C.M. Newton defends UK's handling of Kanter, Bledsoe

C.M. Newton defends UK's handling of Kanter, Bledsoe

Jerry Tipton

When David Roselle presided over the clean-up of Kentucky basketball in the late 1980s, he suggested that breaking rules did not need to happen here. UK basketball's exalted position made cheating unnecessary, he said. Many inherent advantages — 24,000 at home games, regular national television exposure, winning tradition — trumped the need to cut corners, push the envelop, operate outside the box or any other euphemism a person might prefer.

C.M. Newton, the man Roselle hired as UK athletics director to breathe life into this kind of thinking, uses the term "gray area" to connote, shall we say, a liberal interpretation of rules.

When asked last week if he subscribed to Roselle's view that sports dynasties did not need to cheat, Newton said, "But everybody operates in the gray area now."

Newton, the featured guest as Georgetown College launched a "Conversations with Champions" series on Thursday, said the changing nature of college athletics made for a different reality.

"I think the coaches are no longer (interested) in the spirit and intent of rules," he said. "They're interested in knowing how far can we go."

UK, which awaits judgment on two high-profile cases, remains a daredevil. The NCAA must decide if Enes Kanter, whose professional past in his native Turkey scared off several prep school coaches a year ago, can be eligible. And the Birmingham (Ala.) City Schools hired attorneys to judge the validity of news reports that raised serious questions about the academic transcript of former UK guard Eric Bledsoe.

If the NCAA rules Kanter ineligible, it's a significant setback for Kentucky this coming season. If the soon-to-be-released Birmingham City Schools report validates news reports, Bledsoe could be ruled ineligible retroactively and UK would face the possibility of vacating last season's 35 victories. Of course, the latter would mean UK loses the distinction of being the first program to amass 2,000 victories. Already a joke circulating has this coming season's slogan being UK2K2.

"I don't view it as being embarrassing," Newton said of those pending cases, "and I'll tell you why. Everybody else recruited those kids, too."

Kanter originally committed to Washington. Newton, who sat on the FIBA board of directors for 16 years, noted that club teams are a foreign concept figuratively as well as literally. So The New York Times report of the Turkish team Fenerbahce Ulker paying Kanter and his family between $100,000 and $150,000 for living expenses over a three-year period might not necessarily fit into our concept of a salary of excessive expenses, Newton said.

As for Bledsoe, Newton voiced a familiar lament: That the NCAA's Eligibility Center ruled the player eligible, so it's not fair to hold a program accountable after the season.

That's what happened when the NCAA ruled Derrick Rose ineligible and ordered John Calipari-coached Memphis to vacate its 38 victories and Final Four appearance of 2007-08.

"The NCAA was dead wrong," Newton said, "to come back a year later and take whatever action they took."

But, the NCAA asks, what should it do if new information surfaces in the interim?

"Then they better be sure of their information in the first place," Newton said. "Jeez-so, Pete."

Big Blue is watching ...

With reports last week of U of L's new KFC Yum! Center facing financial difficulties, the Herald-Leader's editorial page wondered if UK was taking notes.

UK was.

"Clearly, we'd want to watch how others financed it or how those packages were put together," UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart said, "to make sure we don't trip and cause a problem for the city of Lexington or the University of Kentucky or the citizens of our area."

Of course, UK is considering a new arena that would be financed by the revenue it generates.


Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2010/09/19/1440675/uk-notebook-cm-newton-defends.html#ixzz106Ho8g6f