Looking for reasons? Memphis mess falls on Johnson's shoulders
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson was honored with a roast Thursday night, and the timing was hilarious if only because it must've been uncomfortable. As you can imagine, there was plenty of material considering the school had just released a letter from the NCAA that accused the men's basketball program of major rules violations. So there were SAT jokes and John Calipari jokes, and everybody laughed and had a good time.
But it's really not a laughing matter.
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| It's hard for new coach Josh Pastner to work with this dark cloud over his head. (US Presswire) |
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Here are three of those ways:
1. As wild as it is to believe, new Memphis coach Josh Pastner has repeatedly said he had no idea that the school had been charged with major violations when he accepted the offer to replace John Calipari, meaning Johnson never sat Pastner down and explained the details of a letter sent to Memphis nearly three months before Calipari left for Kentucky.
That's disgraceful.
A coach deserves to know what he's getting into, if only so he knows what to expect. But because Johnson never told Pastner about the details of these allegations, Pastner was never able to prepare recruits and their parents or handlers, and some of those folks are none too happy. Sources have told CBSSports.com that a few of the prospects Memphis has been recruiting feel like they've been misled. That's because Johnson didn't lead appropriately, wasn't forthcoming with the man he tabbed to keep his program afloat, all of which is now hindering Pastner's ability to do his job.
The task of replacing Calipari was going to be hard enough on its own.
Pastner didn't need his boss making it harder.
2. When it became clear that Kentucky was seriously interested in Calipari, Memphis countered with a contract worth more than the contract Kentucky offered. That was bold. But as it turns out, all the school had to do to keep Calipari was leak the NCAA letter.
It really would've been that easy.
Remember, there was a big debate about whether UK should mess with Calipari and his reputation; that was the hurdle. And though the pro-Calipari people ultimately convinced the anti-Calipari people that winning is the most important thing, that would've been an impossible task had the NCAA letter leaked then and created all the negative headlines it has created this week.
Here's a hypothetical timeline of how this could've gone down:
March 29: CBSSports.com reports that Calipari plans to talk with UK.
March 30: Memphis officials leak the NCAA letter of allegations to the the Commercial Appeal.
March 31: Kentucky, under pressure and worried about all the negative press, turns its attention to Oklahoma State's Travis Ford.
No question, that's what would've happened (give or take the Ford part). Memphis would've kept its coach, its recruiting class and had a team ranked in the top five of preseason polls, and UK would've looked elsewhere. As it is, the Tigers lost their coach, most of their recruits, and now Memphis fans will have to watch Calipari (and those recruits) be ranked No. 1 in some preseason polls while their favorite team moves along with a first-year coach, a depleted roster and NCAA violations to address while Calipari is, as he put it, "at no risk."
Honestly, could Memphis have misplayed its hand any worse?
Johnson had the trump card.
And he sat on it.
3. Again, Memphis probably should've released the letter of allegations in January, you know, when the letter arrived. Short of that, Memphis absolutely should've released the letter when Kentucky pursued Calipari, you know, to keep UK from taking its coach and some recruits. But I fully acknowledge those theories can be debated, although I'm pretty sure I could win either debate.
What can't be debated is that sitting on the letter this long was wrong.
Memphis is scheduled to appear before the NCAA next week, and yet the school seemed content to try to do it in secrecy despite the fact that it's pretty hard to meet with the NCAA and endure penalties without people knowing. That strategy backfired when the Commercial Appeal asked for the letter via a Freedom of Information Act request, which prevented Johnson from controlling the message of when and how the letter was released and left Pastner trying to recruit while the words "Memphis" and "Major Violations" appeared every 30 minutes on ESPN for the latter part of the week.
And yes, that hurts.
"Any time you have a kid that is starting his freshman year, you want him to go into a calmer setting rather than having a cloud over [his] head," Lynbert Johnson, the father of Class of 2009 standout Noel Johnson, told Scout.com's Evan Daniels on Tuesday morning upon announcing a decommitment from Southern California.
Why is this relevant, you ask?
Because Memphis was almost certainly going to be involved with Johnson.
But now Memphis has a cloud, too.
And though Memphis is unlikely to endure any harsh future penalties, it's difficult for Pastner to assure prospects of as much because the coverage of these alleged violations has been heavy, and the story remains fresh. In other words, nothing looks calm at Memphis right now. So a top 75 prospect might be off the table, and other prospects could be skeptical, and Pastner is reduced to trying to explain away things he should've been allowed to explain away a long time ago, things that should be a non-story by now.
Instead, those things are a major story right now.
A national story right now.
And I can't help but think there was a better way to go about all this.
