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Posted: D.A.
The news that UConn has been found with eight NCAA major violations equals bad times in Storrs. And delicious irony in Syracuse.
Jim Calhoun stood so defiantly over the newspaper reporter who dared ask about the state-funded salary the Huskies head coach received. So tax-payers are lining the wallet of NCAA criminals and corruption? Just checking, Jim.
After a 15-month investigation, the NCAA found nearly 150 illegal calls and over 160 illegal texts between assistant coaches and recruits.
This is bad, but not back-breaking. The bloody glove, however, is feeding false and misleading information to the NCAA’s investigators while they snooped this deal.
Let’s get one thing straight: The NCAA is not the C.I.A. Hell, it’s not even Matlock. The NCAA is in the business of college football and basketball. It doesn’t want, nor need, to find it’s money-makers in violation of anything.
Every so often, when there’s egregious enough rules-tampering, and smoke is billowing out the top of the building, occasionally the NCAA has to respond to the fire and poke around the debris.
The idea that the Huskies not only broke rules, but tried to throw investigators off the scent looks awful for the program. But, will it stick to Calhoun-Bot 3000? Sent here from the next century as a coaching cyborg to destroy Syracuse lives?
Probably not. Remember, Jim Boeheim and the Orange were investigated and penalized in 1990 as well, for the “cash handshakes” that were presumably locking in guys like Derrick Coleman, Rony Seikaly and the core of the ’87 Final Four team – during the delirious Big East basketball years of the ’80s.
Few ever mention The Per’fesser’s violations (thank goodness we offered up the 1989 lax title). Fewer mention Bobby Bowden’s laundry list of NCAA infractions at FSU. Seems, you coach long enough and people forget.
But could this push Calhoun-Bot 3000 into earlier-than-expected retirement? Hopefully. More than likely, this results in scholarship reduction – no postseason penalties. But the idea of the Huskies getting hung with the dunce cap on the recruiting trail is a nice image for Orange Nation.
We may not have lax to fall back on this holiday, so it’s nice to begin Memorial Day weekend with such spirit-lifting news.
Hey Huskies: so long suckers.
