Kentucky sports and beyond.
As I noted in last post, a caller on Larry Glover’s show this morning mentioned that Lute Olson, Jim Calhoun, Norm Stewart and Gene Keady all had NCAA Tournament appearances now listed as vacated.
That sent me to my NCAA Tournament Recordbook.
And I came up with this chart:
For an Excel file of this chart, click here.
John Clay is a sports columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader. A native of Central Kentucky and graduate of UK, he covered UK football for 13 seasons before being promoted to columnist in 2000. He lives in Lexington with his wife and two sons. You can e-mail him at jclay@herald-leader.com.
That are some quality coaches on the list and many of them were never accused of being cheaters. I don’t include Tark the Shark in that category. I still remember him being at one of Joe B’s coaching clinics and lambasting the NCAA at the social afterwards.
Several of those were vacated because athletes had signed with an agent. It seems rather unfair to the school and the other 10+ players on the team to be penalized for the mistake of one. NO advantage was gained by the player signing with an agent.
By my count, there are no less than 7 names on this list who have won the Championship. And all 7 of them except Tark and Harrick would probably be considered “good guys” by most of the fans and media. Ask any fan what Calhoun, Valvano, Brown, Olson and Fisher have in common - how long do you think it would take them to say “vacated tournament appearances”? Not that I am justifying any of it, of course. But it is food for thought.
Oops, make that 8 - missed Norm Sloan the first time through. Any others???
Interesting list. Here is what I don’t get. The NCAA says the tournament appearance is vacated. And as I understand it, the school has to pay the money it was paid for getting to the NCAA tourney (and more money depending on how far the team went) back to the NCAA. And where did that money come from? TV most of it. But also tickets. So, how much money does the ticket holder get paid back? After all, they paid to watch a game that never happened. If the game is a nullity, what did they pay for? Nothing - a non-event. I bought a ticket at face value as a UK student to the 1993 Final Four in New Orleans. I drove down there and watched Michigan “beat” UK, but apparently that Michigan team never reached the final four and UK was not beaten, though it was not allowed to play in the finals. Not one penny was returned to me. I wonder if it is too late to sue for a refund.
go vu