Jason Whitlock praises Calipari and his recruiting

[hifigator]

This is just short of amazing:

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Let me clarify my position on Connecticut basketball coach Jim Calhoun and his alleged illegal recruiting tactics by discussing Kentucky's flirtation with Memphis' John Calipari.

If a sports media outlet reported today that Calipari and his Memphis assistants had NCAA-impermissible contact with a recruit from an at-risk situation and a manager-turned-agent, no one in the sports world would express an ounce of surprise.

Coach Cal's rep is that he plays loosey-goosey with the NCAA rulebook. He recruits prep-school kids, late-academic qualifiers and he's not above giving a dad (Milt Wagner) a job or an AAU coach a speaking engagement in order to land a program-maker.

Some sports writers I respect consider Coach Cal a "dirty coach."

I consider him a damn good one. And given the NCAA's insistence on holding onto an outdated rulebook and an immoral/hypocritical concept of amateurism, I believe Calipari's ethics are beyond question.

Judging any man's character by his adherence to NCAA rules is quite possibly the dumbest thing sports writers and fans do. The character that should be questioned is that of the men and women who refuse to acknowledge that television and its money demand that the NCAA reinvent itself and adopt rules that reflect the dramatic sea change in college athletics.

Have I made myself clear?

The only ethical/moral thing for a wealthy Division I men's basketball coach to do is circumvent the NCAA rulebook. Any coach falsely pious enough to waste much time pretending that he follows NCAA rules is a coach I have little use or respect for.

So I'm pleased as punch that in its desperation to win another national championship and keep pace with North Carolina, Duke, Kansas, Connecticut, Florida and all the rest, Kentucky has had a moment of clarity and is throwing large sums of money at Coach Cal.

Maybe now we can deal with the truth. Maybe now we can quit playing dumb when most of the players at the elite schools magically tool around campus in luxury vehicles purchased by aunts, uncles and grandparents. Maybe now we will stop wondering why the parents of recruits mysteriously relocate to and land cushy jobs within easy driving distance of campus.

Maybe now idiots will cease demanding that big-time college basketball (and football) players get paid by the NCAA. The players and their families don't want a (freaking) pay cut.

Maybe now, rather than randomly and self-servingly publishing stories about coaches and kids operating outside the intellectually and morally bankrupt NCAA rulebook, we, the media, will focus on doing stories that pressure the NCAA to end its charade.

Does anyone honestly believe that Myles Brand and the NCAA really care about enforcing a rulebook that could potentially damage the TV-ratings-driving basketball programs that pay the salaries of NCAA executives and fund the welfare/Olympic sports?

...

It's the equivalent of 1800s newspapers running pictures of and stories about runaway slaves.


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msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/9400160/Let%27s-come-clean-about-%27dirty-coaches%27?MSNHPHMA


On Edit: fixed the link

[HoyaSinceBirth]

wow i mean i already didn't like jason whitlock but Edited that guy what an idiot.

[SFHoya99]

Ummm, so it is alright to be unethical as long as someone else is unethical? That's what I get from Whitlock.

[hoyarooter]

I'm a big fan of Jason Whitlock - but not this column.

If he wants to argue that the NCAA rules stink, he can do so without lying down with skunks.

[hifigator]

Mar 31, 2009 18:07:37 GMT -5 SFHoya99 said:

Ummm, so it is alright to be unethical as long as someone else is unethical? That's what I get from Whitlock.

I think you are giving him way too much credit. Regardless of whether you like or dislike the guy, or whether there is an affiliation of sorts with the program he is attacking/defending, I think he does far more in this article than to merely suggest that JC is only doing what everyone else does.

In my opinion, he almost explicitly says that, "rules shouldn't be followed, since they are likely to be bad rules anyway." While I can appreciate a slight degree of "scrutiny of authority," not even the ultimate libertarian in me could defend this.

Either way, I don't see this column as some sort of modern day, literary vigilanty. In all seriousness, I was very surprised that any sort of "respectable journalist" with National inspirations, especially, would even risk writing this.

[rosslynhoya]

It's not that they're "bad rules" that's the concern. He's arguing that the system is all about cheating the system these days and journos just look the other way. Look at that ESPN.com article that slammed III earlier in the season, the one in which he proudly claimed that he operates in the gray area of the rulebook.

What Whitlock's arguing then is that there's no difference between "dirty" Calapari and any of the other legitimate contenders for a D-1 championship, except possibly one of degree, and that getting outraged at Calapari specifically is ridiculous when the whole NCAA institution is a sham. The NCAA needs scapegoats to throw the book at occasionally, the sanctions they impose hardly ever hurt the actual perp, but we can all vent our spleens and feel like we're the good guys for a little while.

If you don't like Whitlock (as many normal people don't), here's a column on the same subject in less sarcastic terms-

msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/9344918/A-March-Madness-scandal-the-NCAA-sanctions

And yes, USC still has its 2004 football championship, despite Reggie Bush collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, vacations, and real estate for his time there.

[hifigator]

I understand what you are saying, but I still see a significant difference between Whitlock's comments and the Fox article you linked to. The Fox article basically says that the NCAA knows about certain questionable tactics that goes on during recruiting but either pretends not to, basically looking the other way, or ignores it entirely, adopting policies which implicitly allow such questionable actions.

Whitlock says that all coaches cheat. There is nothing wrong with Calipari's actions. In fact, if anything is "wrong," it is just a matter of degree. Umm ... degree MATTERS!