Kentucky Wins Championship

(Picture: New York Daily News).

As was widely expected, Kentucky won college basketball's National Championship on Monday night, overpowering Kansas 67-59. Kentucky now owns eight overall NCAA Championships in men's basketball. Interestingly, controversial head coach John Calipari got his first NCAA Championship by leading the "blue blood" Wildcats past Bill Self's "blue blood" Kansas Jayhawks (Kansas and Kentucky--along with North Carolina, Duke, Indiana and UCLA--are frequently referred to as college basketball "blue bloods" because, like the old East Coast WASP blue blood elites who dominated the American institutions of yesteryear, they're the privileged, elite ruling class of college basketball). In 2008, Calipari's Memphis Tigers narrowly lost in the NCAA Championship game to Kansas and Self.

Drive and Dish editors were at a wedding when the Final Four games were played on Saturday. As such, we missed Kentucky's win over Louisville, and only managed to catch the last ten minutes of Kansas' win over Ohio State. Our editors got off a plane and only returned to the Drive and Dish viewing room in time to catch the second half of Monday night's Championship game. So we don't have much to say about the game itself.

We do, however, think that college basketball is very watered down these days, and although we would have preferred to have been able to watch the Final Four, we weren't particularly thrilled about the prospect of watching Kansas and Kentucky in the Championship game. John Calipari has put together an impressive assortment of NBA-ready talent on each of his three Kentucky teams (Calipari left Memphis for Kentucky in 2009). But the main players on his teams only stick around college for one year before they bounce to the NBA. Thus, watching Kentucky has more or less become akin to watching the NBA Rising Stars Challenge.

Sorry, but it's just hard to get excited about that. We'd be hard-pressed to disagree with the following commentary from the Washington Post/Bloomberg News:

In a very real sense, the ending of this game and this season was a microcosm of what college basketball is in 2012. As soon as the final buzzer sounded, the Super Dome was filled with sound, not from celebrating fans, but from the Hollywood-like pyrotechnics the NCAA insists on bombarding people with in its attempts to glitz up an event that doesn't need to be glitzed up.

Nowadays, though, all the sound and noise fits because the national title game has the feel of an NBA all-star game, and most of the players who make it to the Final Four dream first of that game and the billboards and shoe deals that come with it rather than the game Kentucky won on Monday night.

Perhaps it is time for the NCAA to change it's cheesy post-championship theme song. Instead of "One Shining Moment," a new song: "One Moment and Done," words and music by Calipari, might be more fitting.

Final Four: Kentucky, Louisville, Ohio State, Kansas

The Final Four is set. Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio State and Louisville won their Regionals and advance to next weekend's Final Four in New Orleans. Unlike 2010 and 2011, when mid-major "Cinderellas" Butler and Virginia Commonwealth shocked the world and advanced to the Final Four, the 2012 Final Four field is comprised entirely of the usual suspects.

Louisville competes in the Big East Conference, but geographically, the East Coast is entirely shut out. Three of the four teams come from schools within 100 miles of Cincinnati, Ohio. The fourth, Kansas, comes from the heart of the heartland. It's an entirely Midwestern and Mid South Final Four.

Syracuse was the top-seeded team in the Tournament, but Syracuse alumni who work in the national sports media (in other words, most of the national sports media) will have to content themselves by pulling for Louisville to defend the Big East's honor. Casual fans who've enjoyed rooting for Cinderella "Davids" (i.e., Butler) to knock off college basketball "blue blood" "Goliaths" (i.e., Duke and Connecticut) in the last two NCAA Championship games will be faced with the likelihood of watching "blue blood" Kentucky play "blue blood" Kansas for the right to hand yet another NCAA Championship banner in the rafters.

On a more personal level, Drive and Dish editors will be stuck at a wedding in south Georgia while Saturday's games are being played. But if we get the chance, we may try to hit Interstate 10 on Sunday morning and see if we can get to New Orleans by evening. If so, we'll be hanging around the Final Four for Monday's Championship game.

Bennett to Virginia; Calipari to Kentucky: Done Deal?

