Moans And Growns...And Who Is Lying?

Most of us seem to be all in a dither about the NCAA's handling of Derrick Rose being ineligible while playing basketball at the University of Memphis.
I've covered numerous NCAA investigations during my journalistic career and this one is really not hard to explain: Somebody's lying, maybe several, depending on the gullibility factor. For example: It borders on being stupid to believe that all of the denials have a stink attached to them.
But, consider this: What if the Tigers had WON the national championship against Kansas, instead of losing a game they should have won, blowing a big lead down the stretch? Talk about explosions! Would the penalty have been more tougher? Undoubtedly so. Now for what you already know: I don't know how people can say the ruling of losing all 38 games last season because Rose played in every one of them, including two regular-season games and that last game against Kansas, is all wet. It is entirely appropriate, as I see it.
Now, there was other news yesterday: The Tiger golf team also suffered in the NCAA findings, but that pales beside the basketball wallop. The basketball team will also have to return a bunch of money to the NCAA and former coach John Calipari could -- COULD -- have to return some $300,000-plus in bonuses for advancing to the championship game. We'll know more after the NCAA considers the university's appeal. But let us return to the central core of this embarrassing mess: Who is lying? Do you believe Calipari that he knew nothing about it. What about using the plausible deniability defense? That's a phrase used by many Presidents of the United States in knowing, but not knowning. What about Rose, who is now beyond the reach of the NCAA; he's playing for the Chicago Bulls and making millions. Let us return, though, my dear, gullible, friends reading this. Who lied? Will we ever know? The Tiger defense surely is going to be based on the NCAA clearinghouse giving the go-ahead for Rose to compete. He certainly qualified for a lot of doubt by failing the test three times before "passing " it. Fail it three times and then, voila, success. Not likely. And the site of that final test? We've got to consider this: It happened in Detroit, we're told. Detroit? DETROIT? What's up with that? Maybe Rose felt more at ease instead of in his own backyard. So many questions, so few answers. OK, until we find out whose lying, you have to look for something tangible: I submit to you that the problem with grades and transcripts and the need to recruit less-than-eligible young guys who came out of the womb bouncing a basketball, we will have these moments of shaking our collective heads. I will close at this time with something I've asked for, oh, maybe a million times: Clean up this mess and if poor students in that ill-placed belief that they are student-athletes, forget it. Hogwash. They are athletes. Period. Forget the student deal. Now, we've gotten this far and there is still no conclusion: Who was lying?