Bozich: "Teflon" John And UK Basketball

Rick Bozich | New chapter in the saga of Teflon John Calipari and Kentucky basketball

May 31, 2010

Louisville Courier-Journal

With John Calipari, it begins with the magic recruiting dust. He signs a string of prospects who trigger immense salivating -- guys who will smile and remind you big-time college basketball is no spelling bee

Victories quickly follow. Then a trip to the NCAA Tournament, punctuated by a loss that temporarily furrows brows. The players going to the NBA wave goodbye. Cal's posse makes certain the world knows the NBA is making eyes at him, too.

He's buddies with LeBron James, you know.

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.

This time the name to remember is Eric Bledsoe, the departed UK freshman guard from Birmingham, Ala. His itinerant high school career as well as his transcript have inspired questions from the NCAA enforcement staff, according to reports by the New York Times and ESPN.com.

The ESPN story said Bledsoe failed to receive a single "A" in any core courses during three years at Hayes High School, earning a core grade-point-average of 1.92.

Then as a senior at Parker High, Bledsoe reportedly upgraded his core GPA to 2.5, earning "As" in Algebra 2 as well as Algebra 3, a course he took at night.

If the story is accurate, it's the most clutch academic performance I can remember since Derrick Rose, coincidentally another Calipari recruit, traveled from Chicago to Detroit to retake the SAT and earn a score that made Rose eligible to play for the University of Memphis during the 2007-08 season.

Except the folks at the Educational Testing Service later ruled that Rose did not take the Detroit test that resulted in the necessary higher score. That prompted the NCAA to strip Memphis of its NCAA runner-up season and 38 victories.

That was a Calipari team that included another starter, Robert Dozier, who was denied admission to the University of Georgia because of an invalidated SAT score.The Tigers took the fall for that nonsense, losing the most glorious season in school history as well as $615,000 in NCAA Tournament revenue.

What did Teflon John take?

Nearly 14 months ago he took an eight-year, $31million contract from Kentucky, where his first team won 35of38 games. Cal's guys also delivered the worst academic performance of any UK athletic team during the fall semester with an overall GPA of 2.03, an effort they upgraded to 2.18 in the spring.

Prior to last season , UK President Dr.Lee T.Todd Jr., noted to the New York Times that the school had seven NCAA men's basketball titles. "We want more," Todd said. "And we want them to stick. And (Calipari) wants them to stick, probably more than anyone else."

UK wasn't saying anything Saturday, other than issuing a statement reminding everybody Bledsoe had been cleared to play by the NCAA Eligibility Center.

I'll call that the Derrick Rose defense. It is similar to the argument the NCAA Committee on Infractions rejected twice before punishing Memphis.

And Calipari? He's never been punished, just as he isn't named in these stories about Bledsoe. That's the way the story always unfolds with Teflon John.