Several conversations with trip members in the past have gave way to a new revelation about college basketball, and what is accaptable in today’s hoop game.
If you are a gangster head coach, you cannot coach at a blue blood school.
Allow me to elaborate please.
A perfect example is John Calipari. He is a gangster coach, no doubt. Look at his super g’d up suits, the way he talks, and his association with shade balls like World Wide Wes. Also, note the fact that the two Final Four’s he’s been to have been exposed from the record books due to shady practices with Derrick Rose and Marcus Camby. Yeah, this guy is slimy and there’s no doubt about it.
Now, he is coaching Kentucky, a school with every imaginable advantage as far as basketball is concerned. This school does not need the advantages a gangster coach brings, at least it shouldn’t. Kentucky should be getting McDonalds All-Americans just by being Kentucky. Calipari at Memphis was great, cause Memphis is a historically relevant basketball school, fighting against the Duke’s and Kentucky’s of the world. That’s ok. You need an edge to compete with those clowns. When coaching at UMass, Memphis, or somewhere that puts you at a disadvantage vs the rest of the haves of the world, you gotta do what you gotta do. Instead, Kentucky sold it’s basksetball soul to the devil, and Calipari is ozzing his sick brand of recruiting on the world with the advantage of having the Kentucky brand behind his name. It’s just not fair.
When Tark was coaching at UNLV, the Rebels were considered super gangster. They had all the juco connections, and ran shit the way they wanted. The NCAA hated Tark, and tried their damnest to pin him with violations any way they could, yet they could not. Was UNLV gangster when they were going to the Final Four every year? Probably, in some round about way, everybody is. Tark managed to keep himself seperated from whatever was going on, because he came out squeaky clean. He even sued the NCAA, which chose to settle out of court with Tark, as to not expose the hypocracy of their practices. My point is, UNLV did what they had to do to become relevant in hoops, not having the advantages of UCLA or Arizona on the west coast.
So when you’re looking at some of these schools with questionable issues, take everything into consideration. I am not advocating straight up cheating (am I?). I am saying bending a few rules here and there, if you’re at a disadvantage, helps level the playing field. Putting both situations into one ball of grease makes things too gangster. Kentucky should be ashamed of itself. They aren’t though, they’ve been doing this for years. That’s just the way it is, right?
Or this doesn’t make any sense.