Tony Bennett has been hired as the new men's head basketball coach at Virginia. Bennett coached Washington State to the Sweet Sixteen in the 2008 NCAA Tournament.

Drive and Dish discussed the Virginia basketball program when Dave Leitao was forced to resign earlier in March. We acknowledged that while the University of Virginia is an esteemed academic institution with a gorgeous campus and outstanding basketball facilities, it has a tough time recruiting and competing against rival powerhouse Atlantic Coast Conference programs:

Virginia is an outstanding school with a beautiful, historic campus. And it has top-notch basketball facilities. But in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Cavaliers have to compete against basketball powers like North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest, Maryland. And they have trouble keeping the best players from Virginia in state, as the traditional ACC power programs and Georgetown usually raid Washington, D.C. and Virginia of its best basketball talent.

Despite it's many strengths (at least on paper), the Virginia men's basketball program remains something of an enigma. In theory, there's no reason why U.Va shouldn't be able to consistently finish in the top five of the ACC. After all, if a football school like Clemson can become a player in ACC hoops, certainly Virginia, with its outstanding facilities and strong basketball tradition, can reassert itself as one too.

But for some reason, a sustained return to basketball prominence just hasn't been in the cards. for Virginia.

Then we asked why -- given the difficulties that Virginia has encountered in trying to be a player in ACC hoops -- an in demand, up-and-coming coach would agree to take on the challenge that is Virginia basketball :

(u)nderstandably, the University of Virginia wants to replace Dave Leitao with a coach who can resurrect the Cavalier basketball program and generate excitement among Virginia fans and alumni. Virginia will likely spend big money to lure a hot, up-and-coming coach to Charlottesville. But Pete Gillen and Leitao were once hot, up-and-coming coaches who appeared to possess the qualities that would allow them to rebuild the once-proud Virginia basketball program.

Why Virginia has been unable to field a consistently competitive basketball program remains somewhat unclear. Why an in-demand, up-and-coming coach would accept the Virginia job, especially considering how the tenures of Virginia's recent coaches have ended, remains even less clear.

Tony Bennett, however, is an interesting hire. He succeeded his father, legendary coach Dick Bennett, as the coach at Washington State (Tony had been an assistant on his father's WSU staff). Prior to the Bennetts' arrival in Pullman, WA, Dick Bennett built the once-moribund Wisconsin basketball program into a national power in the 1990's. Tony was a member of his father's coaching staff at Wisconsin when Dick Bennett's accomplished his most impressive feat as a Division I head coach (Dick Bennett had coached at several levels, including the NAIA): leading an improbable Wisconsin team to the 2000 Final Four. Dick Bennett retired from coaching shortly thereafter, but his reputation as a "program builder" prompted Washington State to pursue him to fill their coaching vacancy in 2003. When Tony Bennett took over the reins from his father in 2006, Washington State had already become a fairly competitive basketball program. But after he took WSU to the 2008 Sweet Sixteen, Tony Bennett became a hot commodity among Athletic Directors looking to fill coaching openings (Bennett was offered, but ultimately turned down, the head coaching jobs at LSU and at Indiana).

Tony Bennett is a young (38), and relatively charismatic coach. He was a great college point guard -- still the the NCAA's all-time leader in 3-point percentage (.497), he set Mid-Continent Conference records for scoring (2,285) and assists (601) while playing for his father at Wisconsin-Green Bay -- who played three seasons in the NBA before becoming a coach. Once at Washington State, he found immediate success as a first-time college head coach. What's more, the fact that the Bennetts have a solid track record of turning non-traditional college basketball powers into competitive programs makes Tony Bennett especially well suited for the challenge of returning Virginia basketball to prominence.

When Drive and Dish wondered why an up-and-coming coach would want to take on the massive task of trying to rebuild the Virginia basketball program, we didn't know that Tony Bennett was on U.Va's radar. Tony Bennett is a good fit for Virginia.


Calipari to Kentucky: Done Deal?

