Blue Days in The Bluegrass

Geography often determines whether a fan prefers college or professional sports. South Bend and Chapel Hill are college sports towns. New York and Dallas, on the other hand, are pro sports towns. Fans in some places don't have much of a choice, though.

Consider the entire state of Kentucky: With zero professional sports franchises, two of America's most proud college basketball programs, as well as two of the game's most decorated coaches, college sports rein supreme in the Bluegrass State.

Led by John Calipari and Rick Pitino, respectively, the University of Kentucky Wildcats and the University of Louisville Cardinals are the two most popular teams (of any sport) in the state of Kentucky.

Nearly four months ago, each school had reason to be excited: Kentucky, which has lost ten or more games in seven of the last ten seasons, had just signed Calipari, the most sought-after coach in all of basketball, to a long-term deal.

And in Louisville, despite being upset by Title Game-bound Michigan State on the doorstep of the Final Four, the Cardinals had finished a season in the Elite Eight or better for the third time in five seasons -- a commendable feat.

My thoughts at the time: These two developments were sure to bring UK back to prominence and kick-start another championship run for the U of L.

Of course, that was before Calipari was tied to multiple recruiting scandals at his former job, and before Pitino admitted to cheating on his wife of thirty-plus years.

Today, instead of the national discussion revolving around their coaching prowess, fans everywhere -- not just Kentuckians -- have shifted their focus to the off-court indiscretions of these coaching giants.

In fact, since I began writing this story there's more news out of the commonwealth: Memphis, Coach Cal's former employer, has been stripped of 38 wins (previously an NCAA record) and a Final Four appearance from 2007-08.

If you followed the Memphis basketball scandal this summer, or if you read my piece on Calipari from June, I'm sure you saw this coming.

In case you're lost, let me summarize: Memphis was forced to vacate those 38 wins because Derrick Rose, star point guard on the Tigers' 2007-08 team and the eventual No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft, had a stand-in take his SATs for him.

Neither you nor I was part of the investigation, so it's difficult for any of us to point the finger and say so-and-so was to blame, but I find it hard to believe that John Calipari didn't know that Derrick Rose was intellectually challenged when he recruited him.

Rose failed to meet NCAA standards on three previous occasions. And when his scores finally qualified, that test was taken in Detroit. In case you were unaware, Derrick Rose is from Chicago.

It's unknown what influence this will have on Calipari's reputation. The consensus among fans prior to this incident was that he was a win-at-all-costs type of guy. I would imagine that this situation will only re-affirm those feelings for most people.

Calipari may be (legally) off the hook, but if things don't go well in Lexington he could have a tough time finding another lucrative gig in college basketball.

And if that wasn't enough, the state of Kentucky took another hit when Rick Pitino decided to open his mouth recently. In the face of a sex scandal involving the now-estranged wife of his equipment manager, Pitino lashed out at the media for its coverage of the ongoing saga.

Pitino was especially sensitive about the release of audio and video recordings of phone calls and an interview with Karen Sypher, the woman at the heart of the scandal, which Pitino's wife has apparently seen and/or heard.

Let me get this straight: Rick Pitino (a devout Catholic) cheats on his wife and five children with the wife of a close friend/co-worker, allegedly pays for an abortion (because he didn't practice safe sex and would hate to ruin his reputation), keeps it all a secret for years, lies about anything ever happening when the woman attempts to blackmail him for millions of dollars, finally apologizes for an "indiscretion" (aka he doesn't have the guts to verbalize his actions), and he's mad at the world because his wife is pissed off...

World to Rick Pitino: You're an idiot. You deserve any ill-will that comes your way. How can you be mad at the media for doing their job when you're the one to blame?

Pitino is more at fault than Michael Vick as far as I'm concerned: To this very day Vick is persecuted by the public because he killed dogs. And he lost everything because of it: Millions of dollars in salary and endorsements, his job, his reputation, and most importantly, his freedom.

Meanwhile, Pitino has torn apart two families -- and he's the one who's mad? He won't go bankrupt. He won't have to find a new job. He certainly won't face jail time. However unfortunate, his lapse in morality cannot be tried in the courtroom.

Like Calipari, it's not likely that Rick Pitino will face any punishment from either the NCAA or his current employer. But he may face many questions from the parents of potential recruits. Would you send your child to a program that's led by a cheater and a liar?

I'm not a horse racing fan, but it's a shame that the Triple Crown doesn't come around until next spring. The citizens of Kentucky sure could use something else to talk about.