NCAA Asks Kentucky To Apologize For Recognizing Calipari’s 500th Win

Earlier this month, the chairman of the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions sent University of Kentucky President Lee T. Todd Jr. a letter asking the school to publicly acknowledge it was wrong to recognize John Calipari‘s 500th coaching victory this past season. Chairman Dennis E. Thomas, the commissioner of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, also told Todd that the wording of UK’s statement “must be approved by the office of the Committee on Infractions prior to its release.”

Thomas asked UK to respond to the letter no later than next Friday.

Spokesman Jay Blanton said Saturday that UK did not have a comment.

The letter marked the latest twist in a debate between UK and the NCAA about whether Calipari achieved his 500th coaching victory when Kentucky beat Florida in Rupp Arena on Feb. 26. When the game ended, UK presented Calipari with a game ball to recognize the supposed milestone. But questions immediately arose about whether the vacated victories at the universities of Massachusetts and Memphis earlier in Calipari’s career should be subtracted from his total.

According to NCAA official statistics, the answer is yes. Calipari’s victory total reached 458 that day and he finished the season with 467. That reflects the four NCAA Tournament victories his UMass team vacated in 1996 because star Marcus Camby received improper benefits from an agent and the 38 victories his Memphis team vacated in the 2007-08 season because star Derrick Rose was ineligible. A testing service invalidated his qualifying entrance exam score.

More than once in his five-page letter, Thomas wrote of how UK’s handling of Calipari’s victory total was “troubling, extremely troubling” and “very troubling” to the Committee on Infractions.

If UK did not agree, Thomas said school officials would be asked to make an in-person appearance before the committee.

An early February email sent to the NCAA sparked the debate about Calipari’s victory total. The email — sent by what UK senior associate athletics director Sandy Bell termed “a fan of a rival program” — said Kentucky was mistakenly counting the vacated victories on its Web site and media guide. The NCAA told Bell of the complaint on Feb. 4.

In her same-day response to the NCAA, Bell said she alerted DeWayne Peevy, UK’s associate athletics director for media relations. Bell later told the NCAA that Peevy asked the NCAA on March 2 if UK needed to subtract the 42 victories from Calipari’s total or merely note them.

Bell wrote Todd on April 5 that the response from Gary Johnson, the person who heads men’s basketball statistics for the NCAA, was: “You can say he has 1, 000 wins if you want. But if you want to agree with what his official record is, then you have to account for those vacates.”

Bell said UK interpreted that to mean it could recognize 500 or more victories as long as it “accounted” for the vacates.

Thomas disagreed. “Recognizing Mr. Calipari for a fictitious 500th win does not properly ‘account’ for the vacation of wins, he wrote Todd.

According to Thomas’ letter, Peevy again checked with the NCAA about whether beating Florida marked Calipari’s 500th victory at 5:52 p.m. the day of the game. Thomas wrote that the timing was troubling” because it was “just minutes before the Florida game concluded. …

“Clarification of Mr. Calipari’s record should have been sought long before … “

The NCAA first asked UK to explain its handling of Calipari’s record in a letter dated March 15.

Bell responded in the April 5 letter to Todd. While saying “our media guide will be corrected next year, Bell wrote Todd that the athletics department felt its recognizing Calipari’s 500th victory was correct.

Our only intention was to recognize the fact that, during his career, Coach John Calipari had indeed led his teams to 500 victories on the court, Bell wrote Todd on April 5. Regardless of how the 42 victories are statistically noted, they did in fact occur.”

Thomas rejected that logic, writing to Todd, Ms. Bell seemingly ignores the fact that these wins were gained with the use of ineligible student-athletes. He also noted that “both cases involved violations of well-known, fundamental NCAA legislation.”

Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2011/06/12/1771705/uk-basketball-notebook-ncaa-uk.html#ixzz1PAy6OOsg NCAA Asks Kentucky To Apologize For Recognizing Calipari’s 500th Win

Lexington Herald-Leader, Jerry Tipton

http://www.kentucky.com/2011/06/12/1771705/uk-basketball-notebook-ncaa-uk.html

Earlier this month, the chairman of the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions sent University of Kentucky President Lee T. Todd Jr. a letter asking the school to publicly acknowledge it was wrong to recognize John Calipari ‘s 500th coaching victory this past season. Chairman Dennis E. Thomas, the commissioner of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, also told Todd that the wording of UK’s statement “must be approved by the office of the Committee on Infractions prior to its release.”

Thomas asked UK to respond to the letter no later than next Friday.

Spokesman Jay Blanton said Saturday that UK did not have a comment.

The letter marked the latest twist in a debate between UK and the NCAA about whether Calipari achieved his 500th coaching victory when Kentucky beat Florida in Rupp Arena on Feb. 26. When the game ended, UK presented Calipari with a game ball to recognize the supposed milestone. But questions immediately arose about whether the vacated victories at the universities of Massachusetts and Memphis earlier in Calipari’s career should be subtracted from his total.

According to NCAA official statistics, the answer is yes. Calipari’s victory total reached 458 that day and he finished the season with 467. That reflects the four NCAA Tournament victories his UMass team vacated in 1996 because star Marcus Camby received improper benefits from an agent and the 38 victories his Memphis team vacated in the 2007-08 season because star Derrick Rose was ineligible. A testing service invalidated his qualifying entrance exam score.

More than once in his five-page letter, Thomas wrote of how UK’s handling of Calipari’s victory total was “troubling, extremely troubling” and “very troubling” to the Committee on Infractions.

If UK did not agree, Thomas said school officials would be asked to make an in-person appearance before the committee.

An early February email sent to the NCAA sparked the debate about Calipari’s victory total. The email — sent by what UK senior associate athletics director Sandy Bell termed “a fan of a rival program” — said Kentucky was mistakenly counting the vacated victories on its Web site and media guide. The NCAA told Bell of the complaint on Feb. 4.

In her same-day response to the NCAA, Bell said she alerted DeWayne Peevy, UK’s associate athletics director for media relations. Bell later told the NCAA that Peevy asked the NCAA on March 2 if UK needed to subtract the 42 victories from Calipari’s total or merely note them.

Bell wrote Todd on April 5 that the response from Gary Johnson, the person who heads men’s basketball statistics for the NCAA, was: “You can say he has 1, 000 wins if you want. But if you want to agree with what his official record is, then you have to account for those vacates.”

Bell said UK interpreted that to mean it could recognize 500 or more victories as long as it “accounted” for the vacates.

Thomas disagreed. “Recognizing Mr. Calipari for a fictitious 500th win does not properly ‘account’ for the vacation of wins, he wrote Todd.

According to Thomas’ letter, Peevy again checked with the NCAA about whether beating Florida marked Calipari’s 500th victory at 5:52 p.m. the day of the game. Thomas wrote that the timing was troubling” because it was “just minutes before the Florida game concluded. …

“Clarification of Mr. Calipari’s record should have been sought long before … ”

The NCAA first asked UK to explain its handling of Calipari’s record in a letter dated March 15.

Bell responded in the April 5 letter to Todd. While saying “our media guide will be corrected next year, Bell wrote Todd that the athletics department felt its recognizing Calipari’s 500th victory was correct.

Our only intention was to recognize the fact that, during his career, Coach John Calipari had indeed led his teams to 500 victories on the court, Bell wrote Todd on April 5. Regardless of how the 42 victories are statistically noted, they did in fact occur.”

Thomas rejected that logic, writing to Todd, Ms. Bell seemingly ignores the fact that these wins were gained with the use of ineligible student-athletes. He also noted that “both cases involved violations of well-known, fundamental NCAA legislation.”

Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2011/06/12/1771705/uk-basketball-notebook-ncaa-uk.html#ixzz1PAy6OOsg