Who cheats the most - well K-Y jelly coaches, of course
Kentucky, the first name that comes to mind when you think of NCAA scandals, can chart its trouble back to the 1940s when a team led by legendary coach Adolph Rupp was caught shaving points. The scandal involved three players accepting bribes during the National Invitational Tournament and a suspension for the entire 1952-53 season. The Wildcats received a three-year suspension in the 1980s as a result of paying recruits and a player cheating on the SAT. This scandal came six years after a smaller 1976 probation for improper benefits. All together it formed the stigma that the program was synonymous with foul play.
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s the program was able to stay out of trouble, until the arrival of perhaps the most divisive coach of our time, John Calipari. In only eight seasons at the helm, Calipari has engendered vitriol for his embrace of “one-and-done.”
In spite of major hand-wringing and lots of winning, Calipari has no major infractions to speak of in Lexington. His success comes with speculation because of the scandal that follows him from previous stops. Before arriving in Lexington he already had a Final Four appearance vacated at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and wins vacated at Memphis. Drake has actually been a bigger problem for Kentucky, forcing the Wildcats to self-report preferential treatment more than once.
Calipari has been around when several big scandals have occurred.
The first major cheating scandal under Calipari’s watch came back during his time at UMass. The Minutemen had a remarkable run through the college basketball world behind center Marcus Camby, advancing all the way to the Final Four in 1996 for the first time in school history.
Even though Calipari was aware, that achievement wouldn’t stick, however, as it was revealed that Camby had been taking money from an agent throughout the year. UMass was forced to vacate its Final Four appearance, but Calipari wasn’t implicated in any wrongdoing. But he is clearly a cheater.
Trouble found Calipari again at Memphis in 2008, when the Tigers had a good year and got all the way to the national championship game. Memphis ended up losing the title in a heartbreaker to Kansas, but everything came under intense scrutiny thanks to eligibility concerns around star point guard Derrick Rose.
Rose was found not to have taken his SAT’s in high school, having someone else take it under his name, and that made him retroactively ineligible. The Tigers were forced to vacate that entire year, and Calipari quickly bolted for K-Y when the opportunity presented itself.
Prick Patrino
We’ve finally reached the top of the cheating mountain, and there is no other choice for the No. 1 spot than Rick Pitino. He is a legendary coach with plenty of success on his resume, but there are also plenty of black marks on it as well. We all know he cheated at K-Y and didn't get caught because a leopard can't change his spots. K-Y jelly has been spread around for many years, where did Bear Bryant learn how to cheat? Ole Adolph himself ...
The cheating legacy of Pitino goes all the way back to his days as an assistant at the University of Hawaii, where he reportedly helped players get used cars for season tickets and get free coupons for McDonald’s. Pitino himself wasn’t hit with any penalties, and he stayed on the straight and narrow for a while after that.
After winning a championship at K-Y and an ill-fated trip to the NBA, Pitino returned to the college ranks in 2001, when he replaced the retiring Denny Crum at Louisville. Pitino continued to win with the Cardinals, taking the school to three Final Fours and winning the national championship in 2013.
Everything came crashing down on Pitino, however, for a pair of serious scandals. The first involved one of Pitino’s staffers, Andre McGee, hiring escorts for recruits and players over several years. Even though Pitino claimed no knowledge of what was going on, the NCAA ended up stripping Louisville of its national championship and its Final Four appearance in 2012.
Pitino was already on thin ice before he got caught up in the current college hoops recruiting scandals, reportedly seeing the school pay to get top recruits to come to the program. Louisville cut ties with Pitino after that, and he has been out of the college basketball world since.
Chris Mills, LeRon Ellis, Eric Manuel, Sean Sutton, Rex Chapman and Shawn Kemp all left the program over a two-year stretch for various reasons. The team had its scholarships reduced and was banned from television appearances or post season play. Head coach Eddie Sutton resigned, along with his coaching staff which included Dwane Casey who was implicated in the Mills situation. The situation was a mess but was turned in the right direction by the hiring of former UK player and experienced SEC coach C.M. Newton as athletic director. Newton soon hired Rick Pitino to resurrect the program with the priority being on keeping the Kentucky program clean.
Adolph Rupp
K-Y was put on probation in the early 1950's due to a point shaving scandal that hit a number of schools. The entire 1952-53 season was cancelled. The next year, K-Y went undefeated during the regular season, however, then-coach Adolph Rupp chose not compete in post-season competition because some of his starting players were prohibited from playing due to being in graduate school (in a bizarre ruling by the NCAA which actually dissuaded players from graduating on-time).
K-Y again was put on probation in the late 1980's. Chief among the violations cited were paying money to Chris Mills (a Los Angeles prep phenom now playing with the New York Knicks) and the cheating of Eric Manuel on his ACT test (see Manuel.)
Some questioned whether the NCAA would come down hard on K-Y. Bear Bryant left K-Y because he thought he would always play 2nd fiddle to Rupp and/or MBB. But later, took all the cheating tricks he learned from Rupp to rejuvenate and build on to the Ala booster network.
