Stop, ESPN, just stop

I love college basketball.

I love how, even though there are obviously teams favored to win the championship, anyone has a chance to make it to the NCAA Tournament and once there, anyone theoretically has a chance to win. It's better than college football, where the SEC is basically one national semifinal and everyone else is playing for one spot in the championship game. (I also don't have all that much faith in the four-team playoff, as I'm sure within a year that the cry will be for two, three or perhaps all four teams to be from the SEC.)

I wish I had the time and stamina to watch all of ESPN's Tip-Off Marathon, continuing as I write with Virginia Commonwealth against Virginia.

So why am I getting so ticked off?

The centerpiece of the marathon is the Champions Classic doubleheader in Chicago that starts with Kentucky-Michigan State and wraps up with Duke-Kansas. (Given Mrs. Last Honest's sympathies, however, we may wind up watching Florida-Wisconsin, which isn't too shabby, either.)

For the past few days, ESPN's promotion has been grating on me, in that they continually referred to the Duke-Kansas game not as a contest between the Blue Devils and Jayhawks, but between star freshmen Jabari Parker of Duke and Andrew Wiggins of Kansas.

I'm confused by all the @ESPN promos. #Duke and #Kansas are going to be able to play five guys at a time, right? It's not 1-on-1?
— LastHonestSportsFan (@LastHonestSport) November 12, 2013

I still haven't gotten an answer from The Worldwide Leader, but that's not even what has really gotten my goat.

This is.

One big reason you should watch the #ChampionsClassic: 6 of the top 10 in Chad Ford’s NBA Draft Rankings are playing.
— ESPN (@espn) November 13, 2013

I don't know ... how about that four legendary, really good teams with four of the best coaches in the country are playing at a neutral site on Nov. 12 when many of your best teams are content to challenge themselves by playing home games against No-Chance State? There are obviously countless things that could (and likely will) happen between now and then, but it would be no surprise to see these same four teams in Arlington next April.

For God's sake, NBA teams have barely started tanking to get one of those prize draft picks next year, so can we let the players that they're desperately trying to get play a little for the teams they're actually playing for now?

Hey ESPN, if you're so fixated on next year's draft, you might miss some pretty good basketball between now and then.

Is it the Kentucky players we're mad about?

On his Twitter feed this morning, Jay Bilas recommended an article by William C. Rhoden of the New York Times about the "outrage" (Rhoden's word) over the impending departures of University of Kentucky basketball players for the NBA, the latest John Calipari players to leave after just a year or two in college.

Rhoden has a guess as to why.

If the core of the Kentucky team had been made up of white players with phenomenal athleticism and acumen at every position — operating in the context of a largely black sport — we would not be hearing the complaining. Their success would not be seen as a debasement. The team would be celebrated and feted — as Butler was, as Gonzaga used to be.

Last week, I asked Tom Izzo, the basketball coach at Michigan State, if he thought a highly talented, highly athletic team of white players would be viewed differently.

“I want to answer that as honestly as I can,” Izzo said. “I think it would be different. I hate to say that.”

The perception is that these five black players are not serious students and don’t belong at the university. If they were white, there would be more acceptance that they belong at the university.

Rhoden's piece actually has a fairly interesting anecdote about Izzo encouraging Zach Randolph to go the NBA after his freshman year, even though he didn't think Randolph was mentally ready for it.

  

“When Zach Randolph wanted to go, I thought he should go,” Izzo said. “I thought he was one of the poorest kids I ever recruited. I thought he was a good enough player that he could survive. I did not fight him at all.”

Randolph entered the 2001 N.B.A. draft. After the 2004 season, he signed a six-year, $84 million extension; last April, he agreed to a four-year extension with the Memphis Grizzlies worth a guaranteed $66 million. 

“His mother was 100 percent for him staying at the time,” Izzo said, “although I’m sure she feels pretty good about it now.”

I think Rhoden's point about race has some basis in fact. As a matter of fact, I think it may have had a role in the sudden concern people had about the NBA's free agency system when LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony were playing out their free-agent dramas.

But I think Rhoden is missing one potential reason why people are so up in arms over what's going on at Kentucky.

The white guy.

Calipari.

Let's just say that Calipari has a bit of a history with the folks at the NCAA ... if you consider two vacated Final Fours to be "a bit of a history." I know, I know, he personally was never actually implicated; it was just a giant coincidence that all this stuff was going on at UMass and Memphis while he was there.

Combine Calipari's penchant for coincidence, his ability to restock his teams with top recruits at will and the Wildcats' seemingly having no academic issues despite all the one-and-dones even as other teams are being thrown out of future tournaments (by the way, if I read the article right, it seems like the APR would encourage schools to have their players leave early), and there's one thought that comes to mind pretty quickly.

The guy's getting away with something.

In fact, people are so convinced that Calipari's just biding his time until this year's title is stripped, that Dick Vitale brought it up in conjunction with the news that Baylor is possibly facing sanctions over excessive phone calls and text messages, leading to this exchange with Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated.

@dickiev Ppl in BBN - just saying if Baylor situation was about the Cats there would be a wild frenzy attacking Calipari. Read correctly b4 u react.

@richarddeitsch Given UK are the champs, of course there would be more frenzy. But this straw man take makes you come off like a Cal apologist.

@dickiev Apologist 4 what - check NCAA - HAS never been charged-what school in USA would not play Rose if NCAA said he is eligible.

I'm with Deitsch on this one, and had my own response, one which I think Gary Parrish might have agreed with.   

@lasthonestsport Or would people say, "Is that all?"

I have yet to get a reply.