John Calipari “The Coach Of Suspicion”

Think top coaches in college basketball and a few names come to mind, Rick Pitino, Jim Calhoun , Mike Krzyzewski, Tom Izzo, Roy Williams, and John Calipari. Now all of these coaches have had much success in college basketball.

Looking at the list I see some names are already in the hall of fame and a few others that surely will be. However, the question mark remains John Calipari. 

Coach Calipari has the resume that is knocking on the door  to be a hall of famer but does he have the reputation to be one. As it stands right now there is no other coach in college basketball that has the type of cloud hovering over them as does John Calapari.

The other coaches mentioned remind us of the greats of the past. The former inductees into the college basketball hall of fame included such names as Dean Smith and John Wooden.

The names John Wooden and Dean Smith are a few that set the standard to which all other potential hall of famers are measured against. No doubt we will see many coaches make the hall of fame that are not stat worthy of those before, but they must show equal character, determination, and a coaching ability that is equal to those hall of famers that have come before.

The numbers of John Wooden 620 victory’s to only 147 losses, 10 national championships and a life time winning percentage that nears 80 percent. It is my belief that we will never witness winning of this type of magnitude ever again.

However we will have those coaches that will reach certain summits and will be included to the Hall of Fame. What about a coach that is stripped of a final four and possibly another final four along with the most wins in a single season ever? Would this coach be admitted to the hall of fame with these atrocities following him? Of course you all know this coach by the name of John Calipari.

His record and ability to turn around programs and make small programs into national powers is unquestionable. The success John Calipari had at UMASS and Memphis is astonishing and could only be accomplished by a few coaches, or perhaps just one. The question  of how he does this is often asked.

Accusations of cheating is often spouted towards him by people that oppose John Calipari. However the fact remains that John Calipari has never been cited by the NCAA with major violations. However some believe he is guilty by association.John Calipari is a true lifelong coach. He started out as an assistant at the University of Kansas, after this he did a brief stint as an assistant at the University of Pittsburg.

In the late 80’s coach Calipari took over the head basketball coach position at the University of Massachusetts, it is here where the controversy began. He took over a UMASS team that had a losing record for over ten years,  the trend would continue under John Calipari for only one season.

In fact coach Calipari had four 20 win seasons, and two 30 win seasons; leading up to the climax in 1996 when UMASS finished 35-2 and a trip to the final four. Much of that year’s success was contributed to Marcus Camby, the star of the minutemen. It was found that Marcus Camby had received illegal gifts of jewelry and cash from an agent. The total value was believed to be around eight thousand dollars.

The NCAA hit UMASS hard that year and forced the university to repay over 150,000 dollars that it received from the NCAA for playing in the NCAA tournament, but the biggest penalty was when the University of Massachusetts was forced to forfeit their tournament appearance meaning Coach John Calapari officially never coached a team in the final four, but he would return.

The NCAA found that coach Calipari had no knowledge of the events and was not held responsible for the situation that occurred. This did not sit well with many people, they felt that John Calipari knew about the situation and that at the very lest he should be guilty by association.

Shortly after the 1996 season coach Calipari would take his coaching skill to the NBA for three seasons before returning to coach the Memphis Tigers.   During Johns Calipari’s years in Memphis he enjoyed much of the same success he had at UMASS but here he would take it to a whole different level. Here John Calipari would work his magic once again and turn around the Memphis tigers, making them a national power. During the eighties Memphis was struck with NCAA sanctions and this would plague them until the arrival of John Calipari.

In coach Calipari’s second season Memphis would win the NIT and all those around college basketball knew that coach Calipari was bringing another smaller school to a national power. The Calipari era would climax in 2008 when Memphis reached the NCAA championship game, and also would set the all time single season win mark with 38 victories.

However allegations would soon follow. In April of 2009 we learned that the NCAA was investigating the Athletic Department at the University of Memphis. The NCAA accused that star point guard from the Memphis basketball team in 2007-2008, Derrick Rose of allowing another individual to take the SAT he submitted to become eligible.

