UCLA basketball also loses out in Memphis ordeal

University of Memphis fans, including former Tigers player Penny Hardaway, left, celebrate during the second half of the 2008 semifinal game against UCLA at the college basketball Final Four.

[Encinitas Bruin]

Nice piece, Jill. I was at that game, and I think even if Tokyo Rose had been playing for Memphis, we still would have lost. We were dominated in every conceivable category. We might have had a shot, but...

It'll be fun to be able to push the "life TiVo" remote and fast forward five years to see what sort of sordid circumstances lead Calipari to leave Kentucky.

[wasp]

Rose should be a man and admit what he did. But we all know he wont. He be a big rich star now.

[Fabled1]

Clealy a "Teachable Moment" for the NCAA as our President might say. The question is, did anyone at the NCAA actually know about this before or during the season and do nothing? And just how does Calipari get away, literally and figuratively, with this time and again. Can't the NCAA sanction him? You can't 'un-ring' this bell, the train has left the station, etc. but Calipari should have a microscope affixed to his skull by the NCAA and anyone who cares about playing by the rules. Calipari exists as the symbol of how it's all about winning, at any cost, who cares if someone gets hurt along the way? And apparently Kentucky shares the same values, otherwise they wouldn't have paid top dollar for cheating's poster boy.

[Joe]

Coach Cal is scum for knowing mid way through the season. It's just ridiculous. Memphis was the better team.....but it's like the BCS we'll never know if our team was the best because it didn't get to play the eventual national champions (Kansas).

Supposedly Kansas may have had an ineligible player too, what happens if that is actually true? NC and UCLA share a title....Or no one gets the title for that year?

[walter]

Are you kidding. UCLA suffered because they may of won a game which they lost. UCLA lost because they were soundly thrashed.

[The Sports Dude]

Calipari is so slimy he makes my skin crawl. I'm not shocked by the cheating, I'm shocked at the blatant egregiousness of it all. Derrick Rose was the most dynamic player in the nation that season. He was only the 2nd backcourt player taken #1 overall in the history of the lottery (Iverson being the 1st). His presence on that Memphis team was at least as significant as Tim Tebow's on Florida's football team. The NCAA had a vested interest in seeing one of its clear-cut "one & done's" making the most of his college experience and leading his team to the Final Four. WHAT A JOKE.

Also... I do think the outcome of the UCLA-Memphis game would have been different had Derrick Rose been ineligible. I don't think Memphis even makes it to the Final Four without Rose. Rose not only had a huge game offensively, but he also significantly hampered the UCLA offense with stalwart defense by forcing Darren Collison into one of the worst games of his illustrious career. The entire complexion of the game changes if Collison has even an average night because Rose isn't there.

[The Sports Dude]

walter wrote:

Are you kidding. UCLA suffered because they may of won a game which they lost. UCLA lost because they were soundly thrashed.

Soundly thrashed by a player who had no business being on the court. All things equal, Memphis was clearly the better team with the best player on the court (in the nation, actually), but it's so patently obvious that Derrick Rose couldn't academically qualify to play collegiate sports. I don't think Johnnie Cochran could argue against that inherent fact.

[Chris]

who cares its football season!!! Time to get the focus away from UCLA and BACK on USC!!!!

[Joe B]

Chris wrote:

who cares its football season!!! Time to get the focus away from UCLA and BACK on USC!!!!

Yeah let's get the NCAA to give it's ruling on Reggie Bush.

[Myles Brand]

Chris wrote:

who cares its football season!!! Time to get the focus away from UCLA and BACK on USC!!!!

I agree totally! My collegues and I will be in touch with Southern Cal shortly.

[oldmbkid]

This just shows what a joke the rule is mandating HS players to play a year in college for a year. Rose never wanted to go to college but had to do this charade to make it happen. Calipari and the NCAA are the idiots in this situation.

[Chris]

Joe B wrote:

<quoted text>
Yeah let's get the NCAA to give it's ruling on Reggie Bush.

LOL!!!
that just shows that the NCAA doesn't know anything! they're too lazy to do anything until an investigation comes up! they're just lazy

[Chris]

GP TROJANS!!!

[Chris]

GO***

[Bruin For Life]

walter wrote:

Are you kidding. UCLA suffered because they may of won a game which they lost. UCLA lost because they were soundly thrashed.

Yeah, thrashed by a team with an ineligible player, had he manned up and say he was not eligible to play, UCLA would have crushed Memphis without Rose, any idiot knows that...puleeeeze, without Rose, Memphis may have not even been in the tournament.

[RC3UCLA]

This is why, as an institution, UCLA must often look past high-profile recruits, that many times I as a fan wish we could attract as a BRUIN fan...There can never be any wavering in UCLA's standards...

[NCAA ATHLETIC JUSTICE]

Okay, here it is for all you who are tired of the NCAA being so lazy in announcing the sanctions (if any) against the trojans in the Reggie Bush case.

[e-mail]

Let the NCAA know how pyssed you are in their delay...in there are no sanctions/violations, it's okay, but PLEEEEEASE! just announce once and for all!!

[Thank You]

"I hate to say anything that may hurt UCLA, but I can't be quiet when I see what the NCAA is doing (to other coaches) only because (they have) a reputation for giving a second chance to many black athletes other coaches have branded as troublemakers. The NCAA is working night and day trying to get (them), but no one from the NCAA ever questioned me during my four years at UCLA."

That quote comes from none other than Bill Walton, maybe the greatest Bruin of them all, in a 1978 book "Bill Walton: On the Road with the Portland Trail Blazers," which went on to detail how Sam Gilbert, a Los Angeles contractor the feds allege made millions laundering drug money, bought a decade worth of recruits for UCLA.

"It's hard for me to have a proper perspective on financial matters, since I've always had whatever I wanted since I enrolled at UCLA," Walton said.

Thank you for the information, I will be sending them an email about UCLA and the crooked program it ran for decades under John Wooden.

NCAA ATHLETIC JUSTICE wrote:

Okay, here it is for all you who are tired of the NCAA being so lazy in announcing the sanctions (if any) against the trojans in the Reggie Bush case.
[e-mail]
Let the NCAA know how pyssed you are in their delay...in there are no sanctions/violations, it's okay, but PLEEEEEASE! just announce once and for all!!

[Anthony Munoz]

I am shocked, that during my 4 year tenure as a
Trojan, no one has ever asked me about my custom built Cadillac that I was given by the Trojan family and the paid vacations for my entire family on a Carabean Cruise and Acapulco during the summer before my senior year at Chaffey High School.

[Bill Walton]

Learn how to spell moron, where is the evidence? Hard to debate the facts when one of your very own admits everything the NCAA needs.

Anthony Munoz wrote:

I am shocked, that during my 4 year tenure as a
Trojan, no one has ever asked me about my custom built Cadillac that I was given by the Trojan family and the paid vacations for my entire family on a Carabean Cruise and Acapulco during the summer before my senior year at Chaffey High School.