New York Times: NCAA Investigating Eric Bledsoe

Well, this isn’t the way I wanted to start my Memorial Day Weekend. The New York Times is reporting that the NCAA is conducting an investigation into Eric Bledsoe’s academic credentials.

As you’ll remember, Bledsoe was an academic question mark from the second that UK started recruiting him when Billy Gillispie was the head man. However, Bledsoe was cleared by the NCAA Clearinghouse (just like…gulp…Derrick Rose) and was allowed to play at Kentucky.

The NCAA does not openly comment on cases currently being investigated, but reportedly, there are questions regarding Bledsoe’s jump from a 1.9 GPA entering his senior year to 2.5, allowing him to qualify. Bledsoe transferred to Parker High School for his senior season to play for coach Maurice Ford, who is also subject to investigation for potentially paying Bledsoe’s mother’s rent for a three month period, an impermissable benefit which would affect Bledsoe’s eligibility. Additionally, Bledsoe’s coach reportedly wanted payment from whatever university landed him.

I don’t think I have to tell you, but none of this is good news. Unfortunately, it sounds an awful lot like cases faced by Calipari coached teams at Memphis and Massachusetts, cases in which players were cleared by the NCAA for competition, but later determined to be ineligible, thereby nullifying the team’s wins that season.

In the Derrick Rose case, it was an illegitimate SAT score. In the Marcus Camby case, it was illegal benefits paid by an agent.

If these investigations lead to proof of some improprieties, UK is likely facing a best case scenario of losing some or all of last year’s 35 victories. The worst case would be if John Calipari or some Kentucky representative is shown to have some awareness or role in the situation, which could result in probation.

I’m not panicking by any means, because there is a great deal of information still to be gathered, but this is the kind of news I think we’ve all had in the back of our heads and hoped would never materialize. John Calipari has never done anything wrong by the NCAA, but his players and people around them have. The fact that multiple situations like this have popped up is a very troubling trend, one that I hoped would stop when Calipari arrived at UK because he no longer needed to recruit marginal prospects and because of UK’s superior support staff.

Another nice little thought going around among national writers in particular tonight is the idea that this story explains the rumors that John Calipari is interested in the NBA this off-season. I don’t know what to believe or not, but this is something that takes me to dark places when I consider the possibility.

Like I said, there is a lot to play out here and this will certainly not be the last we hear of this. We’ll be on top of it.

**UPDATE**Matt May of Cat’s Pause is reporting that a source at UK says the school has received no notice from the NCAA regarding the investigation and had no prior knowledge of any such investigation. Well, they do now.