(Photo John Clay)
Big Blue Links for Saturday:
Ray Ratto writes for CBS SportsLine that Bob Kngiht was a little late: “Does this invalidate his points at the Hall of Fame? No, of course not. His principles speech is always on point. It is, however, a lot like going to a meeting of a mob family and complaining about rampant lawbreaking. You’re speaking about people who long ago figured out the price of a soul and use that number when amortizing its costs, and wondering aloud why they aren’t nicer people. They’re not, and in many cases they never were. They just crossed more lines with less care for the punishment, because there is none and never has been.”
Gary Parrish of CBS SportsLine says UK fans will have to live with this: “And this is how it’s going to be forever, UK fans, and why it was clear — even before Knight said what he said — that any success Calipari has going forward will be tainted regardless of whether it’s really tainted. Until the day he retires, the majority of observers will believe, fair or not, that every recruit Calipari gets is a product of his relationship with William Wesley even if Worldwide Wes has never met the recruit. All SATs will be assumed fake even if they’re legit, all future pros will supposedly have agents even if they do not.”
Mike DeCourcy says Knight got it wrong: “Knight always contended too many in the media wrote or talked about things they didn’t know or understand. Now he has done the same. The current Kentucky coach – yes, we know his name, John Calipari – did previously work at Massachusetts and Memphis, and both of those schools wound up facing NCAA sanctions for incidents that occurred while he coached there. However, Calipari was not implicated in either circumstance.”
Geoff Calkins of the Memphis Commercial Appeal takes a different view of Knight’s comments: “Knight could talk about the way Kentucky essentially bought Memphis’ recruiting class for $32 million. He could talk about the way Calipari rigged the recruits’ letters of intent so they wouldn’t actually be bound to the school. He could point out that Calipari used that Memphis recruiting class to escape NCAA sanctions he knew were coming. He could say the things Dick Vitale and the rest don’t have the guts or objectivity to say.”
My column calling Bob Knight a washed-up bully, among other things: “Before a rapt audience Thursday night, Knight tried to make it sound as though he was the one too good for the game, when actually the game’s grown too good for him. The days of coaches abusively treating players and fans and administrators is coming to a close. Ask Mark Mangino, the former football coach at Kansas. He, too, has some time on his hands.”
Continue reading ‘BBL: Reaction to the Calipari-Knight reaction’
Pat Knight, son of Bob, coaches the Lamar Cardinals tonight against UK at Rupp Arena. That brings to mind Bob Knight’s annual on-the-floor battles with the Cats. A recap:
