CHICAGO — In a letter dated April 27, 2009, the director of the NCAA Committees on Infractions told University of Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari that he is not considered “at risk” in the major NCAA violations alleged at Memphis during his time as the head coach there.
The Courier-Journal acquired a copy of the letter from UK via the Freedom of Information Act.
In the letter, which requests Calipari’s presence at an NCAA hearing regarding the alleged violations at Memphis, Shepard B. Cooper, the director for the Committees on Infractions, wrote: “The committee wishes to make it clear that you are not considered ‘at risk’ in these proceedings. However, because you were the head men’s basketball coach at Memphis during the time alleged NCAA violations occurred, the committee believes that you can provide helpful information and useful context that would assist the committee in better understanding this case.”
In a letter of response, Calipari notified the NCAA that he will be unable to attend due to a scheduled trip to China.
In a response to that letter, the NCAA’s Paul T. Dee, an educator professor in law and education, wrote that “after reviewing the information in this case, the committee now, more strongly than ever, believes that you should make yourself available to participate in the hearing in some manner.”
The letter continues, “As stated in Mr. Cooper’s letter, you are not alleged to have committed NCAA violations and thus are not considered to be ‘at risk’ in these proceedings. However, the committee is interested in hearing your views on the issues related to (name redacted).”
In another response, Calipari wrote that he is “very willing to cooperate with the committee and provide my views on the issues involved in this case.” Calipari wrote that he would be willing to participate via telephone.
This is more proof that Kentucky fans need not worry about anything else than their coach’s reputation as the NCAA investigates possible violations at Memphis. However, the NCAA is trying to make Calipari cancel his long scheduled trip to China, which will be a very productive one, to attend the hearing in Indianapolis. John Calipari has no intention of doing so.
6 Responses to “C-J: NCAA says Calipari not “at risk””
again… amazing. this sight lends more to the fact that blog sites are nothing more than incoherent babble. the NCAA is not trying to make john calipari “cancel” his trip. they said he could either attend in person, or be present via conference call or video conference… get the facts straight. also, if the writers of this blog think that the NCAA believes that calipari is clear of any wrong doing, why are they so adimant that he be present in some form for these meetings? this could be possibly the second final four that a school he had tenure be made to vacate their wins and NCAA appearance. this is not just a Memphis issue as your university has so elloquently stated. per NCAA regulations, the scores and transcripts are submitted to the NCAA clearinghouse. Obviously the NCAA cleared the athlete prior to any University knowledge of this incident. Calipari will more than likely be questioned based on his involvement with the recruiting of the athlete, since at that time he was the lead recruiter of Derrick Rose, and what he knew of the situation. it’s ashame that people who read your site have more insite than the people posting these stories. also being that i am not a memphis or kentucky fan, and having an outside view of all this, from a national sentiment that I am seeing, Kentucky’s image will suffer more this incident that memphis as it already seems the MINOR basketball violations that were lumped in with the MAJOR womens golf violations have already been addressed by memphis. it seems as the money issues were a clerical oversight by either the NCAA or memphis as money has already been shown paid to the university from other trips and the SAT issue seems to be more of what did the coach know or staff know rather than the university as they deal solely with the clearinghouse.
either way, this is another knock on an already dirty image that calipari has established. i get my daily humor reading your site and the way you try and spin potentially bad issues facing kentucky into it’s all someone else’s fault or the world just hates kentucky. if you look, eddie sutton was never fully implicated in the situations that arose from illegal recruiting practices yet the fallout from that issue lead to sutton’s firing and MAJOR penalties from the NCAA. when will your administration figure out that it’s better to play right and by the rules than to deal with slime like calipari and face potentially irreversible damage from NCAA sanctions because of his recruiting practices. guess winning means more in kentucky than being an elite power with a clean history
Speaking of incoherent babble…
elite power with a clean history? here’s your reality check:
UK – 1988-635 .758, 7 titles, 1 postseason ban
UNC – 1984-703 .738, 5 titles, 1 postseason ban
“i get my daily humor reading your site and the way you try and spin potentially bad issues facing kentucky into it’s all someone else’s fault or the world just hates kentucky.”
This is what I call selective reading. I pretty much spelled out the exact points you make in your comment in this post, and I quote:
“When the news first broke, my emotional side came up with the unthinkable worst case scenario I spelled out a couple paragraphs ago. The best case scenario and reality revealed that John Calipari had committed no violations. Even so, this still, at best, signals a troubling trend.
Any UK fan who convinces themselves otherwise is delusional.
There stands a very good chance that John Calipari could have taken two separate schools to Final Fours…but that the NCAA will not acknowledge that either actually took place.
At best, John Calipari has surrounded himself with people and players who put his schools at risk (first Marcus Camby, now apparently it’s Derrick Rose). Maybe that is a function of going after the absolute top talent as I have heard some say. If that’s true, it’s a sad statement about amateur athletics.
There is no disputing that the eyes of the world are going to be on the Kentucky program for as long as John Calipari is coach, and beyond. That being the case, John Calipari needs to make sure he does not put himself or the UK program in harm’s way, because everyone is going to be watching.”
Also, we need to think about getting you set up as a Strait Pinkie writer: you do more writing in our comments than pretty much our entire staff!
[...] all likelihood, the only tangible thing that this investigation will cost Calipari is a few hours calling into the hearings this week while he’s in [...]
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