Speaking at a fundraiser for the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame on Thursday night on the southside of Indianapolis, former IU coach Bob Knight voiced his displeasure with the lack of integrity that exists in college sports today. That included this gem of a quote about first-year Kentucky head coach, John Calipari:

“We’ve gotten into this situation where integrity is really lacking and that’s why I’m glad I’m not coaching. You see we’ve got a coach at Kentucky (John Calipari), who put two schools on probation and he’s still coaching. I really don’t understand that.”

“And very few people know this, but a kid can play the first semester as a freshman, pass six hours of anything and play in the NCAA tournament without ever attending a class in the second semester. I don’t think that’s right.”

The second part of Knight’s quote is precisely what was running through my mind as I sat in Calipari’s postgame press conference last Saturday and listened to him talk about John Wall as if he was a Rhodes Scholar.

This is not so much a problem specifically with Wall, Calipari or Kentucky, but it speaks more to what the one-and-done rule is doing to college basketball. The NBA is using the NCAA as a de facto minor league system.

Take Wall for example: He’s much more valuable to the league from a publicity standpoint after a year at a storied program like Kentucky than he would have been coming straight to the NBA from Raleigh. He’s the story of college basketball and will now come into the NBA as a marketable, known commodity.

If what Knight hypothesizes about a kid only taking six hours first semester and never going to class second semester is true, and I’m sure it is, perhaps the NCAA is due for some soul searching to define the true meaning of ’student-athlete.’

Some freshmen live up to the hype while others struggle to adjust to the speed and rigors of college basketball. And every so often, a special talent comes along who not only meets expectations, but shatters them. Through eight games of what is sure to be his only season in Lexington, John Wall is that special talent.

His numbers are remarkable: 19.0 ppg (56% FG), 7.0 apg, 3.8 rpg and 3 spg. But more importantly, Wall is the primary reason that Kentucky basketball has transformed from an N.I.T. team last season to 9-0 and No. 4 in the nation this season.

After the Billy Gillispie experiment failed miserably, UK Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart needed a hire that would instantly put the program back at the forefront nationally. Recruits were no longer viewing Kentucky as a top tier destination. Fans were restless with the lack of NCAA Tournament success since the program’s last championship in 1998 under Tubby Smith. So Barnhart, with his job likely on the line if he didn’t make the right hire, went to Memphis and hired John Calipari.

Calipari sold Patrick Patterson, Kentucky’s top returning player, on the idea of returning to school to play for a national championship. He quickly assembled the nation’s top recruiting class: Wall, Eric Bledsoe, DeMarcus Cousins, Darnell Dodson and Gillispie holdovers Daniel Orton and Jon Hood. And in a matter of months, Calipari quickly captured the adoration of Kentucky’s rabid fanbase.

To this point, the script couldn’t have played out much better. The Wildcats have wins over a pair of top 15 teams – North Carolina and Connecticut. They also have character building close calls: An OT win over Stanford in Cancun and and a buzzer-beater from Wall to drop Miami (OH) in their second game of the season.

Patterson, primarily a back to the basket player his first two seasons, is thriving in the dribble drive offense (16.6 ppg, 9.4 rpg). Wall and Bledsoe, a pair of point guards, have seamlessly meshed in the backcourt. And Cousins, a one-time Mike Davis UAB recruit, is nearly averaging a double-double despite consistently finding himself in foul trouble.

What remains to be seen is how this talented group will respond in a true road environment, which they’ll experience for the first time on Saturday in Bloomington.

That Memphis club, which won 38 games before falling to Kansas 75-68 in the title game, was spearheaded by freshman point guard Derrick Rose. And after a lengthy investigation, the NCAA ruled that something just didn’t smell right when Rose took the SAT on May 5, 2007.

After failing to achieve a qualifying score on the ACT each of the three times he took the test in Chicago, someone, presumably not Rose, achieved the SAT scores needed on that early day in May.

Only this time the test was taken in Detroit, which also happens to be the home of William Wesley. You might know Wesley better as World Wide Wes, a confidant of Calipari. You do the math.

Calipari will do his usual song and dance when pressed to disclose whether or not he knew of possible indiscretions with Rose’s test score: Deny, deny and deny some more. It’s all in the past, right? It’s the same tune currently being belted in Lexington by fans who are desperate for a winner after Billy Gillispie flamed out last spring in the NIT.

