John Clay's Sidelines

SEC links for Thursday:

• Ray Melick of the Birmingham News writes that coaches aren’t afraid of secondary violations.
• Kevin Scarbinsky of the Birmingham News writes that SEC finally throws up a stop sign to oversigning.
• Dave Hooker of the Knoxville News-Sentinel reports that a former Florida defensive lineman has committed to Tennessee.
• John Adams of the News-Sentinel writes that the SEC has an imbalance at quarterback.
• News-Sentinel also reports that UT has lost a quarterback recruit to BYU.
• Christopher Walsh of the Tuscaloosa News writes that there is plenty of linebacker talent in the league.
• Ron Higgins of the Memphis Commercial Appeal writes that the Liberty Bowl wants to keep its SEC tie-in.

Continue reading ‘SEC links: Coaches aren’t afraid of secondary violations’

Here’s what I’ve heard from the local radio call-in shows:

• WLAP-630: Dick Gabriel has Cats Pause columnist Matt May at 6 o’clock, then Billy Reed hops on board in the 7 o’clock hour.

Big Blue Links for Wednesday:

• In the Herald-Leader, Ryan Alessi and Jerry Tipton report from Memphis about school’s response to NCAA’s notice of allegations.
• Dan Wolken of the Memphis Commercial Appeal reports that Memphis says it found no proof that Derrick Rose cheated on his SAT.
• Here’s the 63-page Memphis report.
• In the Commercial Appeal, columnist Geoff Calkins asks if Memphis is finally paying the price for hiring John Calipari.
• Courier-Journal columnist Eric Crawford writes that the Calipari forecast is clear to partly cloudy.
• Larry Vaught of the Danville Advocate-Messenger reports that another top quarterback prospect is looking at Kentucky.
• Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News writes that Memphis shouldn’t have trusted the NCAA to get it right.
• Dana O’Neil of espn.com reports that her source says the travel issue at Memphis may be more important than SAT.
• Gary Parrish of CBS Sportsline reports that Robert Dozier ended up at Memphis after disputed SAT score.

Continue reading ‘BBL: Memphis findings and response links’

SEC links for Wednesday:

• Mike Griffith of the Knoxville News-Sentinel reports that UT’s Tyler Smith may end up playing overseas.
• Griffith also reports that UT’s J.R. J.P. Prince says his shoulder rehab his ahead of schedule.
• Mark Bradley of the AJC writes that Georgia football will have its hands full thanks to a difficult schedule.
• Mark McCarter of the Huntsville Times reports that Alabama expects to hear back soon from NCAA about irregularities involving textbook purchases.
• Montgomery Advertiser, via AP, says Auburn looking into possible rules violations.
• Tom Murphy of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett has broken his ring finger on his throwing hand.

Continue reading ‘SEC links: UT’s Tyler Smith considering overseas’

Here’s what I’ve heard from the local radio call-in shows:

• WVLK-590: Larry Glover will have Mike DeCourcy from the Sporting News as his guest.

• WLAP-630: Dick Gabriel welcomes new UK assistant basketball coach Rod Strickland in the 6 o’clock hour, then ex-UK star and current Denver Bronco Wesley Woodyard in the 7 o’clock hour.

Steve Rosenbloom, who writes the Rosenblog for the Chicago Tribune, is a little agitated over this whole Derrick Rose SAT/grade change/etc. affair. And Rosenbloom doesn’t mind blasting with both barrels.

Excerpt:

I’m in favor of anything that makes the point that college is the biggest cesspool in sports. Colleges themselves, the actual ivory towers, are the most overpriced, overhyped institutions in America, extortion with elbow patches, but that’s a whole other rant. If college sports isn’t the biggest cesspool we cover, it’s at least tied with the Olympics, and how fitting that one scandal is rooted in the corrupt city of Chicago and some people want to bring the other slimy event here.

Good luck finding ethics in any of it — college sports (and by extension the stench of us media types glorifying snot-nosed, booger-eating teenaged athletes before they even get to high school sometimes), the Olympics, Chicago, the state of Illinois. There’s too much money and power to stop.

Colleges make billions, but the athletes that have made March Madness can’t get a Big Mac. Not legally anyway. The Olympics, jeez, where do you start? Payoffs are rampant, as in college recruiting. Academic cheating, such as someone taking a test for Rose and someone else supposedly changing his grade, is to college what anabolic steroids are to the Olympics. Higher, faster, juicer.

It gets better after that, though the squeamish might want to avoid the final couple of graphs. Spoiler alert.

Update: Ryan Alessi of the Herald-Leader reports on the Memphis report.

Gary Parrish of CBS Sportsline, who once covered Memphis basketball for the Commercial Appeal, reports that Memphis will release its 63-page response to the NCAA sometime today.

An excerpt:

According to the source, the response is 63 pages long with another approximately 480 pages of exhibits. It is designed, in part, to refute the NCAA’s claim that former Tiger Derrick Rose “failed to deport himself in accordance with the generally recognized high standards of honesty and sportsmanship normally associated with the conduct and administration of intercollegiate athletics” by allowing someone else to take his SAT.

This backs up Andy Katz’s report on espn.com Monday that Memphis was preparing to make its response public through Freedom of Information requests.

Big Blue Links for Tuesday:

• Mark Story writes in the Heald-Leader that UK and Billy Gillispie should settle and move on.
• Laurnie Caproni of the Maysville Ledger-Independent says John Calipari deserves the presumption of innocence.
• Dick Vitale says that Calipari’s critics should wait and see.
• Zagsblog reports that UK is not on Kyrie Irving’s top four list.
• Jay Marriotti of AOL writes that the Derrick Rose scam leaves a stench everywhere.
• Gene Wojciechowski of ESPN has Billy Gillispie as No. 42 on his list of 50 things that can sports can do without. (Hat tip to Kentucky Sports Radio.)

Continue reading ‘BBL: Legal matters and UK sports’

SEC links for Tuesday:

• C.L. Brown of the Courier-Journal reports on Louisville baseball’s regional-clinching win over Vanderbilt.
• Rick Bozich of the C-J writes on how a Louisville rookie outpitched Vandy’s star.
• David Climer of the Tennessean writes that Vandy baseball failed at the little things.
• David Brandt of the Clarion-Ledger reports on Ole Miss’ ending Western Kentucky’s dream.
• Dave Hooker of the Knoxville News-Sentinel reports that Tennessee may have to pay its strength coach $300,000 if he’s not retained.
• In the Mobile Press-Register, Paul Finebaum writes that when Bobby Lowder exits the Auburn scene his presence will be missed.
• Ed Ashcroft of the Gainesville Sun reports on another Florida football player being arrested.

Continue reading ‘SEC links: Louisville knocks Vandy out of NCAA baseball’

Andy Katz of ESPN is reporting that the NCAA alerted Memphis about problems with Derrick Rose’s test score approximately one month after it lost to Kansas in the NCAA title game of 2008.

An excerpt:

It was then that Memphis was first notified that star freshman point guard Derrick Rose, who helped the Tigers to an NCAA-record 38 wins and was soon going to become the No. 1 pick in the 2008 NBA draft by his hometown Bulls, had an invalidated standardized test score the previous year at Chicago’s Simeon High School, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the e-mail.

The University of Memphis’ legal counsel, Sheri Lipman, would not identify the student-athlete as Rose, but said Monday, “for the student-athlete, whoever that was, the first indication that we got was in early May [2008] that his score was being invalidated.”

Katz also says that Memphis’ response to the Jan. 16 letter could be made public later tonight or early Tuesday.