Kentucky Wildcats 5 for Tuesday: "500" debate rages on

The ridiculousness that is the “500 wins debate” is now raging on across the interwebs as now other pundits now totally unrelated to college basketball or Kentucky now weigh in with their two cents.  As in the case of ESPN’s Peter Gammons who must have gotten the “Kentucky bad” memo that must be included with every ESPN employees paycheck.  Thanks for your thoughts, Peter.  Now go back to covering a sport that is the perfect cure for insomnia.  And for the record, Pete …. Calipari does have 500 wins.  That’s the problem.  Don’t you have a steroids story to cover?

Expect Sarah Palin to weigh in today and say that John Calipari actually defeated Kentucky 500 times.

There are saner heads that are prevailing across the internet on the whole 500 wins thing.  Matt Norlander of CBS Sports has a good article and he takes the point of view that the NCAA is behaving like a big bully when it comes to this situation. 

"What’s fascinating about this should-be non-story: We’ve go the first case of a school simply refusing to oblige by the NCAA’s foolish vacate rule. The NCAA likes to retroactively take away wins and championships. It’s one of the weakest, most-mocked “punishments” in sports. And now there’s blowback when they didn’t expect it.According to Tipton, if the NCAA doesn’t get its apology and some timely changes in the Kentucky media guides and record books, then UK officials will eventually be called to meet with the Committee on Infractions. Yes, the same group of people currently dealing with cheaters at Tennessee and Ohio State. A meeting with the COI? What a gigantic waste of time and fuel that would be. The theater of the absurd is hosting a new act.We’re talking Calipari getting a commemorative basketball and a round of applause for winning 500 games. A quick celebration at Rupp Arena. It’s hardly a huge deal. But the NCAA’s taking it very seriously, making the entire thing is pretty hilarious. The NCAA can’t keep Kentucky from acknowledging Calipari’s accomplishment, no matter how much they insist. They can’t go back in time and erase the celebration from happening, just like they can’t go back and erase seasons or championships from having occurred. What are they going to do, remove Kentucky from NCAA affiliation? Remove scholarships? Of course not. Another PR disaster if they did, especially considering it’s Kentucky and Calipari, and both would be looked at sympathetically in this mini drama. Suddenly the NCAA is looking like the angry neighborhood kid who’s not getting its way and wants to take its ball and go home. Two steps forward, one step back with the NCAA. Same as it ever was. I wish we could vacate this kind of birdbrained behavior."

Enes Kanter continues to get ready for the NBA Draft.  Finally he has that coveted workout with the Wizards scheduled for Friday, although I doubt he will be around when the Wizards draft.  There are some that think that Kanter’s toughness will set him apart from the other “foreign” players. 

I know that we have been focusing on the UK players that are headed into the pros on this site, but let’s not forget the UK players currently in the pros.  Apparently Eric Bledsoe has been taking advantage of the last days before the lockout to work with Clippers assistant (and former NBA PG) Robert Pack to improve his game.

And finally, we all know that football season is just a couple of months away.  The good folks at Saturday Down South have published a schedule analysis for the Wildcats.  I tend to give Kentucky a better chance in a few more games than they do, but UK always seems to be overlooked in the SEC. 

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