Krause: Same old, Same old with Calipari and his tainted accomplishments

Does anyone truly believe that John Calipari was totally in the dark about the possibility that 2008 freshman phenom Derrick Rose had his college boards taken for him?I know I don’t. He may not have initiated it, but I’m not at all convinced that he had no prior knowledge of his tremendous fortune in landing one of the nation’s true blue chippers.Of course, why should anyone believe him? Calipari may lead the league when it comes to taking programs to rarified heights – and then having the accomplishments tainted, and then taken away, because of rules violations. He took UMass to the Final Four in the 1990s and then had that regional championship vacated because Marcus Camby received improper gifts. By then, naturally, Camby was in the NBA and Calipari had fled Amherst ahead of the posse.Now, the same thing has happened again. Memphis has had its regional championship – in fact, its entire 2007-2008 season – vacated, and Calipari has fled Tennessee to take over the head coaching job at Kentucky.How ironic is that, by the way? Calipari was a protégé of sorts of Rick Pitino – who used to coach at Kentucky, and who is now embroiled in a mess that might even put his pupil’s problems to shame.What a pair.If I were a student – not an athlete, but just a regular chemistry major or something – at either Louisville, Memphis or Kentucky I’d be marching, along with my fellow suckers, en masse, on the administration building demanding a refund. And I’d be demanding it out of the hide of Rick Pitino and John Calipairi.Why do these guys even have jobs, let alone prestigious occupations that pay them millions of dollars? Without getting too political about it, can anyone honestly argue that Pitino has covered himself in anything except excrement in the aftermath of the affair he had three years ago? I mean, you can’t GO lower than that.And while Calipari hasn’t quite reached that level, he’s working on some pretty impressive stats himself. He may never have won a national championship, but he’s certainly at the top of the list when it comes to presiding over programs that utterly and completely disgrace themselves and the kids – like Lynn’s Antonio Anderson – who have gone through their systems.How do you suppose Antonio feels today? Here’s a kid who did everything right, came back to Lynn a conquering hero, and now? Sure, the vacated title only shows up in the record books, and sure, regardless of what the NCAA says, Anderson and Memphis earned their regional title, and their subsequent appearance in the national final – on the court.But I’m guessing that asterisk next to 2008 – the one that designates that whatever Memphis may have accomplished, it officially doesn’t exist anymore – will stick to his crew more and more as the years go on.What must these esteemed institutions of higher learning be thinking, continuing not only to have these men represent them, but endorsing them as well? What must the citizens of Kentucky and Tennessee be thinking? This cannot be where we want higher education go go, can it?OK. Lest Cal’s lawyers come after me, I should qualify all this by saying nobody can pin a thing on him. But anyone who knows college athletics knows that coaches have total – and I mean TOTAL – control. So unless you’re totally naïve, you have to know that really means that Calipari insulated himself with enough layers of lackeys so that none of this can ever touch him legally.This hasn’t been a kind era to cheaters, between baseball and steroids, and now the exposure of two of college basketball’s most celebrated coaches as frauds and creeps. And while the dirty deeds that gained them their notoriety may be reprehensible, the laws of Karmic Retribution are at least working. And that can only be seen as a good thing.Steve Krause is sports editor of The Item