UK fans weary of another "Big Blue Media Storm" to hit Calipari. Is Bilal Batley a victim or a coincidence?
By Staff
It all started with a series of twitters from Kentucky Sports Radio’s Matt Jones on Sunday evening and the impact of the unknown has a good portion of the BBN ready to batten down the hatches and weather another media storm seemingly directed at our beloved Coach Calipari. Let’s take a look at the twitters that caused the furor:
I have to say that the twitter texts caught me for a loop and I began to get the same bad feeling in my stomach as I did when we were alerted to the “mystery press conference” a few months back that led to the announcement of Jeremy Jarmon’s departure from UK. And like that announcement, this too, came on a Holiday weekend. Perhaps sensing the BBN rising up, Jones sent out this twitter a few minutes later:
Regardless the news was out there and Wildcat fans stormed the web to get more information but it appears that this was a pretty tight lipped secret. Then the next day, Jones wrote an article that suggested that this article did not involve UK and that it would not be a “major” news story. That said, I began to rest a bit and relax and do some important stuff, like get to work and off the Internet.
Larry Vaught then grabbed the baton and ran some of his speculation (he even announced it as speculation) that Bilal Batley’s departure from UK may be a harbinger of the upcoming UK story.
After first asking “Who the hell is Bilal Batley” and I promptly set out to debunk these rumors once and for all and started to do my own research. The first thing I found out was that Bilal Batley was no no way related to Bilbo Baggins so I took another avenue of research.
What I did find was that Bilal Batley was a graduate assistant coach that Calipari brought with him from Memphis. While at Memphis, Batley had the title of Assistant Director of Basketball Operations/Manager. A weighty title for sure, but from what I could gather, he was on a 8 month project at Memphis and made around $1000 a month.
A native of Houston, Batley was a manager for the team at the University of Oklahoma and a 2007 graduate. He followed Kelvin Sampson to Indiana, where he organized the program’s recruiting information and served as a mentor to players, according to the 2008-09 Memphis media guide. Batley also has worked for the John Lucas Pre-Draft Camp in Houston since 2001. His presence at Memphis is believed to be helpful in the recruitment of DeMarcus Cousins and Nolan Dennis.
While reading this, the name KELVIN SAMPSON stood out of course. But then I did a little more research on Batley in Memphis. Surely the “Calipari Monday Morning QB’s” at the Commercial Appeal in Memphis were on to the hiring of the nefarious Batley and had been castigating Calipari over the hire from Day 1. Not exactly.
I found this article from frequent Calipari critic AM (After Memphis) Dan Wolken on August 26, 2008 in a story about Batley arriving at Memphis. In the article, Calipari laid out some of the duties Batley would have at Memphis and his role on the team staff: “These are stipend positions. They’re not making much money. They’re not getting benefits. You’re talking video, office, equipment. They’re all entry-level positions that can’t make recruiting calls, and they can only be on the court as managers”.
I dug a little deeper on the Memphis staff because most Commercial Appeal reporters like to s
ay that they were on to Calipari from Day 1 but this article from March 26, 2009 is an almost glowing look at Calipari’s coaching staff who are called his “lieutenants“. Batley has a brief quote on his role on the team: “Our job is just to make sure he coaches basketball. We’re going to take care of all that and it should only get to him if it’s extreme. If we’re doing our job, it should never get extreme.” All in all, this was actually a interesting read on the inner workings of Calipari’s staff and worth a few minutes. If you have a few extra minutes, read the comments from Tiger fans and their loyalty to Calipari then. It’s pretty hysterical.
After doing my “investigation” on Batley, I started thinking about the Kelvin Sampson connection and had pretty much figured out that that UK would done a pretty thorough check on all of Calipari’s staff and the name Kelvin Sampson would bring up a pretty big red flag. Consider also the circumstances of Batley’s departure from UK.
Don’t you think that UK knows the details on this upcoming story? And if, Batley was in fact, the reason for the story, don’t you think UK would have taken a preemptive strike against the media storm and announced that Batley was being dismissed because of whatever reason? I mean, how effective is a national slam against Calipari, if it’s sails are deflated by UK getting rid of the guilty party in advance of the story?
Plus, the plain timing of this “national story” is puzzling. If it truly is a story with national implications or possible NCAA involvement, why not release it as soon as possible? Why wait and sit on the story? Why has no other major news media found out what the big story is with Calipari? Personally, I think this is more of another personal slam on Calipari and is full of rampant speculation and designed to cause him embarrassment as close to the start of Midnight Madness as possible. If not, why keep pushing the story back and risk someone digging up the facts and getting all the glory?
I think the more probable reason for Batley’s leaving may be that of a personal reason or he may have landed a better paying job. We may never know the real reason for him leaving, but it’s unfair to speculate him as the reason Calipari may get a bad press job. If it turn out that it indeed is the fault of Batley, I may have a different song.
But for now, it appears that this upcoming “media storm” may just have the impact of a quick summer thunderstorm in Florida. Loud, intense and scary for a while but shortlived. And the sun is always quick to show again.
Editors note: Just as I was putting the finishing touches on this article, Matt Jones at KSR posted a tidbit that the Batley leaving was in fact, more of a personal issue and that the upcoming story was not an earthshattering one. Hope he is right.
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