Kentucky's Cousins with Benefits

It's 1:33pm Eastern and this has the makings of the first full day I've gone without having anyone approach me with Eric Bledsoe 'news'. If I make it through the afternoon drive home without hearing the Afternoon Underdogs or BigEZ show talk about it, it'll be amazing and a sign of the tide changing.  

 

The national media and local press have seemingly shifted to take the side of the Cats. The story leaked but without the facts leaking behind it, much of the steam has faded.

 

But one thing I want to warn Kentucky fans of, with all the rumors about Bledsoe seeming to slow down or being somewhat (arguably) disproven, you should still keep your guard up for other accusations. The Cardinal mill is already floating Demarcus Cousins improprieties and other John Wall nonsense. Remember, just because someone says it or writes it, doesn't make it true, wait for the facts and make your own opinion.

 

So enjoy your summer, your 2010 recruiting class, and your 35 win season! Besides even with all the talk, gossip, and silliness - it could be worse - you could be a Louisville fan.

Meet the New Instant Replay Poster Child

Not really sure where to begin. I'm not sure whether I should feel sorry for Tiger's pitcher Armando Galarraga, feel sorry for umpire Jim Joyce, or feel angry towards MLB for holding up a ridiculous rule for the past ten or so years. In case you missed it, Galarraga hustled to cover first base to make the 27th out in what should have been his perfect game, beating the base runner by half a step. He even began to celebrate, but it was cut short when he saw first base umpire Jim Joyce hold up the safe sign. Galarraga surprisingly kept his cool while others from the Tigers' bench gave Joyce a piece of their minds.

Fast forward to after the game. Joyce admitted that he blew the call. He even apologized to Galarraga for blowing the call (sort of, I never actually heard "I'm sorry"). I'm not mad at Joyce. He admitted that he blew the call. Umpires make mistakes, sometimes at really bad times. From his angle he thought that the base runner beat the throw, however the cameras disagreed. I've heard a lot of stupid things said over the past hour, like "If an umpire called him safe then he is safe." Apparently umpires are more infallible than the pope.

Hopefully Galarraga's stolen perfect game and Joyce's bad call can act as a catalyst to get instant replay put in baseball. Let balls and strikes be, but lets take a second look at tags, force outs, and foul balls. Take some pressure off the umpires. Don't rob a pitcher of a perfect game again.

White Suits, Black Suits, and Law Suits!

So in the spirit of Eric Bledsoe potentially suing Ricky Jr 3 Stacks Pitino, a woman was hit by a car and is suing.

Unlike Bledsoe who could potentially have a case directly related to 3 Stacks, the woman is not suing the driver of the car she stepped out in front of. She has decided to go for $100,000 from ...Google.

The woman was using Google's walking directions on her Blackberry, walked across a highway as directed, and is blaming the internet Giant for faulty information.

NOTE: Don't go suing SportsThat for Boogiewoogie's faulty information he post on this site. Sue KSR - that's where he gets it anyways...

3 Stacks Attacks

Welcome to McBledsoe's would you like fries with your 3 stacks Jr. with cheese?

As a reputable new source and having reported various rumors and UL innuendo, SportsThat would like to welcome the latest.

With news that Eric Bledsoe is looking to sue the source of the leak of his transcripts, rumors are flying as to the culprit. KSR has reported information that sources say it is a college assistant and SportsThat has compiled a list of whodunit.

Bledsoe's transcripts were given to Kentucky, Memphis, and Florida. The transcripts were also possessed by every administrator at Bledsoe's high school. Assuming Jones is correct and it is an assistant coach, let's take a look at the lineup of suspects:

Kentucky Assistants:
Motive: Ok, I can seriously strike all UK assistants. Most assistant coaches get turned over faster than a Edgar Sosa lead basketball team in the half court. Why would they bite the hand that feeds them? If Cal is gone, which a Bledsoe story could cause, their jobs are as well.
Opportunity: The Cats had the papers, but as the entire school's Athletic department seemingly tried to prove Bledsoe ineligible before the season, why would they simply turn over his transcripts now when they fought to prove him ineligible before, finding he was eligible, and then playing him?