Earlier today, ESPN's Andy Katz reported that Memphis head coach John Calipari had met with officials from the University of Kentucky to discuss Kentucky's coaching vacancy. Later, Katz reported that Calipari was close to taking the Kentucky job, but had conducted several meetings with players and officials at Memphis.

This evening, Sports Illustrated's Seth Davis wrote that two separate sources characterized a Calipari/Kentucky deal as being somewhere between a "done deal" and "moving in that direction." Later in the evening, WMC TV in Memphis reported that Calipari was set to leave for Kentucky.

Drive and Dish has historically eschewed trafficking in rumors. Although our (former) proximity to the worlds of college and high school basketball -- albeit on the fringes -- prompted us to blog anonymously, we've always declined to publish confidential information that friends have relayed to us in private conversations (and we've had some damn good "scoops" over the years that we never posted). But for what it's worth, a "friend of Drive and Dish" who has "insider information" from the within the Kentucky basketball program told us this afternoon that Calipari is, indeed, headed to Kentucky, and that he's already notified Memphis of his decision to leave.

Since the Calipari to Kentucky story is already being widely reported, relaying the information transmitted by our friend doesn't violate Drive and Dish's "no snitching" policy. We'll continue to steer clear of the college basketball/NBA rumor mills. But the Calipari/Kentucky romance is in a different category ... at this point, it's one of the worst kept secrets around.

Kentucky Loses Opener to VMI

Friday night, Virginia Military Institute's basketball team made the college basketball world stand at attention when it walked into Kentucky's vaunted Rupp Arena and upset the Kentucky Wildcats 111-103 in their home opener. Some observers are already calling it the greatest win in the history of VMI basketball.

Last year, the Billy Gillispie era got off to a rough start when Kentucky lost its second game of the season to Gardner Webb. Gillispie had been hailed as the savior of Kentucky basketball, but doubts arose all over the bluegrass state as soon as the Wildcats fell to a supposed "cupcake" opponent in Gillispie's second game as head coach.

Gillispie will be afforded the benefit of the doubt if the Wildcats make considerable improvements over the course of the season. But Kentucky fans have extraordinarily high expectations, and as such, Gillispie had better get things turned around soon. Tubby Smith won a national championship in his first season at Kentucky, but it didn't endear him to Kentucky fans (although it probably did buy him time with regard to the Athletic Department and the university's administration). With no championship ring on his finger, Billy Gillispie won't be granted as much of a honeymoon.

Vanderbilt Hands Kentucky 41 Point Loss

Yesterday, Drive and Dish marveled over how new coach Billy Gillispie and Kentucky had righted their ship and were beginning to make up for their early season woes.

We noted that Kentucky had won its previous five games. We mentioned their upset wins over Vanderbilt and Tennessee. We even said that Kentucky basketball was undergoing a resurgence.

Well, no sooner did Drive and Dish coronate Kentucky college basketball's "comeback kids" of 2008, than did Kentucky stumble off Vanderbilt's raised court as the owners of a 41 point loss courtesy of the same Vanderbilt Commodores team that they had triumphantly upset a mere month ago.

Vanderbilt embarrassed Kentucky, 93-52.

Call it payback. Call it revenge. Call it schadenfreude.

Call it what you will.

But whatever you call it, there's no denying what Vanderbilt did to Kentucky last night: Vandy absolutely put the smack down on Billy Gillispie and the Wildcats.

Just when Kentucky was starting to surge, they went out and got handed the program's worst loss since an ignominious 150-95 drubbing by Kansas in 1989 (Rick Pitino's first year as Kentucky's coach).

Kentucky is now 12-10, and 6-3 in the SEC.

The Wildcats are still, technically, on the post season bubble. But tonight's humiliating loss put a crushing halt to Kentucky's recent momentum. Worse yet, the damage done by tonight's beat down could be enough to derail Kentucky's "resurgence" altogether.

Time will tell.

But Billy Gillispie is on the clock (again).

The Resurgence of Kentucky Basketball?

Today, Jason Brubaker at CollegeHoops.net argues that Kentucky basketball is undergoing a resurgence under first year head coach Billy Gillispie.

