Derrick Rose, John Calipari Go Down in Permanent Shame

Short of castration or 365 days of steel-lock confinement with Dick Vitale and Digger Phelps, I'm not really sure what the option was. The NCAA settled on the fairest possible discipline for the academic-fraud case involving Derrick Rose and the University of Memphis, punishing those who were involved by white-outing them from history while having mercy on the innocent who now inherit the wreckage.

The operative phrase here is vacate. It isn't as strong as death penalty or suspension, but it's humiliating enough for Rose and John Calipari, the major villains in the latest disgusting example yet of why we must continue to fight abuses in the educational system. Years from now, when college basketball observers wonder why no runner-up is listed in the record books for the 2007-08 season, they'll be told that Memphis had to vacate its Final Four berth and 38 victories because Rose allowed an impostor to take his SAT test as a Chicago high-school senior. They'll also be told that Calipari, on whose watch the Rose scandal broke, is the first coach in the sport to vacate two Final Four berths, which assures him of a front-row spot on Mount Sleazemore.

Don't underestimate the personal pain involved when victories are stripped away and a man's professional legacy is smeared. It's permanent, for life -- a big, ugly, haunting, ignominious asterisk for everyone to see forevermore. Rose has a fat * by his name. Calipari has a fat * by his.

"Whenever records are vacated, that is a strong indication that there was a problem,'' said Paul Dee, chairman of the NCAA's Committee on Infractions. "Because there were no specific allegations against the coach, we did not consider any -- but whenever you have a situation that affects a team's record or an individual's personal record, it will have an impact on that individual."

Yes, I wish there was a way of suspending Calipari for a year or two or five, given his collective misdeeds in the sport. But he fled a Memphis escape hatch for Kentucky, which can be scolded -- if not excoriated -- for hiring him, but can't be fairly sanctioned for sins that happened at another school. If Calipari finds his way into trouble in Lexington, which is quite possible, if not likely, I would expect him to be run out of the college game the way Kelvin Sampson was at Indiana. And I would expect Kentucky to be punished severely like Indiana.

As for Rose, he's playing in the NBA with the Chicago Bulls. He'll have to live with the shame that he committed academic fraud, a major smear on his resume in basketball and life, especially if he goes on to a Hall of Fame career as many of us have forecasted. What angers me is that Rose continues to deny any wrongdoing, even though the Committee on Infractions revealed that he failed to qualify three times before finally passing a fraudulent SAT test in Detroit. Yes, Detroit. When someone travels 250 miles to take a test to make sure he qualifies to play college basketball -- well, put it this way: I don't think it was Rose's idea. Someone had to be desperate enough to set it up for him, and the stench could go in any number of directions. On top of that, Memphis allowed Rose's brother and mentor, Reggie, to fly on team planes, which translates to $1,700 in free travel. Yet, Derrick keeps doing the domino.



"I know I didn't do anything wrong," Rose said last month. "That was up to Memphis, what they had to do. Coach Cal told me not to worry about it. I definitely wasn't worried about it."

His comments came in the wake of a troubling photo that went viral on the Internet, showing Rose flashing a gang sign.

"It's been tough. I got to know that was in the past, just being foolish," Rose said. "I'm learning when I'm out in public, I can't really act the way I want to act with my friends, kid around with them. It's like I got to grow up. I'm only 20."

On Thursday, Rose issued a statement through his attorney that attempted to absolve him of wrongdoing. It should be read with a surgeon general's warning: Too much B.S. is bad for one's health. "It is satisfying to see that the NCAA could find no wrongdoing on my part in their ruling,'' said Rose, who was not mentioned by name in the NCAA report but clearly is the player in question. "I think it is important for people to understand that I complied with everything that was asked of me while at the university, including my full participation in the university's investigation of this issue, and was ultimately cleared to play in the entire 2007-08 season."

Rose's problem is that he has been enabled and pampered for much too long. In the end, playing for Calipari was a hideous mistake. It was a one-year rental plan in which the coach used the point guard, and vice versa, and it goes down as one of the greasiest deals ever in college sports. The only way it could have been worse? Oh, if Rose and the Tigers had made their free throws in the final seconds versus Kansas and actually won a national championship. Having a national title stripped would have been the all-timer. A better plan would have been to stay home and play at Illinois, where Bruce Weber is a reputable coach who would have stopped Rose's SAT madness before it turned toxic.

Yet Calipari, despite his reputation, landed a $31.65 million sweetheart deal at Kentucky, where the administration knew of the Rose-related rumblings yet didn't hesitate to sell its soul anyway. Think there's any hint of a conscience there? All the folks care about, school officials and fans alike, is that Calipari has landed a wonderful recruiting class -- including John Wall, considered the next Rose -- and that he's positioned to reach a Final Four in his first season. They also love the fact that rival Rick Pitino, down the road in Louisville, has been rocked by a sexual escapade with a woman whom he helped get an abortion. Only in Kentucky does the governor defend Calipari when his previous program is nailed in a scandal.


"I'm not worried about it because they have never said Coach Cal did anything wrong at all," Gov. Steve Beshear said Thursday. "I think he's a very upstanding guy. I think that's his reputation and I think that reputation will be with him here. I really don't foresee any problems."

That's his reputation? And that reputation will be with him here? And the governor isn't bothered by that, even when he officially has been listed as a "coach at risk'' by the NCAA?

"There's one thing John says: 'I want my banners to count for something and I want to put the rings on the fingers and let them stay there,' " said Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart. "That's important to him, and so he is embracing any help that we give him to make sure we're able to, at the end of the day, not have to look over our shoulders and worry."

How pathetic to see Calipari try to play the victim's role. And how equally embarrassing to see Memphis, despite avoiding a postseason ban or loss of scholarships in a three-year probationary period, announce that it is appealing the NCAA decision to vacate the 38 wins and national-title game appearance. The school does have to repay money made during the NCAA tournament that year, but all in all, the penalties could be much worse. "I'm very disappointed and disheartened by the NCAA's findings," Calipari said in a statement. "I fully support the University of Memphis' appeal and until that process is carried through to its completion, I will have no further comments on the matter. I am anxious to coach the team at the University of Kentucky beginning this fall."

Doesn't he understand how lucky he is to sneak away? Let it go, John, and be thankful you're not in the NCAA slammer. As for Memphis, administrators should be doing handstands that the new coach, Josh Pastner, won't suffer the same sanctions and hardships that have beset Tom Crean, who replaced the shamed Sampson at Indiana. Yet there they were, announcing that they will challenge what they believe is an unfair penalty.

"We know the rules," school president Shirley Raines said. "We did our due diligence. We did everything we could to determine the student-athlete was eligible and that the rules were being followed."

"If the appeal fails, the banners come down,'' said athletic director R.C. Johnson, who hired Calipari.

Rather than fight the NCAA, Memphis might want to make sure its hoops program is clean. "The university is on heightened review," Dee said of the probationary terms. "Probably the most important thing about probation is once a school goes on probation, if they commit another major violation within five years they are subject to a special review and substantially harsher penalties."

That way, Memphis has a chance to move on with a new coach. Calipari carries on at UK, where his team will be the biggest story of the upcoming season, and Rose will resume his brilliant young career in Chicago.

Yet in 50 years, when people scanning the Internet see a blank in the runnerup spot beside Kansas in 2008, they'll know that sleaze had been removed from the records. And two figures in particular always will be connected to it, to their dying days.