There is a possibility that the University of Memphis will be forced to pay back money earned from the NCAA tournament and be forced to forfeit the 2007-2008 season. Which would mean John Calipari would have to vacate his second final four and also the record for the most single season win mark.

However the NCAA has claimed that coach Calipari is at no fault, and is in no danger of being disciplined by the NCAA.  But you cannot tell that to those who oppose John Calipari, they use this as another example to support their claim that John Calipari is a cheater.

We all have known somebody in our life time that is able to get away with anything. When it appears  the hammer is about to fall they pull out a Harry Houdini maneuver and escape every time. Is this John Calipari or is he truly just doing his job and his critics are wrong?

When investigating this matter one needs to be unbiased as possible, and think it through clearly. I believe certain questions should be asked, like is there a point in which circumstantial evidence should pose enough merit to charge someone with violations? I would say the answer is no.  When judging certain issues one cannot work on circumstance, but can only judge fairly when they stick to the facts they have.

However if a coach allows certain individual characters to be around the program, then some blame should be placed on the coach. I have heard rumors that John Calipari associates with certain agents and allows the agents to be around his program, an accusation that John Calipari has denied.

John Calipari does acknowledge he has some people of this nature as friends, but holds to the claim that they do not associate with any players at any time during their playing time in college.

I believe you cannot hold coach Calipari’s associates against him, he has never been accused of cheating when it comes to bringing in recruits, however some suspense has arose of late. John Calipari has in recent years become the premier recruiter in the world of college basketball.

The recruiting classes he brings in top the charts, the last few season’s John Calipari has sent two point guards into the NBA lottery, one which is Derrick Rose. Many are now suspecting that John is cheating when it comes to recruiting.

This theory has one major problem for me, there does not exist any hard evidence, once again it is pure speculation. Have those who accuse John Calipari of cheating ever considered the fact that he may just be really good at his job. John Calipari is a business man, we have all seen his television commercials and book deals. Maybe this is part of his misrepresentation, traditionally college has tried to keep commercialization away from college athletics.

Being a pioneer coach Calipari has embraced it, using it as a tool to better his job , by enhancing his image. If you want to know why coach Calipari receives commitments from top recruits, maybe your search should start here.

Once again I will state that John Calipari is a man of suspicion but also a man of no conviction. To those who oppose coach Calipari I can see your point, because it is impossible to be one of the best unless you cheat, right? 

It is a simple fact in American society, if you succeeded in doing something well, then you must have cheated along the way. I am sorry I see no bases for this premise, sure some people do cheat but not everyone.

I admit I use to be an accuser of John Calipari, but after the 2008 season I revaluated his situation. I come to this realization when discussing college basketball with a friend. I thought what about if his success was truly the product of a man with good business skill, simply put he he was just pushing the right buttons better than anyone else.

I then thought about the evidence and then came to the conclusion that it is unfair for anybody to be prosecuted on pure hearsay. Maybe I thought, jealousy was playing a bigger role in people accusing coach Calipari then evidence was.

We should all concede that it is impossible to monitor a basketball team 24/7. People will always approach players of high ability, but it is the player’s responsibility to remove themselves from the situation not the coach; college players are adults.

Given that John Calipari has a vacated final four and perhaps another one soon to be added to the list, he will one day  be placed in the college basketball hall of fame. I do admit the work is not done for coach Calipari, he is lacking a key ingredient to being accepted into the hall of fame. Coach Calipari has never won a NCAA championship, but given his track record it is not a question about if he will win a championship, but how many.

Sources:

UMASS Athletics (http://www.umassathletics.com)

Memphis Athletics (http://www.gotigersgo.com/)

New York Times(http://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/09/sports/umass-and-uconn-lose-96-honors.html)

The Naismith Hall of Fame (http://www.hoophall.com/hall-of-famers-index/)