Miz pointed out in TMA this morning that Memphis may be forced to forfeit the greatest season in school history, which included a Conference-USA Championship, 38 wins, a Final Four appearance, and a National Title Game appearance.   There are a few allegations that have been under investigations in recent months, the most heinous being that someone else took Derrick Rose’s SAT. Kinda a big deal when the best player on your team is not supposed to be playing.  There are other infractions that are included as to why such a stiff penalty would be issued.  It remains to be seen if any other infractions would be imposed, such as a postseason ban.  If the NCAA would really like to send a message that they aren’t a joke, they would do that as well.  Vacating a season where a team didn’t win a title is not that big of a deal, and the program doesn’t truly suffer from it. Yes, they do lose the revenue they received from the Final Four, but that is the extent of it.

Who really gets away with what happened?  Well, Derrick Rose and John Calipari.

How many of you look down on Marcus Camby as an individual?  He took money from agents while at UMass (AHEM! *COUGH*COUGH*AHEM! Also coached by Calipari), therefore negating the Minutemen’s one and only Final Four appearance.  Now Camby actually paid the university back the money they lost due to what happened, and the university has also refused to take down their banner, since the school claims it was not involved in the infraction.  Will Rose pay money back?  Maybe, maybe not.  Either way, nobody will care.  He won’t really hurt an NBA franchise, so whatever legacy he sets for himself on the court in Chicago is how he will be remembered.

The other person, former coach John Calipari once again avoids suffering any kind of penalty.  Like we subtlety hinted above, he was the coach at UMass when Camby was caught taking money from the agents, but got out of town before that came to light.  Just months before the NCAA openly announced their investigation on Memphis, he accepted a job a the University of Kentucky.  Hmmmmm.  Bloggers, readers, fans, people with a heart and a lick of morals don’t trust Calipari. They see a snake when he is interviewed.  They see a man who cannot be trusted.  So even though Kentucky is excited about the hire of Calipari – because his teams do win - and because he brought big time recruits with him, they also know that dirtiness usually comes with it.  Kentucky can only hope that nobody gets caught with their pants down while Calipari is there.  Of course, if he suddenly jumps ship in 2-3 years, don’t be surprised to see Kentucky facing the death penalty that they skirted just before they hired the second biggest snake in the state of Kentucky.

UPDATE: Memphis has also been hit with a 3 year probation to go along with vacating all 38 wins.

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