Gillispie got off to a rough start at Kentucky as the Wildcats lost to several "cupcake" teams early in the season, including an embarrassing season opening loss to Gardner Webb.

But Kentucky has been playing much better since the new year and the start of SEC play.

Don't look now, but Kentucky has won five straight games, has pulled off big upsets of Vanderbilt and Tennessee, and is currently ranked second in the SEC East.

In November and December, Kentucky fans were busy debating how long Billy Gillispie would last as the Wildcats' coach. Now they're debating how highly the Cats will be seeded in the NCAA Tournament.

Tubby Smith Nets 400th Career Win

Tonight, Minnesota coach Tubby Smith collected his 400th career win with a 77-65 win at Michigan. The game was supposed mark a milestone for Michigan, as it was the 40th anniversary of Michigan's Chrisler Arena, and several members of Michigan's 1968 team were in attendance. But Tubby Smith and the Gophers spoiled the festivities for the Wolverines.

Congratulations to Tubby Smith. He's a very good coach. And he got a raw deal at Kentucky.

Unfortunately for Smith, his team won the National Championship in his first year at Kentucky (1998). Because the nucleus of the 1998 team consisted of players who had been recruited by Smith's predecessor, Rick Pitino, many UK fans didn't give Smith credit for the Championship. He was said to have lucked into the Championship because he inherited a Championship caliber team.

But despite the fact that Tubby Smith never got full credit for Kentucky's 1998 Championship, the fact that his team won a Championship in his first season caused Kentucky fans to hold him to a higher standard than they would normally hold a new coach.

So Tubby Smith's Championship essentially doomed his career at Kentucky. He never got the credit he deserved for the Championship, but his early success raised the bar for fans' expectations. He was expected to keep winning Championships -- every year.

Congratulations to Tubby Smith. Minnesota scored a coup when the hired Tubby. He should have the Gophers competing for Big Ten Championships in the near future.

C.S.T.V. has more on Tubby Smith's revival of Minnesota Gophers hoops.

Kentucky Upsets Tennessee

By Trashtalk Superstar

Just one day after Drive and Dish speculated about the possibility of John Calipari, Bruce Pearl and Kelvin Sampson -- princely souls that they are -- being in the top five in next week's AP Top 25, Kentucky upset Tennessee 72-66.

Drive and Dish has been tough on first year Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie. But after pulling major upsets over Vanderbilt and now Tennessee, it looks like "Billy Clyde" is starting to get things under control in Lexington. Two weeks ago, he was a goat to many Wildcats fans. But now he's probably the toast of the town ("toast" may not have been the best choice of words -- sorry about that -- but you know what I'm trying to say [Kentucky may be starting to embrace Gillispie]).

Tennessee plays a fun style of basketball. They throw full court pressure at teams and they look to turn turnovers into transition baskets. They've also got guys who can break you down off the dribble and get to the rack. And they LOVE to shoot the three. Best of all, they run, run, run and run some more.

Tennessee is fun to watch and they'd be fun to play for.

But Head Coach Bruce Pearl is a dirtbag. He's as sleazy a guy as you'll find in college basketball ... and that's really saying something.

Last night's loss aside, Tennessee will be a highly seeded team in the NCAA Tournament and they'll probably be a trendy Final Four pick in a lot of people's NCAA brackets. But I believe that they're overrated and that they're not likely to reach the Final Four.

Time will tell.

In the meantime, congratulations to Kentucky.

Kentucky and Iowa Pull Shocking Upsets

Saturday, Kentucky upset Vanderbilt, who was previously undefeated and ranked #13 by the AP, 79-73 in double Over Time. It was UK's first big win of the Billy Gillispie era.

Vanderbilt is an interesting team. Last year's team made it to the Sweet Sixteen, and would have been in the Elite Eight, if not for a missed traveling call on Georgetown's Jeff Green that produced Georgetown's game winning basket. And although they lost some key players from last year's team, they've managed to be one of this season's runaway successes. But despite this season's impressive record, they've turned in some very underwhelming performances. And they've escaped with squeaker wins over some less-than-stellar opponents (see: Bradley, DePaul).

