipari and Boeheim have very different approaches to coaching teams. Boeheim relies on using a zone defense which requires most players to have more than one season to master. Calipari accepts the reality of “one-and-done” players, and coaches an aggressive one-on-one defensive style which is easier to teach, and succeeds because his young players are exceptionally talented. Can you see that?

Now let’s get down to brass tacks, and deal with this like intelligent fans of the game. Does Bernie Fine (and his lovely wife) make The ’Cuse basketball program a bunch of sexual deviants and perverts? I think we would give a resounding “NO!” to that. Has Calipari ever been linked to cheating by the NCAA? Surprise, surprise folks, that answer is also “No!”.

In the case of Marcus Camby, the NCAA found that when they investigated the charges that he had taken money and other considerations from an agent, that Camby had “hidden” his actions from Calipari and others, knowing that what he was doing against the rules. Since the violations were discovered after the fact, and made him ineligible, all the games and specifically the NCAA tournaments were voided. UMass and Calipari were found to have been the victims, not the perpetrators, conspirators, or abettors of the actions of Camby.

In the second case, again before the Derrick Rose became a player for Calipari, someone took his SAT test for him. Again discovered after the event, again without any connection to the school and the coaches, and again leading to the vacating of a Championship, only this time at Memphis.
[for an apt synopsis see: http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/17941/the-terrible-truth-about-kentucky ]

So if he isn’t cheating, how does Calipari do it, how doess he get more than his fair share of the high profile recruits? It is fairly simple, he has a record for success in preparing players for the NBA AND he does not hold players back from making that step. Take the object lesson of Dajuan Wagner, who played at Memphis, and as a freshman averaged 21+ ppg. His draft stock was sky high, Cal tells him to go pro (rumored to have torn up his scholarship). He went to the Cavaliers 6th overall in 2002. In 2005 Wagner’s career is ended by illness, but he has made $8,000,000 in the three years, which he would not have had, had he stayed in school and played the four years. This story is well known (and true) on the recruiting circuits, and as more than one young recruit has commented, “this coach gets it.”

Just for you math/economic types to work out. Can you ever make up the income you postpone (lose) by delaying going pro, assuming your playing career is a set span {NCAA + NBA = Career}. The answer is yes only if by spending extra college time you move up sufficiently in the draft to change the pay scale. So for a Josh Harrellson who wasn’t seem as a pro prospect and became a late second rounder the answer is yes. For a player who moves up from a mid range draft pick to a lottery pick, again the answer is yes. But once you get an assured first round status you might as well collect your prize, especially if it is the “golden ticket” out of poverty, which for a fair number of kids’ families it is.

As to the “conspiracy theories” that sparked this, I suspect there are a fair number UK fans (and for that matter ‘Cuse fans) who believe in the “911 truther” theories too. (Now there is an oxymoron for you. LOL) As for thinking certain writers are out to get you, i seem to remember some comments along those lines on this blog back when the Bernie Fine story came back to life this Fall. And yes there are writers out there who have biases against particular programs, and ones who are very uncritical of their “sweetheart” schools. You are going to get a real dose of what this ’favoritism’ is like, as an amazing number of basketball writers seem to be in love with your soon to be rivals Duke and UNC . But especially Duke [may their name be forever cursed]. Good luck with THAT. LOL

Hopefully we will see you in the Big Easy.