August 22, 2009

Rivals.com
Rivals.com College Basketball Staff

At the College Basketball Roundtable each week, we ask each member of the coverage staff for his opinion about a current topic in the sport. We have two questions this week - one today and one Sunday.

TODAY'S QUESTION: Thursday, the NCAA announced that Memphis would have to vacate its 38 wins from the 2007-08 season for playing an ineligible player. The Tigers' coach that season was John Calipari, who now is at Kentucky. Should UK be worried about its new coach?

Why should Kentucky be worried? John Calipari is the only coach to have Final Four appearances vacated at two schools, but so what? The NCAA didn't find him personally culpable when Marcus Camby took money from agents, nor was he sanctioned when Derrick Rose had his SAT score invalidated. That's two star players who put Calipari teams over the top and two star players who were a party to two distinct NCAA no-nos. Rival fans will think the worst of Kentucky's coach, and Kentucky officials should be concerned about his reputation. But as far as the NCAA is concerned, he's not carrying the baggage with him from school to school. Let's face it: To this point, Calipari has been bullet-proof. He might not be completely at fault, but he's not completely innocent, either.

- DAVID FOX

I imagine there are at least a few officials at the school wringing their hands, and they should: Calipari has made two Final Four runs, and both have been vacated. Still, the NCAA hasn't found him at fault in either situation, so Coach Cal backers can proclaim that their guy, at least as far as the NCAA is concerned, is clean. I'm sure UK officials will say all the right things about how their compliance department will be extra diligent when it comes to the basketball program ? but I'd bet officials said the same things at Massachusetts and Memphis. The bottom line is that Calipari is tainted, which means the folks at Kentucky who are paying attention have to be worried.

- MIKE HUGUENIN

Any Kentucky fan whose head isn't in the sand has to be concerned about Calipari. He is, after all, the only coach in history to have two NCAA Final Four appearances vacated because of improprieties that occurred under his watch. Even though Calipari wasn't directly implicated in either situation, you can bet the NCAA will be keeping a close eye on him and his actions at Kentucky. The slightest of missteps could end up being costly. One of the things that has made Calipari so successful is his ability to sign some of the nation's most sought-after recruits. The problem is that many of these prospects have AAU coaches and handlers who serve as buffers between the coach and player. Calipari needs to do his best to distance himself from those characters and any recruit who is looking for something more than a place to play basketball for a couple of years. As excited as Kentucky fans are about the 2009-10 season, they're probably also a bit leery.

- JASON KING

Why should they be worried? The punishment to Memphis suggests Kentucky won't face any serious consequences even if the Wildcats get into the same trouble with the NCAA that followed Massachusetts and Memphis shortly after Calipari's departure from those schools. Let's say Kentucky makes a Final Four under Calipari that eventually gets vacated. Will that take away the memories people have of watching those teams make their run? It's not like we're suddenly going to forget what Marcus Camby did at UMass or what Derrick Rose did at Memphis. And the same will be true of whatever Calipari's teams do at Kentucky. Maybe they eventually have to take down a banner. Who cares? They already have plenty of those in the Rupp Arena rafters. Until the NCAA actually starts delivering NCAA tournament bans, television bans, scholarship losses and/or other kinds of serious sanctions that can affect a program's future, Kentucky has no reason to worry about hiring a coach with a checkered past.

- STEVE MEGARGEE