Glynn Cyprien: Memphis (via Kentucky):
Motive: This could be the ultimate Billy Gillispie white glove, I challenge thee to a duel, slap in the face. With BCG out of Lexington, and Cyprien out with him, he wants to take down the program he worked for. If you can take down a kid that many felt you should be coaching this year, even better.
Opportunity: Memphis was one of the final schools for Bledsoe when he was deciding. Cyprien would have had all the details and coupled with a stunning motive, it could happen.

Richard "3 Stacks Jr" Pitino: Florida (via Louisville):
Motive: Your dad just got reamed by the Cats in recruiting. You just found Brandon Knight pack his Florida bags for the Bluegrass. Kentucky is The program again in the SEC East and SEC.
Opportunity: Florida would have received Bledsoe's transcripts during their recruitment. 3 stacks was at Florida and had access to those scores. If you throw in some prodding by daddy stacks and buddy Billy D, he might just be persuaded to do so.


Thus, the story is drilled down to Cyprien and 3 Stacks. If things do come out that 3 Stacks was the source - expect the rivalry to grow exponentially between Louisville and Florida. If it is found out that it was Cyprien, the Billy Clyde era will become even more hated.

It continues to suck to be Antoine Walker

Things are only getting worse for former NBA/University of Kentucky star Antoine Walker. There is a court date set in Las Vegas for Walker to appear in order to hear charges of not paying $900,000 in debts to three casinos.

These are felony bad check charges and Walker could be looking at substantial prison time. The former NBA All-Star is now working one on one with Louisville coach Rick Pitino (not like that, get your minds out of the gutters) in order to get back into the NBA. He needs another shot at the pros in order to earn some money, pay back his debts and avoid going to jail.

Mr. Walker should consider himself lucky. If this was happening in Las Vegas in the 6o's he would have been beaten to death with a baseball bat and then buried in the middle of the desert never to be found again just like Joe Pesci in Casino.

Oh yeah...Spoiler Alert!

The Boogiewoogie take on the Bledsoe Situation

As I clicked on all of the news websites today they were full of doom and dread: the BP oil spill is getting worse, Iran has enough enriched uranium for two nuclear weapons, Israel is going toe to toe with the UN over the deaths of pro-Palestinian activists, Al and Tipper Gore are getting a divorce, etc... I could write an article on any of those subjects but since this is a sports website I have to focus on the biggest story hitting the University of Kentcuky...Bledsoegate.

I have personally held off from doing a story about this for a couple of reasons. 1). I was really busy enjoying my Memorial Day weekend and 2). I didn't want to jump the gun before more facts came in. Now that I know more about what is going on I feel like I can comfortably state my thoughts and my position.

I am not going to bore you with the facts and details, I am sure you have read them all by now. What I am going to focus on here is that the NCAA has a broken system and it needs to be fixed. All of the Kentcuky/Calipari haters are having a field day with this (UofL fans, Pat Forde, Dana O'Neil to name a few) even though the University or Cal have not been implicated in any wrong doing other than having Bledsoe on the team. The fact that Bledsoe was on the team was cleared by the NCAA in an exhaustive investigation of his status before he was officially a member of the team.

If the NCAA cannot tie Calipari or the University of Kentucky to any of these allegations, then that institution should not have a leg to stand on. But, as Monster Mash pointed out in his earlier post, that is not the case with the NCAA. The NCAA is like a cartel and makes up their own rules as they go along, depending on the team in question.

Corey Maggette was found to have taken cash from a summer basketball coach and took money from agents. He played for Duke and they were not penalized for anything. He should have been ruled ineligible and Duke should have had to forfeit any games that he played for them. That didn't happen. Coach K and Duke are untouchable and the NCAA will not penalize their golden program. They went to the Final Four in 1999 when Maggette was there and that Final Four was not vacated.

What about Ohio State and Maurice Calrett? The former OSU superstar running back claimed that boosters and coach Jim Tressell provided him and his brother with cars, cash, jobs they didn't have to show up to and many other illegal benefits that Ohio State was never made to answer for. He won a national championship with the Buckeyes and that still stands.

