Welcome to day two of the great Enes Kanter freak out.
We will be taking a look at a couple of aspects of the Kanter situation throughout the day on the site, but do keep in mind that this latest news is not likely to change the timetable of the Kanter decision by the NCAA. Earlier yesterday, John Calipari and others said that they expected to hear a decision with about 14 days or so.
It’s important to keep in mind that however shocking yesterday’s news was to us, it likely was old news to the NCAA. It’s not like Pete Thamel was hand delivering these documents to the NCAA headquarters himself … the NCAA likely had these in hand for a while. All Thamel did was report on what he thought the NCAA had.
It’s interesting the reaction most Wildcat fans have had to this latest bombshell however. Most fans I have talked to have taken a “C’est La Vie” attitude and still expect to have a solid season with or without Enes. In other words, we expect to be screwed by the NCAA. Granted, no Enes is a big problem and most fans are livid but the Canadian trip provided a glimpse of life without the big man …. and this still will be a good team regardless.
It is important to keep in mind that this is not a John Calipari story or even a University of Kentucky story. If Enes Kanter is declared ineligible, it simply moves Kentucky moves on without him. There are no underlying penalties for Kentucky in this situation …. which actually makes me feel pretty good about Calipari right now. What we have is a dogged journalist, Thamel (acting with or without the resources of ESPN’s Pat Forde) who has a tremendous hard-on for John Calipari. Thamel has spent probably the last year trying to dig up dirt on Kentucky and Calipari and he has to travel to Turkey to talk to a basketball GM (who has a huge ulterior motive in keeping Kanter out of UK) and all Thamel can report on is information that the NCAA already has in their hands. \\
That said, I really do not get all the “jounralistic types” jumping all over themselves to congratulate Thamel on Twitter. It’s not like he exposed anything. It’snot like he met with a shadowy figure that gave him the “dirt of the program”. All Thamel had was the luck of having an employer, who in these economic times, coughed up the money for him to fly into Istanbul and stroll into the brightly lit offices of the FU basketball squad. And given John Calipari’s dogged attempt to get DeAndre Daniels to reclassify, this hardly was breaking news for the UK brass.
There is no smoking gun to implicate Calipari and he has been unable to dig up anything that John Calipari has done wrong at his time at Kentucky. All he has done is a questionable story on Eric Bledsoe (which was widely panned by everyone) and this story … which may end up affecting Kanter … but is not a bastion of journalism greatness. You talked to a far away source that was dying for a chance to tell his story. Congrats, I guess.
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There was some tough news for former UK wideout Keenan Burton who was recently cut by the St. Louis Rams. Burton was tagged to be a starter for the Rams, but the addition of Mark Clayton made him expendable. It’s not a bad thing for Burton who instead of toiling on the depth chart for the Rams, now has a chance to land with a new team. It’s not a good thing either … but we wish Keenan luck and hope he finds a new home soon.
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