Saturday, August 29, 2009

Topic 6: Memphis Tigers Stripped of 2007-2008 Season Stats, Final Four Appearance




On August 20th the NCAA stripped the Memphis Tigers basketball team of their 2007-2008 season, which included an NCAA record 38 wins and a runner-up finish in the NCAA Tournament. The ruling came because of the ineligibility of (at the time) freshman Derrick Rose, now with the NBA's Chicago Bulls, to play that season. It was reported that he did not take his own SAT and that his brother was allowed to fly with the team to away games. This ruling also weakened the Kansas Jayhawks defeat of the Tigers in the 2008 title game.
I love the scenarios surrounding this story. Rose is now in the NBA, rich as can be, so this doesn't really affect him. John Calipari is now at the University of Kentucky, but this makes this twice that a Final Four appearance has been stripped from his records, another being with UMass in 1994. Now his resume has two big stains on it, and he carries that baggage with him to one of the most prestigious schools in NCAA basketball. And then there is U of M basketball, with an unproven coach (Josh Pastner), guys transfering left and right, committing to new schools, and a big blot on their prestige. They really have gotten the short end of the deal, and they're left trying to keep up their new found prestige with a group of unproven players, a Kansas school angered by a tarnished victory, and a coach that abandoned them when it couldn't get any better in the Mississippi Delta.
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