NCAA investigating Memphis and John Calipari for violations

[Da Coach]

The NCAA is investigating what it calls "major violations" that occurred at Memphis during their 2007-2008 Final Four season.
The allegations include "knowing fraudulence or misconduct" on an SAT exam by a player on the 2007-08 team. The NCAA alleged the prospective player became eligible after an "unknown individual" completed his SAT. The player, said the NCAA, "subsequently competed for the men's basketball team through the 2007-08 season, which included his participation in the 2008 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship."
It is also alleged that Memphis permitted an associate of a player to travel with the team to some road games for free, an extra benefit that would amount to $2,260.

It is suspected that the player involved is Derrick Rose. Memphis received the letter informing them of this violation back on January 16, 2009, but it was not reported until yesterday.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/may/27/ncaa-alleges-major-violations-memphis-basketball-p/

http://media.commercialappeal.com/mca/content/static/20090527184759.pdf

The University of Kentucky, where Calipari now works, say they were aware of this when they hired Calipari. They have released a statement--

http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/6271764/15267302

[tornado]

eerie, eerie.....sounds just like Kentucky is pulling an Indiana....or a Kelvin Sampson...
but wait.....there's more, as some sources are also reporting
"the NCAA is saying Memphis also gave $2,260 in free travel to road games
for one of the players' (friends)" (one of Derrick Rose's entourage, probably his brother Reggie)

So UK knowingly hiring a head coach with a shady past, from a program they knew was being investigated,
then even when evidence of serious wrongdoing emerges, they are standing by the guy because really,
Kentucky like Indiana, only cares about wins and talent!

If this turns out that Derrick Rose was an ineligible player because of fraudulent SAT scores, then John Calipari will have the unbreakable record of TWO different Final Four appearances that were vacated by Major NCAA violations.

The funniest line from the Commercial Appeal column:
"Calipari is to NCAA investigations as Joey Dorsey was to bar fights"

The funniest line I have seen yet, from the message boards at Indiana...
"Now that Calipari's program is caught cheating, should IU go after him?"

[meth]

Complaints about this phone violation are what led the NCAA to begin investigating Memphis.
It is nice to know that the major corporations can't always buy them out of their misdeeds.

http://blogs.thenewstribune.com/preps/2008/08/01/p29345

[tornado]

Yahoo sports is reporting that the person who traveled with the team for no cost was Reggie Rose,
and that the allegation of Rose not being the one who took the test is supported by the facts that
Rose took the SAT three different times, and the one test ni quesiton has clearly different handwriting
which has been reviewed and examined by experts who say it is someone other than Rose.

[BradleyBrave]

Memphis will get slammed because Cal is gone and they're a non-BCS school, and Cal will go on at Kentucky as if nothing ever happened. I love it how these guys 'don't know what's going on'. Give me a break.

[real fan]

How do you think Calapari was able to land most of his recruits, he needs to be investigated and penalized like Jim Harrick was when these things occured on his watch.

[tornado]

The investigation of Calipari has been held up several times because of the need to divert the bulk of NCAA investigators
to check on all the scandal happening at Troy State, SEMO, and Alabama State.

[Lakeview Brave]

If they stopped pretendeding that people like Rose were students then this stuff wouldnt happen. The NBA forces them to go to college for a year so they can evlauate them better and the NCAA uses them for the money and exposure but wants them to be "real students". You will see more and more of the top guys going to Europre rather than put up with this crap. Lets face it, the lottery picks who go to college are not students and never will be.

[tornado]

... more of the top guys going to Europre rather than put up with this crap.....

agree...nobody ever even foresaw this scenario..but now it's happening more and more almost every day...even kids who haven't yet finished HS....
...or maybe some here on this board did foresee this scenario way ahead of everyone else...

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=5106#post5106

...could these guys have been reading our board for ideas???

[Da Coach]

I disagree. This is not about the students, it's about the coaches that cheat. The students have other options. We see some playing in Europe, some go to prep school for a year, others go to college.
Even when high school kids were eligible for the NBA, college coaches still cheated. If the NBA allowed them to be eligble again, the cheating would not stop.

This is about the school (Memphis) or the coach (Calipari) cheating to get Rose eligible with the NCAA. How would colleges and coaches that cheat be any different if the NBA changed their rules? If some high school kids were able to go directly to the NBA, these colleges and coaches would simply cheat with the next recruits they go after. That wouldn't change.


Here is something about this situation I find difficult to believe--

http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/6271764/15280190

New Memphis coach Josh Pastner, who was as assistant under John Calipari last year, says he was unaware of the NCAA charges against Memphis when he took the head coaching job! These charges have been known by Memphis since mid-January, and somehow the assistant coach never learns about them?
Why wouldn't the assistant coach have known about these charges?
Why wouldn't Memphis officials have discusses this with him before hiring him?

More interesting articles-
Apparently it was Simeon teammate Kevin Johnson who allegedly tok the SAT test in place of Derrick Rose. Former BU recruit Tim Flowers is also involved--

http://yourseason.suntimes.com/boys_basketball/1595888,052709-derrick-rose-ncaa-investigation.article

And a former summer coach of Rose's, Luther Topps, is quoted as saying "[Simeon coach Robert Smith and I] didn’t know anything about his test,’’ Topps told the Sun-Times . "(Derrick's older brother) Reggie (Rose) moved me and him out of the way long before that, as soon as the money got involved."

http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/6271764/15270036

http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/goodmanonfox/2009/05/28/MORE_ON_MEMPHIS_CALIPARI_AND_ROSE

http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/9620504/Memphis-scandal-won't-stick-to-Calipari

And now there are reports that Derrick Rose and several teammates had their high school records altered to change (and raise) grades--

http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/6271764/15279068

Here is a funny song about John Calipari and these cheating allegations--
"Johnny Calipari"

http://www.box.net/index.php?rm=box_v2_mp3_player_shared&node=f_292348640&single_file=1

[tornado]

Now there is talk that other players on that Simeon team are somehow involved in this mess...and the Tribune says acadmic fraud was prevalent at Simeon...with grades being changed and nobody saying a word, and nobody ever being held accountable.
Add to that sending in ringers to take the SAT tests for someone else......

---Tim Flowers had the NCAA breathing down his neck about eligibility...and Rose, Flowers, Johnson and one other unnamed player all has fraudulent transcripts sent out to colleges that helped them get college offers.
"..the NCAA threatened to revoke former Simeon player Tim Flowers college eligibility
if Flowers didn’t agree to an interview. ‘‘Tim told me the NCAA kept bothering him,’’
..‘‘That if he didn’t talk they were going to take away his eligibility.
[The NCAA] thinks that [former Simeon player Kevin Johnson took the SAT (for Rose)"


---and recall, one other Simeon player, ISU recruit Kenyon Smith thought everything was hunky dory until he enrolled and got to ISU, then suddenly he was declared ineligible when his test score was disqualified.
One of his tests was "in question" via the NCAA...maybe fraudulent also or taken by someone else?

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2008/10/01/usports/doc48e430dd60147131059964.txt

this is a good read...suggesting someone fraudulently changed Derrick Rose's high school transcript....and the grades of THREE other Simeon players!!!
Two of those players were Tim Flowers & Kevin Johnson - who were admitted and cleared to play at UW-M then booted off the team in mid-season for undisclosed reasdons.
(almost certainly the other one was the ISU recruit, as he was the only other kid on the team to be headed to DI)
...it happened with Darrell Arthur at Kansas, but the NCAA looked the other way!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/basketball/bulls/chi-29-derrick-rose-may29,0,2389520.story

http://www.southtownstar.com/sports/1597386,052909sptrose.article

[tornado]

I got a kick out of Simeon's coach Robert Smith's comments about the obvious academic fraud and grade changing...

"No discipline was taken (for the altered grades) because we couldn't pin it on any one employee...
Simeon basketball coach Robert Smith said he doesn't know who was responsible for changing the grades.
Smith, also the dean of boys at Simeon, said he does not have access."


Here are the new home and road jerseys for Simeon next season.....

[BradleyBrave]

I guess in a way this shows just how much of a joke coaches think the NCAA is. One would think an organization as powerful as they supposedly are wouldn't want to keep looking like fools and continuously have coaches spitting in their face and on their rules. Oh well.

[tornado]

Corruption Nothing New in Prep Sports
(mostly in Chicago)

http://yourseason.suntimes.com/boys_basketball/1597166,052809-bell.article

I wonder what they'd find if they checked into John Wall's transcript and SAT scores???

[Lakeview Brave]

I disagree. This is not about the students, it's about the coaches that cheat. The students have other options. We see some playing in Europe, some go to prep school for a year, others go to college.
Even when high school kids were eligible for the NBA, college coaches still cheated. If the NBA allowed them to be eligble again, the cheating would not stop.

This is about the school (Memphis) or the coach (Calipari) cheating to get Rose eligible with the NCAA. How would colleges and coaches that cheat be any different if the NBA changed their rules? If some high school kids were able to go directly to the NBA, these colleges and coaches would simply cheat with the next recruits they go after. That wouldn't change.


Here is something about this situation I find difficult to believe--

http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/6271764/15280190

New Memphis coach Josh Pastner, who was as assistant under John Calipari last year, says he was unaware of the NCAA charges against Memphis when he took the head coaching job! These charges have been known by Memphis since mid-January, and somehow the assistant coach never learns about them?
Why wouldn't the assistant coach have known about these charges?
Why wouldn't Memphis officials have discusses this with him before hiring him?

More interesting articles-
Apparently it was Simeon teammate Kevin Johnson who allegedly tok the SAT test in place of Derrick Rose. Former BU recruit Tim Flowers is also involved--

http://yourseason.suntimes.com/boys_basketball/1595888,052709-derrick-rose-ncaa-investigation.article

And a former summer coach of Rose's, Luther Topps, is quoted as saying "[Simeon coach Robert Smith and I] didn??™t know anything about his test,??™??™ Topps told the Sun-Times . "(Derrick's older brother) Reggie (Rose) moved me and him out of the way long before that, as soon as the money got involved."

http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/6271764/15270036

http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/goodmanonfox/2009/05/28/MORE_ON_MEMPHIS_CALIPARI_AND_ROSE

http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/9620504/Memphis-scandal-won't-stick-to-Calipari

And now there are reports that Derrick Rose and several teammates had their high school records altered to change (and raise) grades--

http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/6271764/15279068

Here is a funny song about John Calipari and these cheating allegations--
"Johnny Calipari"
http://www.box.net/index.php?rm=box_...&single_file=1

I agree that cheating wouldnt stop and it is the coaches fault much more than the players but in cases like Rose, Oden, Durant ect... Why pretend these guys are students? Forcing them to go to college makes an even bigger mockery of the situation. These guys dont go to class even when they do qualify. If the NBA were smart they would let these guys go strait to the D league for evaluation. That would make the D league much more marketable and avoid all this NCAA non sense for their future stars.