Kentucky, the first name that comes to mind when you think of NCAA scandals, can chart its trouble back to the 1940s when a team led by legendary coach Adolph Rupp was caught shaving points. The scandal involved three players accepting bribes during the National Invitational Tournament and a suspension for the entire 1952-53 season. The Wildcats received a three-year suspension in the 1980s as a result of paying recruits and a player cheating on the SAT. This scandal came six years after a smaller 1976 probation for improper benefits. All together it formed the stigma that the program was synonymous with foul play.
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s the program was able to stay out of trouble, until the arrival of perhaps the most divisive coach of our time, John Calipari. In only eight seasons at the helm, Calipari has engendered vitriol for his embrace of “one-and-done.”
In spite of major hand-wringing and lots of winning, Calipari has no major infractions to speak of in Lexington. His success comes with speculation because of the scandal that follows him from previous stops. Before arriving in Lexington he already had a Final Four appearance vacated at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and wins vacated at Memphis. Drake has actually been a bigger problem for Kentucky, forcing the Wildcats to self-report preferential treatment more than once.
Calipari has been around when several big scandals have occurred.
The first major cheating scandal under Calipari’s watch came back during his time at UMass. The Minutemen had a remarkable run through the college basketball world behind center Marcus Camby, advancing all the way to the Final Four in 1996 for the first time in school history.
Even though Calipari was aware, that achievement wouldn’t stick, however, as it was revealed that Camby had been taking money from an agent throughout the year. UMass was forced to vacate its Final Four appearance, but Calipari wasn’t implicated in any wrongdoing. But he is clearly a cheater.
Trouble found Calipari again at Memphis in 2008, when the Tigers had a good year and got all the way to the national championship game. Memphis ended up losing the title in a heartbreaker to Kansas, but everything came under intense scrutiny thanks to eligibility concerns around star point guard Derrick Rose.
Rose was found not to have taken his SAT’s in high school, having someone else take it under his name, and that made him retroactively ineligible. The Tigers were forced to vacate that entire year, and Calipari quickly bolted for K-Y when the opportunity presented itself.
Prick Patrino
We’ve finally reached the top of the cheating mountain, and there is no other choice for the No. 1 spot than Rick Pitino. He is a legendary coach with plenty of success on his resume, but there are also plenty of black marks on it as well. We all know he cheated at K-Y and didn't get caught because a leopard can't change his spots. K-Y jelly has been spread around for many years, where did Bear Bryant learn how to cheat? Ole Adolph himself ...
The cheating legacy of Pitino goes all the way back to his days as an assistant at the University of Hawaii, where he reportedly helped players get used cars for season tickets and get free coupons for McDonald’s. Pitino himself wasn’t hit with any penalties, and he stayed on the straight and narrow for a while after that.
After winning a championship at K-Y and an ill-fated trip to the NBA, Pitino returned to the college ranks in 2001, when he replaced the retiring Denny Crum at Louisville. Pitino continued to win with the Cardinals, taking the school to three Final Fours and winning the national championship in 2013.
Everything came crashing down on Pitino, however, for a pair of serious scandals. The first involved one of Pitino’s staffers, Andre McGee, hiring escorts for recruits and players over several years. Even though Pitino claimed no knowledge of what was going on, the NCAA ended up stripping Louisville of its national championship and its Final Four appearance in 2012.
Pitino was already on thin ice before he got caught up in the current college hoops recruiting scandals, reportedly seeing the school pay to get top recruits to come to the program. Louisville cut ties with Pitino after that, and he has been out of the college basketball world since.
Chris Mills, LeRon Ellis, Eric Manuel, Sean Sutton, Rex Chapman and Shawn Kemp all left the program over a two-year stretch for various reasons. The team had its scholarships reduced and was banned from television appearances or post season play. Head coach Eddie Sutton resigned, along with his coaching staff which included Dwane Casey who was implicated in the Mills situation. The situation was a mess but was turned in the right direction by the hiring of former UK player and experienced SEC coach C.M. Newton as athletic director. Newton soon hired Rick Pitino to resurrect the program with the priority being on keeping the Kentucky program clean.
Adolph Rupp
K-Y was put on probation in the early 1950's due to a point shaving scandal that hit a number of schools. The entire 1952-53 season was cancelled. The next year, K-Y went undefeated during the regular season, however, then-coach Adolph Rupp chose not compete in post-season competition because some of his starting players were prohibited from playing due to being in graduate school (in a bizarre ruling by the NCAA which actually dissuaded players from graduating on-time).
K-Y again was put on probation in the late 1980's. Chief among the violations cited were paying money to Chris Mills (a Los Angeles prep phenom now playing with the New York Knicks) and the cheating of Eric Manuel on his ACT test (see Manuel.)
Some questioned whether the NCAA would come down hard on K-Y. Bear Bryant left K-Y because he thought he would always play 2nd fiddle to Rupp and/or MBB. But later, took all the cheating tricks he learned from Rupp to rejuvenate and build on to the Ala booster network.
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