USA - Let The Madness Begin

NEW YORK (The Tuesday College Diaries) - They've been camping out in their hundreds just to get tickets.

And this is for a practice session.
Kentucky officially cannot wait for the new basketball season, starting with Midnight Madness on Friday night.

But no one will be more excited about getting started than John Calipari.

"I enjoy the other stuff, but I love coaching," Calipari said. "The two hours a week I'm spending with my team are like I'm in heaven."
It's been another summer of controversy for the 50-year-old since his move from Memphis.

Those who had delighted in writing about how his reputation for pushing the envelope in recruiting could come back to bite Kentucky positively revelled in the news that Memphis was hit by an eligibility scandal regarding Derrick Rose (of which more later).

Memphis was not just hit, it was hit hard.

The result is that Calipari has become the first coach to have not one but two Final Four appearances stricken from the record, subject to Memphis’ appeal.

But once the new season actually begins, Calipari can instead focus on coaching a young team many believe can not only end Kentucky's Final Four drought, but go all the way and cut down the nets in Indianapolis in April.

Kentucky went 22-14 under Billy Gillispie last season, and a rebuilding season would be acceptable.

But that is not how this coach intends to do things.

He has assembled an all-star roster, persuading most of his top Memphis recruits to switch affiliations, and then landing the likes of John Wall to add to an intimidating talent pool in Lexington.

He has also been brutal, making room on the roster by bumping a number of scholarship players he decided he just didn't fancy.

What is more, he's also dismissed the idea of having any walk-ons, telling the likes of Landon Slone, “I just don’t keep walk ons. I don’t have time.”

(Sure, Calipari is in a stronger position than most to be able to pick and choose who he wants on his team, but let's hope, for his sake, he doesn't come to regret turning away those who wanted to play for him the most.)

But how quickly can Calipari mesh together a team so reliant on true freshmen?

Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Eric Bledsoe, Jon Hood and Daniel Orton make up the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class, while junior college transfer Daniel Dodson is also new to Lexington.

But the entire roster is new to Calipari’s dribble-drive system.

"I think it's very important for the new guys and the returning guys to mesh and get along," sophomore forward Darius Miller said. "I think that'll decide whether we win or not. We have pretty good talent, but if we don't come together as a team, it's not going to work at all."

Not that they are setting their sights any lower.

“The goal is a national championship," Cousins said. "Bottom line."

"To me, it's just around the corner. We have the coach. We have the talent. We have the leadership. What else do you need?"

We should have a better idea about just how far this Kentucky team can go come December.

After a November of munching on cupcakes, Calipari's team will welcome North Carolina to Lexington, and then head north to play Connecticut four days later.

Calipari wants his fans to believe in this team, but he does not want to overburden them with expectations.

"You have other teams that are going to be rated high (that) are halfway up the mountain already," he said. "They have everybody back, the same coach, they've played the same style. They're halfway up the mountain. We are at the base."

And itching to start the climb.

The Mess in Memphis
So while Calipari was happily introducing himself to his new fanbase, his old fanbase was picking up the pieces he left behind in west Tennessee.

After establishing that Rose got someone else to take the SAT test that saw him admitted to Memphis, the NCAA served notice that the Tigers must vacate its 2007-08 season record and serve three years’ probation.

Assuming they come through the probation period okay, there is no further punishment for the Tigers.

And given that the NCAA cannot erase memories of Memphis’ march to the title game, it’s not clear how much of a punishment this really is.

Calipari also had his Final Four appearance with UMass stricken from the record over payments made to Marcus Camby.

But while he is now the only coach to have had two Final Fours erased, Calipari has stuck to one line all summer.

There are no allegations directly against him, and he knew nothing about it.

That may or may not be true, but it doesn’t help Memphis, now angrily pursuing an appeal claiming the NCAA’s use of strict liability in such a case is unjustified.

True enough, Rose was declared eligible by the NCAA’s clearinghouse before enrolling at Memphis, What more could the Tigers be expected to do?

Its impossible to know what, if anything, Memphis knew about Rose’s test. Or what Calipari knew. Or what the NCAA might do with Memphis’ appeal.

But one thing we do know is that all this could have been avoided.

The issue at the heart of this case is the rule that insists players are at least one year removed from high school before they go to the NBA.

Rose never wanted to go to college, and never had the academics to get into college.

So why make him go?
And if this is the result of forcing him to go, who did it help?

More and more players might in future follow the Brandon Jennings route through Europe after watching him successfully make himself a top 10 pick in the NBA draft this year.

But a move to Europe is not for everyone.

Does that really mean all this is worth it?

Negedu a big loss for Vols, Nigeria
The basketball career of one of Nigeria’s best prospects in several years could be over at the tender age of 20.

Emmanuel Negedu suffered a heart attack after a practice session at Tennessee at the start of the month.

Following an operation in Cleveland, Negedu is focused on returing to full health.

The 6ft 7in forward, considered an athletic freak, has been ruled out of the 2009-2010 season, and appears unlikely to return at all.

"My life was going good, doing everything I had to do," Negedu said. "I had just gotten done with weights, going to open gym, happy, playing around.

"And that happened."

I Wanna Be On TV
Okay, so sports selling out to television contracts is nothing new.

But college basketball will sink to new depths this coming season.

As part of ESPN’s gimmick of a 24-hour hoops marathon - and it is only a gimmick - Monmouth will play at St. Peters at 6am on November 17.
Yes. Six in the morning.

Who is ready to play at six in the morning? Who wants to watch a game at six in the morning?

ESPN do.

And so it will happen.

Just why escapes me.

Smokey Roberts
FIBA