With the UK Wildcats cutting down the nets in NOLA Monday night, both the critics and the advocates of John Calipari had plenty of fuel for discussion. Basketball fans across the country complained loud and hard that the Lexington campus had just turned into a prep school for the NBA. Players would come and spend a year in limbo to get them ready for the “pot of gold” awaiting them after they passed the NBA final exam with Professor Calipari. Many of the naysayers wondered if UK would have to vacate this national championship just like Coach C’s previous two college employers (Memphis and UMass) had to vacate Final Four appearances. Would major violations surface like those surrounding Marcus Camby (UMass) or Derrick Rose (Memphis) and raise their ugly head resulting in the forfeiture of games and Final Four appearances?
Fans from the Bluegrass state scoffed at the critics. After all this is the same program that gave you Adolph Rupp and the forced cancellation of the 1952-53 season for point shaving and paying players. Rupp who won 861 games was reprimanded along with the UK in the point shaving criminal case by judge Saul Streit for creating an environment where violations were accepted as part of the business and for “failing in his duty to observe amateur rules, to build character, and to protect the morals and health of his charges.” Interestingly the Baron of the Bluegrass bounced back after the cancelled 52-53 year with a 25-0 record and told the NCAA thanks but no thanks for their invitation to the 53-54 NCAA Tournament. Clearly the University looked at the de facto “death penalty” as a cost of doing business. The University administration understood that its constituency and the proud citizens of the Commonwealth placed a tremendous value on having the Big Blue win and dominate the hardwood.
The Cats were back at in 1989 when coach Eddie Sutton’s program was found to have multiple violations ranging from sending recruit Chris Mills an Emory package with $1,000 to academic fraud to a systematic pay for play program. Already on probation for providing illegal inducements to players, UK basketball was sanctioned for three years including bans on television and NCAA Tournament appearances. However the real problem was the Cats went 13-19 and University of Kentucky president David Roselle forced Athletic Director Cliff Hagan and Coach Eddie Sutton to pack their bags and find a different home.
So while many critics question Coach Calipari’s methods, the reality is that he took a bunch of big ego high school superstars and was able to blend them into a cohesive team that was willing to sacrifice their personal statistics for the good of the group. If the Cats main competition had been the Toronto Raptors and Charlotte Bobcats, et al, the season would have been an unbelievable success. The only problem was that these student-athletes are attending an institution of higher learning where most folks would say one of the purposes of attending is getting a degree. To be fair to Calipari, he was hired to win games and apparently graduating players has minimal importance to the leadership of the institution. The University leadership has made a decision that by having a brand that demonstrates a total commitment to men’s basketball, the University of Kentucky is better able to fulfill its mission.
The leadership knew what they were getting when they chose the former UNCW Seahawk letterman to coach the Wildcats; a coach who could win games and compete for a national championship. They were willing to accept the previous issues and the noise from many college basketball insiders such as Bob Knight. In a public speech the always opinionated Knight stated, “You see we’ve got a coach at Kentucky who put two schools on probation and he’s still coaching. I really don’t understand that.” For the leadership at UK a paraphrasing of their leadership philosophy might be, “Winning's not the only thing, winning the national championship is.”
One of the important principles of leadership is having everyone in the leadership inner circle be on the same page. Clearly the UK administration is committed to the winning in basketball at all cost and Coach Calipari is just following that philosophy.
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