In 1996, Jim Calipari led UMass to the Final Four, the best tournament run in school history. But according the NCAA, that run does not exist because of scandal.
In 2008, Calipari led Memphis to the championship game before falling to Kansas. And again, the Tigers run no longer exists according to the NCAA, due to several infractions, including a bogus SAT score for star Derrik Rose.
And yet Calipari got off scott free in both cases. After UMass, he jumped to the NBA for three seasons with the New Jersey Nets, including a playoff run in 1998. And he's now the coach at Kentucky.
Calipari may or may not have done anything wrong in his two college coaching stops before UK. He certainly has never been legitimately implicated in anything. But this smells rotten to me. It appears as if Calipari fostered (or at least tolerated) a culture of corruption at both institutions. In the case of Memphis, they knew what they were getting. As did UK, which apparently was aware of the NCAA investigation when it hired Calipari a few months ago.
What does this mean for college basketball? Likely little. The sport has weathered much larger scandals than this. But it is further confirmation that winning is king in college sports, not integrity and academics.
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