Vanderbilt didn't look terribly athletic or strong against Kentucky. And even though the Wildcats are ecstatic that they pulled off their first big win, Vanderbilt just never quite looked like a legitimate top tier team in that game.

Michigan State Falls to Iowa

Although it didn't get the attention that Kentucky's nationally televised win over Vanderbilt did, #6 Michigan State's 43-36 loss at Iowa was the biggest upset of the day. Iowa may be the worst team in the Big Ten (Drive and Dish has previously noted the Hawkeyes' profound Godawfulness). Yet they managed to slow the game down and "ugly" the whole thing up, which got Michigan State to play down to their level.

I'm glad that I didn't see that game. It would have been brutal to watch, as most of Iowa's games are. But I feel bad for Michigan State. They're a legitimate top 10 team, and there's no way that they should have lost to Iowa -- let alone only score 36 points in the entire game.

Tom Izzo is probably running his team into the ground right now. Each one of his players will probably drop five to seven pounds of water weight before their next game (thanks to all the running they will have done).

Look, Iowa is a tough place for visiting teams to play. With the exception of the Iowa Presidential Caucuses (which only come along once every four years), there really isn't much going on in Iowa. That's why Iowa Hawkeyes' football, wrestling and basketball are so important to the locals. As such, far too many Iowans derive their sense of self worth from the success of Hawkeye athletics. So, for Iowans, it's win at all costs -- which is why visiting teams often find that their hotel rooms have no warm running water, have no functioning air conditioning or heat, have mysterious power outages, have an unusually high number of fire alarms in the middle of the night, etc.

What's worse, when the visiting teams arrive in the visitor's locker room, they often find that -- in addition to being painted pink, from ceiling to floor (including lockers, benches, toilets, urinals, sinks, fire extinguishers . . . literally everything in the room) -- the visitor's locker room lacks running water. Which really sucks because, since their hotel rooms frequently lack warm water, teams often bypass using the showers and the toilets in their hotels, and wait until they get to the locker room to take care of those necessities.

But that stuff is par for the course in Iowa City. Ask the 2005 Illinois Fighting Illini. They went to Iowa City undefeated and ranked #1 in the nation. But, after they found it difficult to get restful sleep in their hotel rooms, and couldn't find warm water in either their hotel rooms or in the locker room, the Illini played their ugliest game of the season. Illinois was lucky to sneak out of that place with a win that year. They almost didn't.

By the way, I wouldn't necessarily trust the food in Iowa City either. I think that if I were coaching a team that had to play at Iowa, I'd pack enough sack lunches to take care of each of my team's meals.

Iowa is just that way.

In fact, many Iowans actually pride themselves on that kind of stuff. I know some of those kinds of Iowa fans.

But that's still no excuse for Michigan State's horrible loss in Iowa City.

Eddie Sutton: Back in the Saddle

In college basketball, when a school has to make an in-season coaching change, is it is the standard operating procedure to replace the outgoing coach by elevating an assistant (from the existing coaching staff) to the status of "interim coach." Kevin O'Neal is the Interim Coach at Arizona because he was the top assistant when Lute Olson had to leave to tend to "personal matters." Last year, Assistant Coach Jim Molinari became the Interim Coach at Minnesota after Dan Monson was sent packing. When Indiana fired Bob Knight, Mike Davis was installed as Interim Coach and promptly guided the Hoosiers to the 2002 Final Four -- which led to Davis being rewarded with a multi year contract and a promotion to Head Coach.

I could continue to list examples of assistants who have taken over as Interim coaches, but I'd be here all day -- and Drive and Dish readers would quit reading this post.

My point is: if a coach has to be replaced when the season is in progress, the appropriate course of action is for the school to elevate an assistant coach to interim coach. This maintains continuity because, aside from the departed Head Coach, the rest of the coaching staff remains in place. They, in turn, continue to run the same system (offense, defense, plays, etc.) that the team had prior to the Coach's departure. Furthermore, it allows the school to conduct an in-depth coaching search after the season. The new coach is then able to hire his own staff and implement his system before the start of the next school year.

