by Paul Jordan
I know better than to trust headlines.
Especially from the Orlando Sentinel.
But with all the season’s good cheer and the news that Urban Meyer had “resigned” from his duties as Gator’s head coach, I was ready to trust the media again. I scanned the front page of my Sentinel sports page and saw the headline “Calipari face of college hoops” and thought to myself, “Well, that’s nice”. I got about a paragraph in when it hit me that this was going to be one of THOSE type of Calipari articles:
Call us cynical, but what framed the last 10 years on the college hardcourt seemed to be more about pomp and less about substance. Much of that has to do with the greasy guys on the AAU circuit”
Ruh roh Shaggy. Yet another UK/Calipari hack job from the sleaze merchants at the Orlando Slantinel. Lest I checked, the Gators, Seminoles, and Canes routinely signed AAU players as well. If the author really wanted to write an AAU sleaze article, he can write how how Billy Donovan stockpiled his Gators with AAU players thanks to his association with AAU power broker Bret Bearup.
It does not really matter who wrote the article, they are all the same bitter, small minded, Gator obsessed Neanderthals that make up the wonderful state of Florida. This one was named Chris Harry, but they are all the same person. Bianchi is bald, this one probably has hair. Who really cares. When it comes to Calipari and UK basketball, they use the same lines and cry the same crocodile tears.
This hack job starts with the standard mention of the vacated wins and then in his best John Walsh “America’s Most Wanted” tone writes “John Calipari lives on. Quite nicely in fact”. Wow. That gives me chills. I can see see that John Calipari preying on old ladies and stealing their social security checks. The slam job continues with the same old song … a master at tiptoeing through gray areas… Worldwide Wes … build a program with NBA bound short timers … blah blah …8 year, $31.65 million … Bobby Knight … blah blah. Harry’s article is even worse than most because he fails to check standard facts and proclaims:
that is was discovered in August 2009 — four months after Calipari bolted for Lexington that star point guard Derrick Rose … had someone else take his SAT exam.
ummmm Chris …. Memphis and Calipari knew about Rose’s SAT’s a good 6 months before Calipari left for UK. And it so bothered the Memphis brass that they threw more money at Calipari to STAY in Memphis and they threw the hissy fit of all hissy fits when he left. But Harry does get one thing right…
forward DeMarcus Cousins announced he was going to UK instead, and two more hot shot recruits followed, including All-World point guard John Wall…
Yes, John Wall is All-World, thanks for noticing but we will not buy the implication that he “followed” Cal from Memphis. Wall committed to UK after Calipari arrived but he did not break a commit to “follow” Cal. And after the article is about 80% through, we get the lamest mention that Calipari has not indeed been charged with any wrongdoing:
In fairness to Calipari, there’s nothing to indicate any monkey business. Yet.
Are you serious? The guy has 18 years of coaching in the NCAA and NO violations, yet you want to throw that “Yet” in there? Give me a break. The rest of the article is standard “UK will win big, Cal will go pro and the NCAA will come calling”. Sorry to bust any bubbles but the NCAA has thoroughly vetted Wall’s eligibility and he has been cleared to play but that would involve actually doing research for a story. We know that can’t happen at the Slantinel.
What is particularly sad is that Harry actually, for once in the entire life of the basketball program, had a chance to promote the state’s Florida Gators as the story of the decade and no one would have snickered. Instead, we get another lazy Calipari hack job that does not even bother to check facts and plagiarizes the “Best of Mikey Bianchi“.
It’s kinda sad, but like they say, EMBRACE THE HATE.
I’ll check in with you in April, Chris and we’ll see what the big story in college basketball was for this year.
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