Kentucky Wildcat Basketball: ESPN quiet on Knight comments while Kentucky talks back

It was nearly almost a year and half ago the last time “the General” Bobby Knight went on the attack against Kentucky’s John Calipari and attacked his integrity.  The world wide leader, ESPN covered the story on their website and printed Knight’s comments.  And then, in an amazing coincidence, Bobby Knight, in a cowardly display, somehow did not make the trip to Lexington for ESPN’s :Gameday” to face his 23,000 detractors in person at Rupp.  Either Bobby begged off the appearance or ESPN, fearing a scenario in which one of one of their faces of “Gameday” was roundly booed for the entire show, pulled him from the Lexington trip.  No real reason was given.

And here we go ago.  Knight not only attacked Calipari, but he made up blatant lies about UK’s student athletes in an appearance on 4/16.  And despite this appearance being two days old, ESPN has yet to grace their website with the story of Knight’s blasphemous claims.  Perhaps they know he has gone too far this time.

It’s one thing to attack John Calipari.  The man makes four million dollars a year and he has thick skin.  He can handle it.  But to go after the entire starting lineup and claim they never went to class all semester???  That seems to be a kind of fallout that even ESPN is backing away from.    It’s one thing if Knight was speaking on documented proof.  But he’s not.  And it would be another thing if he was not talking about current college athletes.  Fail there as well.

As a “college commentator”, Knight has the responsibility to handle himself  and keep his comments from being well, blasphemous.  There is no doubt ESPN will hear about this latest controversy with Knight from the Big Blue Nation, who is fed up with the world wide leader and its skewed views toward UK.

As it turns out, the Kentucky brass has had enough of Knight as well.  UK AD Mitch Barnhart had the following comments:

"“The University of Kentucky, our student-athletes and their families take great offense to the blatantly erroneous comments made by Bob Knight that ‘Kentucky, year before last, started five players in the NCAA Tournament games that had not been to class that semester,” “UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart said in a statement released to LEX 18 Sports.“Academic performance has always been a priority at UK and it’s unfortunate that, although every starter from the 2010 season finished the spring semester in good academic standing, these myths exist. Our men’s basketball team’s APR score reflects our attention to academic progress and our student-athletes take great pride in representing the University of Kentucky on and off the floor,” says Barnhart."

While the statement by Barnhart lacked as many teeth as I would have preferred, one of this five players who were accused of not going to class all semester responded via twitter.  I prefer Patrick Patterson’s response:

Keep following www.http://wildcatbluenation.com for the best in Kentucky basketball and football news, rumors, and opinions. By Kentucky fans for Kentucky fans