But that's not what the University of San Francisco did when their coach left. On Wednesday, San Francisco announced that Coach Jessie Evans would be taking "a leave of absence." Remarkably, they announced that Evans would be replaced by disgraced former Oklahoma State Coach Eddie Sutton -- who had no prior connection to USF and is coming out of retirement to take the position.

In light of this development, Drive and Dish held and emergency editorial staff meeting to discuss Sutton's hiring at San Francisco. This was no minor feat, since so many of our staff were on vacation for the holidays. But despite our many logistical headaches, we managed to convene and agree on the following conclusion:

San Francisco's hiring of Eddie Sutton is total horse shit.

If Eddie Sutton had really wanted to get back into coaching, he should have gone about his job search in a more traditional manner. Sutton should have waited until the conclusion of the college basketball season (when coaching vacancies open up) to contact schools in need of a new men's basketball coach.

But Sutton isn't actually serious about getting back into to coaching. Stuck at 798 career wins, he's only serious about getting into the 800 win club. He even admitted as much when he was announced as USF's coach on Wednesday!

Coach Sutton was forced out at Oklahoma State after the 2006 season following an in-season leave of absence that the university imposed upon him when he was charged with DUI in conjunction with an auto accident. For the purpose of damage control, Oklahoma State forced forced old "Fast Eddie" (who had struggled for years with his raging alcoholism) to seek treatment at a rehab facility. OSU then named Sean Sutton to be his dad's replacement, even though Eddie Sutton never backed off from his stated intention to return as the Cowboys' coach.

Oklahoma State knew exactly what they were getting when they hired Eddie Sutton. Long before he arrived in Stillwater, Coach Sutton had a well-documented checkered history. While the head coach at Kentucky, Coach Sutton famously ran a renegade program that landed UK on NCAA probation. Obviously, the Oklahoma State administration was well aware that Sutton was no angel when they decided to hire him in 1990. They knew that he was something of a reclamation project. After all, Sutton was only one year removed from a highly-publicized scandal that caused the NCAA to impose severe sanctions on Kentucky's basketball program in 1989 (Kentucky had traditionally escaped the eye of the NCAA infractions police, despite well-known rumors of shadiness that stretched as far back as the 1940's). But Oklahoma State also knew that Eddie Sutton had taken Creighton, Arkansas and Kentucky to the NCAA Tournament -- his Arkansas team got as far as the 1978 Final Four.

A generation earlier, Oklahoma State -- then known as Oklahoma A&M -- had been a basketball power under the stewardship of legendary coach Henry Iba. But the post-Iba era (i.e., the modern era) had not been kind to Oklahoma State basketball: the program had fallen so far from its previous elite status that, at the time of Sutton's hiring, the Cowboys had only played in the post season three times since 1957. Oklahoma State's rationale for hiring Sutton isn't terribly difficult to understand: Sutton is an Oklahoma State/A&M alum who played for Coach Iba in the 1950's, and more importantly, he has a long track record as a winning coach in college basketball. Oklahoma State hired a proven winner who provided a direct link to the program's glory days. However, OSU also knew that hiring Eddie Sutton would be a gamble . . . but it was a gamble that they were happy to make.

And Eddie Sutton didn't disappoint.

Coach Sutton turned an Oklahoma State program that had been moribund for three decades into a consistent winner. He took the Cowboys to Final Fours in 1995 and 2004. But OSU's on-court success came with a trade-off: Eddie Sutton had significant baggage, and he didn't exactly change his ways while in Stillwater. During his tenure at Oklahoma State, Eddie Sutton's teams were stocked with so many players who had been processed by the criminal justice system that OSU earned the nickname "Second Chance U."

