Earlier this offseason, Kentucky coach John Calipari used his bright media spotlight to take a dig at Duke during the battle for five-star big man Marques Bolden. Calipari's back in the headlines again this week thanks to an unfiltered take, this time offered in a radio interview with Mike Lupica.
Calipari is taking aim at the idea that coaches don't know about NCAA violations on their campus. You may chuckle at the comment given past his NCAA issues at UMass and Memphis, but Cal is sure to draw a line between violations that happen on campus and ones that occur elsewhere. Conveniently, Cal is limiting his allegation of "coaches always know" to on-campus violations.
"All I can tell you is this: If it happens on your campus and it happens with your assistants and those people, you probably have a good idea of what's going on," Calipari said. "It happens back in their hometown, it happens back with their family ... there's no way you can know. You just can't know. All I can say is most coaches have an idea if it happened on their campus. You might not be the first to know about it but you eventually hear about it."
And as for Cal and the NCAA? He says the organization has "lost its way" and doesn't seem to care what kind of consequences might comes from these comments.
"My life, even as a college student, has all been through the NCAA, and I'm telling you there's so much good that comes out of it," he said. "We have lost our way. They have lost their way. That's all I've been saying. And everybody's mad at me and I'm the worst guy in the world and I'm fine with that. I'm at that age where I really don't care what you think."
Calipari didn't mention any schools or coaches by name, but it doesn't take much time to zoom out and find an example of that situation. Louisville is currently in the middle of an NCAA investigation for a sex scandal that involved on-campus parties with escorts and dancers, arranged by a former Rick Pitino staffer. Pitino has vehemently denied any knowledge of the violations and the investigation process has already led to the school self-imposing a postseason ban for 2015-16.
