Wednesday, September 09, 2009

The "Character Thing" at Kentucky's universities

In a pre-game interview before last weekend's University of Kentucky football game with the University of Miami at Ohio, UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart went on and on about how important it is that coaches at the school be models of character.

Nevermind that this is the guy who hired Billy Gillespie, the more important point is that one wonders what Barnhart would have to say about U of L President James Ramsey's mishandling of the Rick Pitino scandal (after which you try to change the subject). In fact, the pink elephant in the room of the whole discussion was Pitino. And although it was Ramsey, not Barnhardt, who is to blame for the whole Pitino fiasco, it is hard to believe that winning isn't King at UK just like it is at U of L.

If Billy Gillespie had had the same record as Pitino, and had a DUI, what would Barnhart and Todd have done? If Gillespie had been successful at coaching and continued to avert an actual DUI charge because of the kind of legal leniency that traditionally seems to apply to successful big college coaches (and that was apparently applied to Gillespie in past encounters with state troopers), what would Barnhart and Todd do?

It's hard to believe they wouldn't do the same thing Ramsey did. But I'd love to be proved wrong.

2 comments:

Art said...

"It's hard to believe they wouldn't do the same thing Ramsey did. But I'd love to be proved wrong."

So you want Calipari to: 1. Get stinking drunk; 2. Drive around town; and 3. Get stopped by law enforcement?

You're a pretty twisted sister, Martin.

Martin Cothran said...

I suppose you're right.