If you haven't heard, according to the NY Times article above Eric Bledsoe's elgibility is being investigated.
I'm seeing a lot of UK fans starting to panic on this. I don't think we are at that point, maybe something will come out that would be worth getting nervous over...but of course something bad could come out about any of our guys...doesn't mean we should panic just because of that possibility...
So why is this not worth getting all up in arms over?
1) Bledsoe has already been investigated by NCAA...it took forever for him to become eligible to play this season because they were looking into his grades situation. So unless something very damaging comes up now, that wasn't there before...then the NCAA will find what they already knew.
2) Bledsoe had a tough home life and had legit reasons on wanting to leave, there is nothing shady about him wanting to get out of that situation...
3) The article doesn't show any signs of potential evidence coming out. The unnamed coach did not say something like "I have a taped conversation where the coach said we had to pay to get him." Same with the paying rent story...no statement of "I have signed checks from Bledsoe's coach for the rent..." He apparently always paid in cash...
4) It is well known that Bledsoe's hs coach openly didn't want Bledsoe going to UK because he thought he would play behind Wall, didn't see them coexisting. Not words from a coach getting paid by UK...
I'm not saying Bledsoe did or didn't do anything wrong, anywhere not directly involved in the situation can't say this. What I am saying is, I'm not seeing "the smoking gun" or anything that makes me overly concerned at this point. These rumors have been out there a long time and it is just not making it to the public cirlce. I told everyone who ever brought this up to me, to nip it in the bud because these things only hurt UK by spreading around.
What does scare me though is with the revolving door at UK, all the turnover because of guys going pro early...will this make it inevitable for UK to get in trouble? The more apples you pick, the greater chance you will find one with a worm in it. The more players bouncing at UK for one or two years, the better chance we will get someone who cheated to get there, even if Cal and the staff was unaware.
There is no perfect anwser. If you want to win titles in this generation you have to bring in top talent but Duke showed us this year the importance of experience...this is why Cal would love to see a 2 year rule. UK would still get the top talent that wants to go to college but he wouldn't have to deal with the one and dones.
Well said!!
ReplyDeleteAs to point one, remember 'strict liability' means even if the NCAA finds a player ineligible, they can vacate games after the fact (Derrick Rose case). So even if UK is in the clear, they're still not in the clear...
ReplyDeleteThat 'strict liability' case was a poor standard for the NCAA to make.
Point 1 isn't saying that Bledsoe is in the clear because he has already been investigated by the NCAA but that the NCAA will have to find more then they did then. They clearly couldn't find enough before they wouldn't have made him eligible in the first place.
ReplyDeleteThe Rose situation changed because his SAT scores were deemed invalid by SAT. It wasn't as if NCAA just cleared him and then later used the exact same material to claim he wasn't cleared.
Even if the landlord was paid in cash, there would be a ledger and documentation of payment. Where is this documentation? Are we seriously supposed to believe a landlord that can't/doesn't keep financial records?
ReplyDeleteAlso, the NCAA has clearly had Bledsoe's transcripts since they looked into grades the first time. Why on Earth would the NCAA suddenly need to travel to Alabama to get them again? First, if the NCAA actually needed the transcript again, why wouldn't they just request them in the mail? It just seems fishy that the "NCAA" traveled all the way to Alabama to get the transcripts that they've already had for almost a year as of February??? Could it be possible that the NCAA wasn't actually in Alabama? Could it be possible that the "NCAA" investigators were actually NY Times investigators?