John Clay's Sidelines

Story from Clay Travis at FanHouse, and video:

Big Blue Links for Wednesday:

• Private investigator who deals with college athletes tells Jerry Tipton of the H-L that UK should have known about questions surrounding Eric Bledsoe.
• John Calipari was ready to speak to the media, until C.M. Newton stepped in, reports Jeremy Fowler of the Orlando Sentinel.
• A large cloud is settling over Eric Bledsoe’s big moment, writes Kevin Scarbinsky of the Birmingham News.
• Eamonn Brennan of espn.com says he doesn’t believe that the media hates John Calipari.
• But Mike DeCourcy of Sporting News thinks that the media is are bashing Cal, and he wouldn’t blame him for going to the NBA.

Continue reading ‘BBL: Bledsoe/Calipari hasn’t died down yet’

(AP photo)

SEC links for Wednesday:

• AP report that the SEC is considering tweaking basketball and scrapping division play.
• Florida coach Urban Meyer talks about his health issues, reports Robbie Andreu of the Gainesville Sun.
• Cecil Hurt of the Tuscaloosa News writes that coaches find ways to deal with the stress.
• Georgia will start its season without a new Uga, reports Tim Tucker of the AJC.
• Tucker also reports that Mark Richt is joking around about his hot-seat questions.
• Tommy Hicks of the Mobile Press-Register writes that expansion is not a hot topic at SEC Spring Meetings.

Continue reading ‘SEC links: League considering scrapping hoops divisions’

Considering the events of the weekend, as you might guess I received some e-mail. Here are some excerpts:

From Tom:

Jackal. Vulture. Hyena. ETC. My opinion of newspaper reporters in general is so low that I do not think there is a measurement to fit it.

Tear down. Try to destroy. Spread negativism. Hurt for the sake of hurting. Nothing is too scummy for a reporter to write.

If an athlete is cleared by the NCAA, what is a coach; any coach to do? Any university. Any athletic program. If the NCAA can not be trusted to vet properly why are they in place? This is the story. Not Calipari. Not Bledsoe.

Fortunately crumby reporters and editors are driving newspapers out of business. Faster and faster.

From Ed in Tennessee:

You have two types of Kenucky fans in regards to their take on questionable Cal recruits: you have the “T’aint so” crowd, and then you have the “Taint? SO?” crowd.

From Steve:

It is stupid to say that Bledsoe could not have improved that much. I once changed schools and my GPA dropped about two points. I hated the second school, and I was afraid to go there everyday. There were stabbings. I skipped school until my mother caught me. I changed schools again and my GPA went up considerably. I once changed teachers within the same school and raised my grade from a D to an A. Should I have been investigated? Did the person next to me help me cheat? Because I did not play basketball, I guess that meant that I improved on my own, but if I had played basketball I guess I could only have done it by cheating. I know of many other people whose grades improved dramatically from one school to another. All of this should be dropped by a declining newspaper until there is proof.

Some people say the sports writers of the HL are out to get Coach Cal because they are jealous of Andy Katz. I just know that if I have a relationship with two people then I will spend more time with the one who treats me best. From what I understand, Jerry Tipton has never treated someone else best. Also, Katz can help Cal more than you can. He must deal with the pressure put on him to win. Therefore he must go with those who can best help him do that.

From Gary:

You are NOT being too hard on Calipari. Just the write the truth…which I think you have always done.
I am naive about the way the world works. One time I suggested to a friend that UK had sold its soul to the devil because winning is everything according to those who decide what’s important & what is not.
He replied, “Where have you been? Colleges sold their souls to the devil 50 years ago.”
Good journalism can remind us what is truly important.

From Paul:

I know that this is not your investigative journalism, but rather an attempt to jump on the bandwagon that has been set in motion by the NYT and ESPN. This story in reality has little to do with Eric Bledsoe, but is merely a avenue to further establish a claim that John Calipari is a cheat or is somehow manipulating the system.

What I find so frustrating is that you can print this without knowing what is true or untrue and without recourse. You are operating in a court of public opinion. So “a lot” of people who read this will take it for the truth just because it got printed (on the front page) and rumor and accusation follow. You do probably realize that there are many that just want to believe something bad in order to bring someone else down to their level. The media is full of negativity always trying to point out how someone failed or cheated.

Continue reading ‘E-mailbag: Plenty of opinions on weekend columns’

Big Blue Links for Tuesday:

Hoopsworld thinks Daniel Orton is over-hyped:

Orton’s trip to Chicago was quite revealing though, and not in a very good way for him. He measured in shorter than expected at 6’9.5 in shoes and was below average athletically with just a 24″ vertical leap. It’s Orton’s injury history that is most alarming though.

In his final two years of high school Orton had two separate and serious ligament issues in the same knee and also broke his wrist. It’s a little troublesome that the only time in the last three years he’s gone injury free is when he was playing just 13 minutes a night this past season. Orton’s a risky investment for a first-round pick due to being unproven and potentially unreliable.

(Hat tip to Tom Leach.)

My column from Monday about questions and a few answers in Bledsoe case:

3. How is this unlike the Rose case? Rose’s case dealt with one test score, and improper benefits given to his brother. Bledsoe’s case could deal with a number of grades, and the circumstances behind the rise in his GPA after he changed schools.

There is also the question of whether the Parker coach, Maurice Ford, was demanding money from college coaches in exchange for signing Bledsoe.

Rick Bozich of the Courier-Journal says Calipari is Teflon John:

Eventually, we arrive at the point where John Calipari arrived Friday: With the serious scent of a possible NCAA investigation of Calipari’s program, this time at the University of Kentucky.

Teflon John has already survived two of these dustups — one at Massachusetts 14 years ago, another at Memphis, the job he left for UK in 2009. His name doesn’t show up in the first batch of reporting in this story, either. All he’s done is take a player with a high school academic transcript that is being questioned.

The Big Lead thinks that “Teflon John” has a ring to it.

Paul Finebaum of the Mobile Press-Register thinks Calipari might need some movers:

Well, it’s early June and that can only mean two things: John Calipari is relaxing at the beach in the wake of another stellar college basketball season — the most recent saw his team go 35-3, earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and an elite eight appearance.

And the other rite of late spring? Trouble in his program. The New York Times reported that one of his star freshmen, Eric Bledsoe of Birmingham, is the subject of an NCAA investigation focused on academic fraud in high school. The report doesn’t implicate Calipari or Kentucky . But it could spell problems down the road.

Cat Scratches reports on UK being left out of the NCAA Baseball Tournament:

That appears to indicate that a late-season collapse against the Southeastern Conference’s last-place team, Georgia, cost the Cats. UK, which had seemingly played itself into the conference tournament and NCAA Tournament in recent weeks with series wins over nationally ranked South Carolina and LSU (which won the national title last year and this week’s SEC Tournament), dropped two of three games at Georgia on the final week of the regular season, including a 20-0 loss.

Continue reading ‘BBL: Is Orton overhyped? More Bledsoe reaction’

SEC links for Tuesday:

• Texas could mean jackpot to a super-sized SEC, writes John Adams of the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
• Alabama quarterback Star Jackson is transferring to Georgia State, reports Gentry Estes of the Mobile Press-Register.
• Estes also reports that Alabama basketball player Demetrius Jemison is transferring from the Crimson Tide.
• Expansion expected to be the talk of the SEC Spring Meetings, writes Tommy Hicks of the Press-Register.
• SEC Tournament champ LSU is headed to Los Angeles, reports Scott Hotard of The Advocate.
• South Carolina earns a top baseball seed, reports Neil White of The State.

Continue reading ‘SEC links: Texas would be jackpot for expanded SEC’