Calipari accepts Kentucky Job

[BradleyBrave]

BradleyBrave---all of the seniors on the Memphis roster are on track to graduate in four years. Pretty impressive. I realize he has had some bad apples but he also had a lot of classy kids at Memphis.

I think people see Calipari, his look, the way his teams plays, the "Memphis persona", and then looks at the TYPE of players he has and assumes they are all crooks, on the take, bad guys.

Sometimes perception isn't reality. I never saw the recent Memphis teams being out of control, running-gunning, undisciplined guys. They played very hard, were well schooled, and disciplined as heck. Yes, Joey Dorsey was a nut but a lot of team has a loose cannon type guy.

I think Calipari is as good as they come.

A few year's back during Calipari's tenure Memphis had a graduation rate of 0%. Perhaps it's improved, I don't know.

I don't think all of his players are crooks, but I know what it takes to get players the caliber that he's getting to go and play at Memphis in crappy Conference USA over schools like Kansas, UNC, UCLA, etc. I know what it took to get Derrick Rose. It's not the way things are supposed to work in college athletics.

I never said he was a bad coach or that his teams were undisciplined. They always looked very well coached to me. Like I said, I like the guy personally. But I am not fooled either.

But...I would take him and everything he brings to BU in a second.

[amckillip]

I think it begs the ultimate question though about integrity vs. winning. At BU, would you trade what appears to be a program of true 'student athletes' and for the most part good kids for one like Memphis - Where kids are on the take, off-the-court issues are overlooked, graduation is non-existent, package deals are the norm, and you win 30+ games, get a 1 or 2 seed, and compete for national titles? I don't think it's as easy of a question to answer as some think.

I guess that's why I am so much more patient with BU than most of the students. I love the players that come play at BU, and I like to be proud that a lot of our players go on to do things other than basketball. I like to use Zach Andrews as an example, a guy like him would never have gotten recruited to a bigger school. But his attitude and personality were just amazing. He was one of the nicest guys I've run across at BU. I'm not going to pretend like we were great friends by any means, which is even more impressive that he always seemed to remember mine and other fans names.

[Scouter]

A few year's back during Calipari's tenure Memphis had a graduation rate of 0%. Perhaps it's improved, I don't know.

I'm no Cali-pologist, but he did talk about this is in his press conference today:

Calipari spoke of academics and graduation rates. He said that when he took over at the University of Massachusetts the graduation rate was 15 percent; when he left it was 80 percent. He said when he took the Memphis job their graduation rate was 0 percent and when he left 19 of 22 seniors had graduated.

http://kykernel.com/2009/04/01/columnist-calipari-passes-ambassador-test/

[Beninator]

Hmm... Well there is a new NCAA report on graduation rates for teams in the NCAA tournament. The report shows that Memphis has a 55% graduation rate for their basketball student athletes.


http://www.knightcommission.org/inde...sk=view&id=274

[Da Coach]

I suspect Calipari is only counting the kids who stay there through their 4th or 5th years. Of course, all schools graduation rates looks better if you only count those who complete their time in school.
The NCAA counts all kids who have attended the school, regardless of their reasons for leaving. So the kids that transfer or go pro count against a school by the NCAA formula.

[Scouter]

Hey, I'm just saying what he said. I was shocked to hear his graduation rates were that high so I'd bet he was stretching the truth a bit, much like you guys have said.

[leebiddlecome]

And many of his recruits go pro early--thus hurting the graduation rate. Im with BBrave--I would take Calipari and all he has accomplished at Bradley any day of the week and twice on Sunday

[Beninator]

and 44% among Black basketball players, and as this reports shows....

and while they are not the worst school (Maryland trumps them big time)

Memphis' APR (Academic Progress Report) shows they are only in the 40-50th percentile among DI basketball programs.

That means 50-60% of all schools are better!! despite Memphis' recruiting prowess allowing the to kinda hand pick the cream of the crop among potential recruits.
http://web1.ncaa.org/app_data/apr2007/404_2007_apr.pdf

T, that report makes a person appreciate schools like Marquette and Wake Forrest. There are other good graduation rates in that report, but those are the only two I remember.

[SFP]

I'd bet that a lot of us younger fans do. Many of us have friends who were recruited out of high school to go play college sports. Particularly college basketball for me... Even some very highly rated players. Also, I don't really think the media has much of a benefit to making some coaches look clean vs. others. I think they pretty much cover up everything so public interest is high, until the point that they can't and then it's a big story. So, if nothing else, if we hear about the slime, it's gotta be pretty bad...

Ask Scouter about the media. They can paint you with a little twisting of words anyway they want. I will not doubt you that you have some inside knowledge on how some programs recruit but the knowledge of the vast majority of programs is probably only known by a handful of individuals. The process used is probably a very guarded secret so as not to get caught from impropriety.

I do not believe for one second that cheating does not go on in at least 80% of the BCS schools. It's not that the media does not care, it is that they do not have the time or resources to validate what they think is happening and will go after the low hanging fruits or those coaches that seem to have a target on their back.

Perception becomes reality and the media are the ones who control 99% of the information that is disseminated. Capalari is one of many coaches who does what they think they can to win. I look at Kansas, UCONN and USC as worst trangressors and if you read the press you would think they run extremely clean programs. UCONN's trouble has already slipped out of the mainstream press!

[amckillip]

I still can't blame the media for this. It's a KNOWN FACT that Bush and Mayo got huge paydays at USC. And everyone on here wants to blame the media??? At the end of the day it's the NCAA's responsibility to patrol their members... Maybe I'm way off here, but I don't think what I consider 'cheating' is running rampant as much as some. Yeah, maybe talking to a kid who's a freshman etc. (don't think JL doesn't do this...), but paying kids and giving them cars and such? I just don't believe its really that common.

[SFP]

If CBS (which is part of the media) and ESPN do not help control the NCAA then I'm completely naive! Money does strange things to people.