The fact is that Calipari made history on Thursday when he became the first coach to have Final Four appearances at two different schools vacated. That’s certainly not a distinction one aspires to place on their resume. Nonetheless, congrats on the achievement, Cal.

Thursday’s ruling only reinforced the sad reality that more often than not, the NCAA fails to get it right. To call the penalty of vacating the season a slap on the wrist would be giving it too much credit. Rose is now a millionaire in Chicago, Calipari bolted for a record-setting pay day at Kentucky and Memphis will move forward relatively unscathed if the school can keep its nose clean for three years. Not exactly what I would call dropping the hammer.

The penalties given to Memphis are far less substantial than the NCAA sanctions slapped on Kelvin Sampson for excessive phone calls, which led to the dismantling of the Indiana program. Call me crazy, but using a player who committed academic fraud to achieve eligibility is more reckless than a three-way call with a recruit and Rob Senderoff. But this ruling proves that the NCAA doesn’t see it that way.

This story will be top of mind in the college basketball world for a few more days and then it will sink from the surface as an afterthought. Rose will be an NBA all-star soon enough and Memphis should continue to be a powerhouse in Conference USA under Josh Pastner. As for Kentucky, Calipari will probably hang some sort of banner in Rupp Arena. The only question is: How long before that banner comes down too?

+ It’s been viva, Las Vegas for Bloomington South basketball team. {The Louisville Courier-Journal}

+ According to John Calipari’s Twitter page, Tom Crean’s son, Riley, has challenged Calipari’s son, Brad, to a three-point shooting contest. {Twitpic}

+ 2010 IU target Kyrie Irving drops 37 on Team Final in Orlando. {Zagsblog}

+ Louisville Courier-Journal recruiting expert Jody Demling’s comprehensive reports from Las Vegas: Day 1; Day 2; Day 3; Day 4.

The game was last played at a neutral site in 2005 at the RCA Dome, a game the Hoosiers won 79-53 behind 23 points from Marco Killingsworth.

In 2006, the game was moved to Rupp Arena because Freedom Hall was unavailable on the date agreed upon by IU, UK and CBS. Kentucky won in 2006 and 2008 at Rupp Arena and IU won in 2007 at Assembly Hall. This year’s game will be played in Bloomington.

If the game were moved to Louisville in 2010, both schools would likely want it to be played in the new downtown arena. The arena, which has yet to be named, is scheduled to open in November of 2010. Seating in the arena is expected to exceed 22,000, according to the Louisville Arena Authority.

{HT: Hoosier Scoop}

College basketball as you know it? It’s over. That sport doesn’t exist anymore, because that sport had a semblance of parity. One year North Carolina is the dominant program. One year it’s UConn. One year it’s Duke or UCLA or Florida. Maybe those teams don’t win the national title the year they’re dominant, or maybe they do. Either way, every year there is a team that, on paper, is the dominant program in college basketball. And every year it’s a different team.

Until now. Until John Calipari merges with Kentucky.

Don’t get me wrong. I think Calipari will be great at Kentucky. Do I think he’ll win a title? It’s probably a good bet. Multiple titles? Not out of the realm of possibility, either.

What I don’t believe is that college basketball as we currently know it is over because John Calipari is reportedly the new coach at UK. Maybe I missed something, but Roy Williams is still loading up at North Carolina, Rick Pitino is still in charge at Louisville, Tom Izzo is still getting to the Final Four in East Lansing and Tom Crean is just getting started in Bloomington.

Sure, it’s a scary thought when you combine a top-notch recruiter like Calipari with the facilities, fanbase and tradition that exist in Lexington. If Calipari keeps his nose out of the dirt and wins big, it’s a match made in heaven. The hunger to win for a rabid fanbase that hasn’t been to a Final Four since 1998 will be satisfied.

But there’s also the other side of the coin: awful graduation rates, a possible lack of discipline, a vacated Final Four appearance at UMass and of course, William Wesley. So before we go anointing a dynasty in Lexington, let’s let this all play out … shall we, Mr. Doyel?

Pros: John Calipari is a proven, lifetime winner at the collegiate level. His all-time record is 409-135, and while that number is inflated by the easy 20-ish wins Memphis picks up in Conference USA every year, the fact that Memphis is in a position to cruise through their conference so easily is solely thanks to Calipari’s program-building. Memphis doesn’t just run through C-USA — they are a perennial national contender, because Calipari might be the best recruiter in the country.

