John Calipari is not exactly a stranger when it comes to collegiate athletics scandals, and he firmly believes that anything that allegedly happened on campus is the coach’s responsibility.
Calipari told Tuesday’s edition of “The Mike Lupica Show” that coaches shouldn’t be blamed for incidents that happen when players are away from campus, but that they know everything that goes on if it takes place on campus.
“All I can tell you is this: If it happens on your campus and it happens with your assistants and those people, you probably have a good idea of what’s going on,” Calipari said, via ESPN’s Myron Medcalf. “It happens back in their hometown, it happens back with their family, there’s no way you can know. You just can’t know. All I can say is most coaches have an idea if it happened on their campus. You might not be the first to know about it but you eventually hear about it.”
Calipari also criticized the NCAA for what he felt were double standards and inconsistency in going after rulebreakers.
“It’s unfortunate,” Calipari said. “You wish there was more consistency about how they do things in the NCAA. There’s a belief out there of selective enforcements and some people will call right to [NCAA president Mark Emmert] and say, ‘Get these people off me,’ and it changes. It’s selective. If it isn’t, it appears to you and me and everybody else [that it is].
“My life, even as a college student, has all been through the NCAA, and I’m telling you there’s so much good that comes out of it. We have lost our way. They have lost their way. That’s all I’ve been saying. And everybody’s mad at me and I’m the worst guy in the world and I’m fine with that. I’m at that age where I really don’t care what you think.”
Calipari did not directly reference the Louisville sex scandal, but it’s not hard to envision him taking a few shots at Rick Pitino, particularly when you consider Pitino’s denials of knowledge and jabs at Kentucky in the process. It could also be seen as a rather timely response to what has happened with Art Briles and Baylor’s football program.