Sometimes, given the extensive off-court problems that so many of its basketball players had encountered, it seemed as though OSU could be better described as "Third and Fourth Chance U." Whatever the case, the second chances finally ran out for the old coach who had offered so many second and third chances to so many troubled players over the years. When Sutton's 2006 car accident led to his being charged with DUI, there was no way for Oklahoma State to retain a sliver of respectability without disassociating itself from Eddie Sutton.

And it looked like the end of the road for Coach Sutton's career when his legendary drinking problems led to him being more or less pushed out at OSU. With his reputation as a cantankerous, unscrupulous, cheating old man with a drinking problem, no reputable institution of higher education was going to hire Eddie Sutton to lead their basketball program. Sutton understood this. So when San Francisco -- which, once upon a time, was a basketball power (Bill Russell played there during the Eisenhower administration) -- decided to let Sutton come on board to get his 800th win, old "Fast Eddie" jumped at the opportunity.

Which is really sad.

Eddie Sutton is an old, drunk, serial rule-breaker who is selfishly taking over a team that he's had no previous contact with (one wonders if he even knows anything about this year's team), and which he has no intention of coaching beyond 2008. What's worse, he's doing it 1/3 of the way through the season. That's just not fair to the current USF players. They should be given the opportunity to play for an interim coach, who the university should elevate from the remaining coaching staff. The interim coach would then continue to run the current system for the remainder of the season.

Drive and Dish wonders what could have prompted USF to make such a preposterous mid season hire. We wonder if they were just trying to make headlines. Whatever their motive was, the hiring of Eddie Sutton makes the University of San Francisco appear desperate for attention. San Francisco used to be a big time basketball school. It looks like they long to be relevant again.

But if that's the case, the joke's on USF. In college basketball, a school becomes relevant when it's basketball program wins on a consistent basis. Staging a cheap publicity stunt will not put a college basketball program on the fast track to relevance. Worse yet, by making headlines with their ridiculous decision to let Eddie Sutton sit in for his 800th win, the University of San Francisco has essentially made itself even more irrelevant than it already was.

IU's Cellvin Sampson Profiled in Lexington Herald-Leader

This Saturday, Kentucky plays at Indiana. IU vs. UK has always been one of my favorite non conference rivalries in college basketball. Those two flagship state universities carry the torch for the basketball obsessed residents of their respective states. I can't think of two better states for basketball than Indiana and Kentucky. Basketball is so deeply rooted in the cultures of these two border states that the game is practically in the natives' DNA.

So in preparation for Saturday's upcoming IU v. Kentucky game, the Lexington Herald-Leader has what may be the definitive profile of Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson and the ethical maze that the Hoosier basketball program now finds itself in (including, but not limited to, Sampson's apparent disregard of the NCAA's recruiting bylaws regarding phone calls to recruits).

Kentucky Falls to Gardner Freakin' Webb

By Trashtalk Superstar

Welcome to Kentucky, Billy Gillispie. Your predecessor, Tubby Smith, was chased out of town after a successful ten year run which included two Final Fours and a national championship. But it wasn't good enough for the crazed UK fans. They expected so much more from their beloved Wildcats. Which is why you now hold one of the most prestigious positions in sports ... head coach of men's basketball at the University of Kentucky.

And the Kentucky faithful treated your arrival as if it were a the fulfillment of prophecy ... a savior would come to lead his people to their rightful glory. You were Billy G. as Messiah or Mahdi. Kentucky fans spoke of you as if you could walk on water and turn water into wine (and hell, everybody knows how much you love to drink). Yes Billy, you were supposed to lead Kentucky to the promised land. Because to the devoted followers of UK basketball, you were the freakin' man.

That is, until tonight, when Kentucky was blown out by uber cupcake Gardner Webb.

Two games into your tenure and Kentucky has already suffered a loss as humiliating as Michigan's football defeat to Appalachian State in this year's season opener. Gardner Webb should write you a check because, by losing to them tonight, you will have given them more media exposure than they've probably ever had. Everyone who watches Sports Center or reads the sports section of their daily newspaper will now have heard of tiny Gardner Webb (enrollment: 4,000). And many of those same people will laugh at Kentucky's expense.

