Louisville Courier-Journal trolls John Calipari to a high level

Well isn’t that cute ….

Apparently forgetting that they are now a “football school” in a real power football conference now, the Louisville Courier-Journal did some real punching up at John Calipari this morning as evidenced by the “so proud tweet” by Tony Vanetti this morning. Nevermind the fact that we are in the midst of football season and Louisville fans apparently are solely focused on football on September 19.

Funny thing about this however. The online edition of the Courier- Journal did not feature the pic of the Cali-baby and simply had the headline “Coaches with all the advantages complaining” which raises the bigger question. What’s up with that, Courier Journal?

Don’t have the courage to take your trolling online to the masses? Or just keeping this a private joke for your Louisville based subscribers. Either way, it’s just another example of how the “mainstream media” have to resort to blogger type tactics and sensational headlines to stay relevant today.

It’s just a shock that with the way the print industry is struggling today, that a newspaper in a market with at least 50% UK fans, would go to such an extent to alienate half of its readership. Or maybe UK fans have dumped the CJ a long time ago, which is why they went with the tamer version on-line.

Either way, the Louisville paper has a writer, Kyle Tucker, assigned to solely cover Kentucky sports. I really feel sorry for him today as his employer probably lost a good portion of his readership.

So why troll half your market? Once again, it’s the little brother complex punching up once again. I’ve given him enough attention, so I guess I have to give Sullivan a link here and give an example of his work.

"If Kentucky coach John Calipari has a problem with Coach K’s national gig — as Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim alleged Wednesday — perhaps he should level the playing field by hiring a concierge and a bellhop for the Wildcat Coal Lodge, to go along with the private chef who works the players’ dorm. Perhaps he should bring in Beyonce as the opening act for Big Blue Madness. Perhaps he should simply continue to do as he has done, reaching high, winning big and churning out NBA prospects with assembly-line efficiency, because no coach has a bigger edge in college basketball.Seventeen years since Rick Pitino left Lexington for the Boston Celtics, the Louisville coach continues to refer to Kentucky as “Camelot.” He does so because UK’s history, tradition, resources and the fervor of its fan base are as rare and as hard to replicate as King Arthur’s roundtable. Calipari has used these assets and his own singular skills to build a recruiting pipeline without equal and probably without precedent."

In the end, Sullivan can write what he wants and the Courier -Journal can troll whatever UK readers they have left however they see fit.  But as of this morning, this was such a non-story to do it with.   Even Sullivan noted that  Calipari’s problem with Team USA was “alleged”, so why write a whole column on allegations?

Lest we forget, this was not even a John Calipari story. It was an Adrian Wojnarowski piece that took down Coach K and somehow John Calipari got involved by Jim Boeheim. Calipari was out recruiting and as far as I know has been very supportive of both the Team USA efforts publicly. But one quote by Jim Boeheim brings Calipari front and center and makes it a Calipari debate, not the Coach K bashing that Wojnarowski started. Calipari was forced to respond and did so on Twitter. And while the Courier Journal listed Calipari’s tweets as an after thought, some national types though Calipari handled this whole situation perfectly with no whining. In fact, he was commended for it.

In the end, it’s still just confusing why the Courier -Journal felt the need to troll to this extent with no direct quotes from Calipari complaining on the situation. Just an inference from Jim Boeheim that Calipari has complained. Apparently that is all is needed to take front stage of the Courier Journal sports section and push the football team to the side.

I get it. sportswriters are paid to troll at times. I live in Orlando and have to deal with Mike Bianchi trolling FSU fans. Sullivan has the right to do what he wanted, but I am saddened by the CJ’s lack of conviction to not take the troll all the way and put it on the website. This is not the first time that the CJ has deliberately went after the team that half their readers support. You remember the infamous UK cartoon a few years back?

But while the Courier Journal takes the jabs at UK, they still have the reputation of being under Tom Jurich’s thumb when it comes to being negative about the home team.

But hey, it’s a Louisville paper. Root for the home team all you want. Just don’t be shocked and saddened when half your readership eventually tires of your schtick and pulls the plug either.