UK’s Violations Are Small, But The Circumstantial Evidence Against Calipari Is Not

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Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari has a new book out.  It’s called “Bounce Back” and it deals with how he’s bounced back from adversity in his life.

In it, he makes it clear that he’s become used to criticism.  How could he not?

If you’d asked a UK fan about Calipari while he was still walking the sideline at Memphis, you’d have probably heard the word “dirty” mentioned. 

But now that he’s the Cats’ coach, you’ll hear only that he’s a target for rival fans and media who are jealous of his success.  He’s a victim, really.

Such is the nature of fandom.  If Calipari had landed in Gainesville, Baton Rouge or Knoxville, those fanbases would defend him as well.

But here’s the problem with the “jealousy” defense: it’s always Calipari that’s in trouble, not other big winners.

Do you recall anyone calling Dean Smith a scalawag?  Has Mike Krzyzewski been branded a scofflaw? 

Heck, Bobby Knight was viewed — and rightly so — as a boorish bully, but cheating was never discussed.

Calipari’s name has been besmirched not out of jealousy but out of awareness.

Where Calipari goes, trouble follows.  UMass.  Memphis.  And now Kentucky.



The Wildcats have had to turn themselves in for three secondary violations of NCAA rules.  In itself, that’s no big deal.  All schools commit secondary violations. 

But let’s take a little deeper look at one violation in particular.

Over the summer, former UK basketball administrative assistant Bilal Batley “shagged rebounds” for a current Wildcat player.  He also asked the player to shoot from particular spots on the floor.

A person in Batley’s role is not supposed to interact with players in such a manner.  Blah, blah, small potatoes.

But here’s the interesting part: Batley had previously worked for three programs that had all been found guilty of major NCAA violations… before arriving at UK. 

He followed Kelvin Sampson from Oklahoma (violations) to Indiana (violations) and then he jumped to Memphis (violations) under Calipari.

This past spring, he followed Coach Cal to Kentucky.

He has already resigned his post at UK due to an illness in his family that required him to move to Houston.



Does this mean that a former student manager and administrative assistant was the criminal mastermind behind the issues that brought down Oklahoma, Indiana and Memphis?  Probably not.

But it can certainly be considered circumstantial evidence.  And that’s the rub with Calipari.

Calipari is buried so deep in circumstantial evidence that Robert Shapiro and Barry Scheck couldn’t dig the guy out.

UMass lost a Final Four season?

Well, Coach Cal never noticed that Marcus Camby had all kinds of extra spending cash.

Memphis lost a Final Four season?

Well, Coach Cal didn’t notice that Derrick Rose had gotten a nice bounce on his standardized test scores.

Someone hired a guy at UK who had worked for three NCAA-spanked programs?

Well, Coach Cal knew him to be clean.



Look, maybe Calipari is clean.  Maybe he has gotten a bad wrap.

But if so, it’s not because of jealousy.  It’s because wherever Calipari goes… questions arise. 

Questions like: “Doesn’t it seem odd that this staffer had worked for three programs that had all been taken out behind the NCAA woodshed?”

And that’s not being anti-Calipari.  That’s asking an honest question.

Kentucky fans should get used to folks asking questions about their coach.  It happens wherever he goes.

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