10 Feet High

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that a massive recruiting scandal awaits Kentucky with freshman sensation John Wall.

John Calipari is notorious for bending NCAA rules, especially when it comes to recruiting wars. We all know what happened with Derrick Rose. In a nutshell, Rose had someone take his SAT for him. And let’s not forget the bonanza of Marcus Camby at UMass.

Just think about that for a quick second. Not the bonanza, but the fact that Calipari got Camby - a monumental recruit and future No. 2 overall draft pick - to come to UMass, a cellar-dweller Atlantic 10 school. That alone should have been a red flag.

This was a program at the bottom of the barrel – a program that hadn’t had a winning season in a decade, a team that Jackie Moon would have made.

During Calipari’s tenure, though, they were ranked No. 1 for two seasons, went to two Elite Eights and advanced to the Final Four.

It later came out that Camby took nearly $30,000 from a sports agent along with other benefits, and UMass had to forfeit its 1996 Final Four appearance. Calipari's Memphis team has since forfeited its Final Four appearance as well.

In 1994, the Boston Globe quoted an AAU official in Connecticut as saying, “Another coach says to a kid, ‘If you qualify, we want you.’ Calipari says, ‘If you qualify, we want you. If you don’t, we still want you.’”



(Above: Vintage Coach Cal)

If that isn’t disturbing, then I’m not sure what is.

Let’s go over the facts, shall we? Wall is from Raleigh, North Carolina. Why in the world would he choose Kentucky? The obvious answer for some is because it’s Kentucky! The Wildcats, of course, became synonymous with championships and banner-hanging during the Adolph Rupp days.

But if Wall wanted a name-brand program, why not go to local Duke or North Carolina?

Common sense tells me the three logical places he should have attended were California, Florida or even Arizona – fun, warm and in-the-spotlight states featuring traditional college basketball powerhouses in UCLA, the Gators and the Wildcats, otherwise known as “Point Guard U,” the former home of Jason Terry, Mike Bibby and Gilbert Arenas.

Maybe this article is just a product of my hatred – or at least pessimism - of John Calipari. Seeing him jump up and down barking belligerent orders at his young team during the UConn game was both painful and annoying.

But I just have this gut feeling that he weaseled and snaked his way into landing John Wall in Lexington, the same way he did with Rose.

Calipari has long been known as an unparalleled recruiter. I can just see him sweet-talking innocent parents and kids with his slick-backed hair and natural, boyish charm. And his teams have always been talented and boisterous.

What changed the game for him was the dribble-drive offense, also known as “Princeton on steroids,” as Calipari often calls it, but instead of the backdoor cuts and passes, it relies on penetration and athletes. It is a dynamic attack predicated on driving the ball, making basketball reads and as Calipari says, “being a player.”

He cultivated a dormant Memphis program back onto the national radar by landing one top recruit after another. His ability to ink prized high schoolers is borderline insane. Take a moment and think about some of the guys he’s signed: Marcus Camby, Darius Washington, Jr., Shawne Williams, Dajuan Wagner, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Joey Dorsey, Derrick Rose, Tyreke Evans, and now DeMarcus Cousins and Wall.

That list is like a century for some schools. It’s not like UMass or Memphis were powerhouses when he got there. He created the Minutemen and completely resurrected Memphis, but at what cost? And how much bending can he continually get away with?

Kentucky is as proud a program as there is with seven national titles and more victories than any other school. Oh, and let’s not forget, our dear super-fan Ashley Judd.

Despite its obvious lure, it has to be one of the toughest jobs in the nation, almost like the Notre Dame of college basketball. During his decade-long tenure as the leader of UK, Tubby Smith won a national championship, maintained a .760 winning percentage and went to four Elite Eights. But he was rumored for years to be on the hot seat in Lexington, before finally leaving two years ago to coach Minnesota.

Seemingly, this job falls under the category of “win at all costs,” so maybe a little (or a lot) of rule breaking isn’t seen as the cardinal sin that it’s viewed as at other programs. Calipari better hope so, because everywhere he’s coached he has been mired in scandals and violations.

There are endless reports of boosters paying players under Head Coach Joe B. Hall, who coached the Wildcats from 1972 to 1985, but that’s nothing compared to what came next.

The infamous Eddie Sutton recruiting scandal of the late 80s stained Kentucky for years. During the heavy recruitment of high school star Chris Mills, UK assistant coach Dwane Casey sent $1,000 to Mills’ dad. Okay, not anything out of the norm right? The problem was that the envelope burst open during transit, causing the money to fly out and the delivery service to report it.

Casey and Sutton were both forced to resign, and the Wildcats were then sentenced to five years of NCAA probation, a major blow to any program, but especially to one as prestigious as Kentucky.

Look, I don’t want to discredit Wall, because he seems like a solid and well-grounded kid. But history is always relevant, and both Calipari and Kentucky basketball have had their share of scandals.

The irony of this whole situation is that Calipari was rumored to have wanted the UK job after Smith left, but was apparently "too dirty" for Kentucky's taste.

Desperate times call for desperate measures right?

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