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19
5-19-1989: NCAA Comes Down on Kentucky
Filed Under On This Day . . ., Commentary, NCAA Basketball, Loose Balls
Sports Illustrated.com has confirmed that the nation’s top-rated point guard John Wall has just committed to Kentucky and its new men’s basketball Head Coach John Calipari.
Wall, a 6′4” product of Raleigh, North Carolina, finalizes what should be the top recruiting class in 2009-2010.
In addition to the likely one-and-done Wall, Kentucky has the following freshman heading to Lexington in the fall:
- Eric Bledsoe, a 5-star, 6′1” point guard from Birmingham, AL;
- DeMarcus Cousins, a 5-star, 6′9” big man from Mobile, AL and original commitment to Memphis;
- Daniel Orton, a 5-star, 6′10” big man from Oklahoma City;
- John Hood, a 4-star, 6′6” shooting guard from Madisonville, KY; and
- Darnell Dodson, a 4-star, 6′7” junior college forward from Miami-Dade Community College.
With rising junior big man Patrick Patterson returning to school and rising senior scoring sensation Jodie Meeks likely to withdraw from the NBA Draft, Kentucky should be a top-five pick in the preseason.
Whether you love Calipari or hate him and think he has dirty as they come in college basketball, he has done wonders for the program since being hired on April 2nd.
In roughly six weeks, Calipari has made the rabid Lexington fan base forget about the last two disappointing seasons under misfit Head Coach Billy Gillispie.
Calipari could very well have the Wildcats in the Final Four in his first season.
While everything is smelling like roses in Lexington this morning, this was not the case 20-years ago today when the NCAA placed the men’s basketball program on 3 years of probation for various misdeeds that could have resulted in Kentucky basketball getting the death penalty.
Kentucky’s fall from grace approximately two decades ago graced the cover of Sports Illustrated and was covered in an interesting story by Curry Kirkpatrick. Give this article a read, as it’s definitely worth it not only for the history of this scandal but an interesting little piece of information on former NBA star Shawn Kemp.
In short, Kentucky was put on probation for academic fraud and alleging paying recruit Chris Mills, who would be ineligible for the school and end up transferring to Arizona before playing in the NBA.
Allegedly, then Kentucky assistant coach Dwane Casey (who would later serve as head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves and is now an assistant for the Dallas Mavericks) sent a $100 bill to Mill’s father.
Additionally, a Kentucky player by the name of Eric Manuel was found during the NCAA investigation to have cheated on his entrance exam, which would lead to Kentucky’s two wins in the 1988 NCAA Tournament with an ineligible Manuel being struck from the record.
For these transgressions, Kentucky would be stiffly penalized, including:
1. a ban from postseason play for two years;
2. no live TV coverage of its games in 1989-1990;
3. scholarship reductions; and
4. having to return its profits from the 1988 NCAA Tournament (along with losing its two victories).
The fallout from the scandal would be huge with Kentucky Head Coach Eddie Sutton resigning and his staff being forced out.
Athletic director Cliff Hagen would also resign and be replaced by C.M. Newton, who would hire Rick Pitino away from the New York Knicks in a brilliant move.
Pitino would the perfect man to lead Kentucky through the embarrassment of this scandal, and he would have the Wildcats back in the NCAA Tournament by 1992.
Led by a group of lightly-recruited and unheralded seniors dubbed “The Unforgettables” — Sean Woods, Richie Farmer, John Pelphrey and Deron Feldhaus — that ‘91-92 Kentucky team would make it all the way to the Elite Eight before losing on a buzzer-beater by Duke’s Christian Laettner in what’s considered by some to be the greatest game in college basketball history.
Those four seniors from “The Unforgettables” would have their jerseys retired by the university in large part for helping Kentucky get through the NCAA probation and for producing such a memorable 1991-1992 season.
In 1993, Pitino would get to the Final Four along the shoulders of Jamal Mashburn, but the Wildcats would lose to Michigan’s Fab Five in overtime of the second national semifinal.
Pitino would strike gold in 1996 with “The Untouchables” — a star-studded team led by Antoine Walker, Tony Delk, Walter McCarty, Derek Anderson and Ron Mercer — which beat Syracuse in the National Championship game.
The Wildcats would reach the 1997 title game, where it lost to Arizona in overtime. After that game, Pitino returned to the NBA, this time to the Boston Celtics. In 1998, Tubby Smith would win a national championship with mostly Pitino’s players.
Now with Calipari in the fold, it looks like Kentucky will at least have the talent year in and year out to reclaim such dominance that Pitino established from the ashes of a fallen program.
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- 1996 Kentucky vs. 1995 UCLA Preview
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John Wall, a 6-foot-4 senior point guard from Word of God Academy in Raleigh, N.C., ended a long and dramatic recruiting process late Monday night, picking Kentucky over Florida, Duke and Miami.
The scandal video about:John Wall-video