You'll be on the hot seat before you know what hit you.

At least Kentucky fans have a good football team to cheer for this year, even if it is the first good Kentucky football team that most fans have seen in their lifetimes. Hell, if you don't get things going quickly, Billy Boy, Kentucky might get a reputation as a "football school."

Then Ashley Judd will be forced to start going to football games. The TV close ups of her won't be as good as they are at basketball games, but exposure is exposure. And it's not like she's just there to watch the games and root for her team.

You better get everything straightened out soon, Billy. If you don't, Wildcat nation might even start longing for the good ol' days of the Tubby era.

Welcome to Kentucky, Billy G. Welcome indeed.

North Carolina Investigates Itself For Possible Recruiting Infraction ... Surprise! ... Clears Self of Wrong Doing

By Trashtalk Superstar


The University of North Carolina conducted an internal investigation over potential violations of NCAA basketball recruiting guidelines. UNC determined that no NCAA rules had been intentionally violated and that the basketball program is, therefore, totally clean.

Whew!

What if North Carolina had decided that they were guilty? Would they have imposed sanctions upon themselves?

The act of conducting an internal investigation is a total charade. In the last two years, the Ohio State and Kansas basketball programs have conducted similar internal investigations. Like UNC, they also determined that while some violations may technically have occurred (unintentionally, of course), they all resulted from big misunderstandings. Honestly.

Not surprisingly, in the previous two cases, the NCAA determined that the self reporting was sufficient and that no NCAA sanctions were necessary. North Carolina will get the same response.

Look, the recruiting violation that UNC committed was minor and probably was actually unintentional. And for the record, the NCAA is a shockingly inefficient bureaucracy whose rules and bylaws are often vague at best. It's unbelievably easy to unintentionally violate some ridiculous NCAA bylaw. Anyone who has ever played or coached a college sport at an NCAA institution can attest to this.

North Carolina violated a ticky tacky NCAA rule. They almost certainly were unaware that they were committing a recruiting infraction. After all, the recruit merely talked to two former UNC basketball players at a UNC football game. That could have even occurred without anyone in the basketball program knowing about it. Logically, what's to stop a recruit from recognizing a former player and initiating a conversation with that former player? And accordingly, would a former player have to refuse to acknowledge a stranger who attempts to initiate a conversation with him? Even if he's unaware that the person attempting to initiate the conversation is a basketball recruit?

Many of the NCAA's bylaws are preposterous. North Carolina (which is generally regarded as a clean program) violated one such bylaw. But the rules are the rules. And North Carolina should be treated like any other basketball program which has committed a recruiting violation.

Unfortunately, the NCAA's method for distributing sanctions/punishment may be even more mysterious and questionable than any of the inane bylaws in their dauntingly volumnous rulebook. Marquee programs like Kansas, Ohio State and North Carolina are almost almost never held accountable for their infractions of NCAA bylaws. But programs of lesser stature usually get the book thrown at them. Kentucky basketball has long been notorious for not playing by the rules. At various times in their history, they haven't even pretended to follow the rules. Take for instance the fact that during one practice session, legendary Kentucky coach Adolf Rupp erupted at one of his players: "For what we're paying you, you damned well better play better than that." That was in the 1940's. Yet the NCAA left Kentucky alone until 1989 - when the FBI busted the Kentucky basketball program and coach Eddie Sutton for mailing thousands of dollars in cash to recruits. Only after the FBI became involved did the NCAA decide it was time to look into possible recruiting violations at Kentucky.

North Carolina's recruiting infraction was minor. They really don't deserve anything more than a slap on the wrist. Not that Tar Heels fans have anything to worry about: a slap on the wrist is the most that UNC will receive (truth be told, they probably won't even get slapped on the wrist - they're North Carolina after all). But the NCAA has dished out heavy penalties to other schools for committing similar minor violations. Our readers who are Illinois fans know this all too well.

For the purpose of clarity, it isn't Drive and Dish's intent to slam North Carolina. What we're slamming is the uneven treatment of member institutions by the NCAA.