Once Calipari assembles his talent, his Memphis Attack offense (derived from Vance Walberg’s dribble-drive motion offense) is one of the most exacting, difficult offensive styles in the country. It forces teams to isolate each player defensively and dares them to stop Chris Douglas-Roberts or Derrick Rose from getting to the hole. The notion that players like that might one day be running Cal’s DDM offense in Assembly Hall is enough to make an uptempo hoops fan’s mouth water. (Hint: My mouth is watering.)

Cons: It’d be disingenuous to say Calipari’s near-legendary recruitment process always seems above-board. At the very least, he’s an admitted and open associate of William Wesley, and while that’s not a violation — Wesley’s a “friend of the program,” surely no different from many IU boosters — Wesley also happens to have a strange, iconic relationship with young talent. The upshot of this is that a Calipari IU program would be stocked with the best talent in the country. The downside is a nuclear scenario of someday finding out the creepy ways that talent got there.

Bottom Line: Calipari might be interested in the IU job, and the Hoosiers should give him at least a cursory look, but at the end of the day IU’s squeamishness about Calipari’s recruiting undertones will probably prevent them from getting too serious.

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He’s been kind enough to share his e-mail and the response he received from Wolken with all of the readers, so thanks are in order for that.

First, here’s what Kelin sent over to Wolken:

Dan-

As an Indiana guy I think you are way off on the Garcia prediction. IU has no one at his position after this year and the style of play will vastly change given the type of players we have in this year’s class and next year. With Eric Gordon, Jamarcus Ellis and other “transition type” players, the days of the motion offense are gone. Yes Calipari produces NBA guys…lets not forget Dajuan Wagner! I think Memphis has a shot but the reasons you are stating really don’t hold the weight. I am for certain Indiana will receive far more national exposure than Memphis over the next few years, including this year. Being an Indiana kid, I think Angel knows that.

And here’s the response Wolken gave with his rationale:

Thanks for your note.

Every fan of every school thinks every recruit should come there and can give a list of reasons why, and I’m fine with that. I’m not a fan, so I base all my commentary on what I observe and what I’m told from my sources. I based my prediction about Garcia on the following factors:

1) Calipari has gotten many players from Puerto Rico over the years, both at UMass and Memphis. This is not a coincidence. If Garcia comes to Memphis, he’ll also be playing for an assistant coach who is Puerto Rican.

2) There is a pretty stark difference between Memphis and Indiana in style of play. Memphis is selling that hard.

3) Whether you think it’s true or not, Calipari is perceived in the basketball/recruiting world as a coach who gets players ready to go to the NBA.

4) Angel isn’t an Indiana kid. He’s from Puerto Rico.

5) Memphis is on ESPN/ESPN2/CBS 10-15 times per year, which is about as many as any program outside of Duke. They’re No. 1 or No. 2 this year in every preseason poll. Outside of Duke, Carolina, Kentucky, UCLA and Florida, Memphis gets about as much national exposure as any.

Like I said yesterday, I’m thinking this could go either way. With Garcia, Tyler Zeller and Kevin Jones all still possibilities for this class, you can’t say enough about the recruiting job that Coach Sampson and staff have done. It’s been nothing short of remarkable. If one of these kids come to IU, we’re looking at another top five class. If two of them come, you’re probably looking at a top two or three class.

By the way, I haven’t forgotten about the All-Big Ten preview. That’ll be back next week as I’ll reveal the fourth player on the first team as well as my pick for player of the year.

1. Forward Angel Garcia will commit to Memphis in the next few weeks: The talented 6-11 Puerto Rican told Rivals.com is deciding between the Tigers and Indiana. That’s very good news for Memphis, which badly wants Garcia to go along with already committed twins Marcus and Markieff Morris from Philadelphia. The Tigers are a better fit for Garcia’s style of play — similar to Shawne Williams — and have a big edge due to John Calipari’s history of developing players for the NBA. It also helps that assistant coach Chuck Martin is of Puerto Rican descent.

Mr. Wolken may end up being correct, but at this point, I’d say it’s a total crap shoot on where Garcia ends up. I’ve always heard that he likes Indiana first and foremost, but I wouldn’t count out John Calipari and his hair gel.

And I don’t buy the fact that having an assistant coach with Puerto Rican descent will end up making much of a difference, but hey, I could be totally off base. By my estimation it comes down to the tradition of the program, the coach, the facilities, the atmosphere around the campus and the style of play. What Memphis and IU have to offer are both very different.

It’ll be interesting to watch Garcia’s recruitment unfold over the next couple of weeks.