And how many years has it taken the NCAA to act on the Reggie Bush scandal? This story broke in 2005 and we are now in 2010 and there still hasn't been any penalties lobbed at USC. Bush's parents were living in a multi-million dollar home while Bush played for the Trojans, Bush also received personal money, clothes and a car. He still has his 2005 Heisman and USC still has their 2004 national title. I suspect USC will get a slap on the wrist.

Then there is O.J. Mayo. He was accused of and admitted to taking over $50,000 dollars in improper benefits and USC was able to "self-impose" sanctions and the NCAA is going to rule on Friday whether or not anything more will be done. Stay posted for that one.

What does all of this tell us? It tells us that the NCAA plays by its own rules, shows no fairness, shows no continuity and is as crooked at the politics coming out of the city of Chicago. It took the NCAA a few short months to rule on the Derrick Rose situation, what about the previously mentioned transgressions? It has taken years for some while others were just swept under the rug.

If Eric Bledsoe's alleged transgressions are proven then it is going to be interesting to see how the NCAA reacts to the facts that UK or Calipari had absolutely nothing to do with this. Also, how will it look if the NCAA penalizes a kid, a University and his family for somebody reaching out and being a good Samaritan? Bledsoe's coach did nothing more than try and help out a family that was too poor to pay rent for a $400 a month apartment. But it's OK that Reggie Bush's parents had a million dollar beach front pad while their son was scoring touchdowns.

I think a fair penalty would be for Bledsoe and his coach to pay some type of fine. This way none of the kids on Bledsoe's team are penalized and it shows that Kentucky and Calipari committed no wrong doing in this situation. But this is not how the NCAA works. Fairness is not in their vocabulary. There needs to be an investigation into the inner workings of this organization and a report on how and why they rule on specific situations.

I encourage you to read the links above to give you a full scale view of the unfairness and the crooked nature of the NCAA.

An embargo lifted on Eric Bledsoe Story

So because the Eric Bledsoe story broke on the Friday night of Memorial Day weekend - a weekend where writers were on vacation, readers were lake/river/pool side - the story is finally reaching the full caliber of speculation today. So I am lifting my bad on goods from crappy sources and wanted to give another piece on the issue.


Eric Crawford of the Courier-Journal made a point to shed some light after his weekend analysis and stint away from the city.

Crawford's examination and subsequent conclusion of the potential investigation of Bledsoe's eligibility and improper benefits is exactly the point every fan should know. Conclusions can't be drawn on this investigation. You are dealing with the NCAA. The NCAA can do whatever they want. There are no 'rules' for punishment, the governing body has no precedent despite previous offenses of the same caliber, and they seem to make it up as they go.

The CJ's writer brings up a perfect analogy for this issue. The Marvin Stone eligibility of 2003. The NCAA investigated in February of Stone's senior season and during it Stone was benched. The investigation dragged out until Conference USA tournament, where the Cards wanted proof or at least word that the NCAA would be making a ruling. Neither was granted - and the Cards played Stone and nothing was ever said about the situation again.

For some reason the National media didn't blame Rick Pitino or Tubby Smith, the New York Times didn't fly investigators to Kentucky for details. This issue didn't involve John Calipari - so it didn't involve much fuss - and ultimately nothing transpired.

However, a similar issue with eligibility arose during the Derrick Rose situation last season. The NCAA investigated during the season, failed to tell Memphis. Rose played and those games he played were later forfeited.

The teams, writers, and fans involved in each story expected totally different outcomes based on prior rulings of the NCAA. What the writers and fans don't realize is that each case is 'evaluated' differently and thus the ruling or lack-there-of is different.

So when we look at Kentucky's Eric Bledsoe situation, you have to wait to cast your own ruling. Only the NCAA knows if they will actually even make a ruling. At this point, only the NCAA knows if they have even investigated. But you can't worry, cast blame, and do everything else every Kentucky fan and rival are doing at the moment.

We'll see what happens when it happens.