Kentucky is in the Spotlight Again, Is it Good?

Once again, the University of Kentucky basketball program is in the spotlight again.  For a while now (about 2 months), it has been nothing but good news, but now comes the not-so-good news.

The first look is at Billy Gillispie and what everyone figured would take place.  He is suing the University of Kentucky Athletics for what he claims is money owed to him.  In all, it is roughly 6 million dollars that is said to be owed to him if he was fired.  The stipulation was that if he had gotten fired, he would have been owed 1.5 million dollars per year over a course of 4 years.  UK Athletics claim that they were in the process of negotiations with Gillispies’ associates when learning of the lawsuit.

And now, it is being reported that the University of Memphis faces several infractions by the NCAA committee including Academic violations.  One of the violations is that a certain student had cheated or that someone cheated for him on his SAT’s in 2007-2008 season.  It is being speculated that the student in question is actually Derrick Rose, now in the NBA.  While John Calapari’s name has not been linked to these allegations, it brings everyone back to the Calapari days at Umass where Marcus Camby’s name came up in NCAA violations.  While Calapari’s name is not involved, this gives many negative reporters something to speculate on and attempt to give Calapari another blemish on his resume.  I personally don’t see it hurting Calapari, but it will probably be the same as the Camby situation and will follow John Calapari throughout his career.

Well, that’s all the bad news for now and hopefully for a while to come.  Bring on the season and let’s start talking about basketball!!