TDX

Tragedy spawns debate and debate is what is necessary for progress.  The tragedy in Newtown, CT has reignited a national debate on gun control and our nation’s handling of mental illness.  The answer?  We’re working on it.  Before we’re quick to shout about tighter gun control, or scream about arming teachers and public servants, we have to answer a larger question - choice.  We have an ability - thanks to democracy - to vote.  Sometimes on a grand scale and sometimes locally.  Choice doesn’t make a resolution easy, nor does it determine a perfect outcome.  The safety of our public schools may be addressed in a variety of ways, one of which includes arming a faculty member.  For the public schools I attended, the thought is terrifying considering the faculty composition.  However, it seems imprudent to conclude that goes for all other public schools throughout the United States.  What’s good for some is good for all?  Maybe not.

The semi-automatic weapon used by Adam Lanza seems impractical for interstate commerce, this mind you, coming from a guy who thoroughly enjoyed handling similar weapons just a few short weeks ago on a remote property with homemade cardboard targets.  Let’s start with a common sense approach to the purpose of weapons permitted for sale to the public and sincerely consider the various consumers who may, in fact, derive a sensible reason for procuring them.  Then, move on to a formulating a comprehensive plan to protect our schools and execute to perfection.

As for the handling of mental illness, that’s even tougher…

How did we get here?  To a place where the original members of the Big East conference find it necessary to leave and form their own conference.  It is sad. It’s also perplexing.  I grew up in NJ, went to college in Texas and Alabama, lived for a decade in NYC, and now call Houston home.  That’s relevant because I’ve lived in areas where hoops reign supreme and in places where the pigskin is king.  How one sport (football) came to disrupt another (basketball) really gives any sports fan reason to pause and wonder how the structure of college athletics manufactured such a civil war.  Rivalries aren’t sport-specific.  Sure, they take on greater proportions in sports where the schools, the fans, and the money have a larger interest, but when Alabama plays Auburn, or Georgetown plays Syracuse, or Missouri plays Kansas, the teams competing - whether it’s football, basketball, baseball, or gymnastics - recognize the rivalry and perform as such.  To break up conferences, or hop from one to another with any degree of frequency, destroys the rivalries.  There is one factor that is, despite what otherwise may seem obvious, more valuable than money - tradition.  Tradition means relevancy.  It means emotion.  It means more than the ‘now’.  I shutter to think what might happen to collegiate athletics if too many rivalries simply disappear under the premise that money will manifest new rivalries.  You can’t buy emotion, you can’t replace tradition, and you can’t fake relevancy.  

SO F*ing MAD

Why John Calipari and his University of Kentucky Wildcats should be disqualified from the NCAA Tournament

I hate John Calipari.  Seriously.  I hate him.  Hate is a strong word.  Yes, it is.  And it perfectly describes how I feel about University of Kentucky men’s basketball coach, John Calipari.  Look at him.  He’s the slick-haired moron in the photo above.  Ahhhhh…I just want to strangle the life outta him.  

*deep breath*…*deeeeeep breath*…that’s better

So why do I hate John Calipari?  Is it because his team is ranked #1?  Is it because his team is the overwhelming favorite to win the NCAA Tournament this year?  Nope.  None of those reasons.  In fact, as a New Jersey-bred guy who always roots for athletes from the Garden State, it pains me to see freshman, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, from Elizabeth, NJ playing so well for a Kentucky squad that is good enough to beat NBA teams.  Consistently.

First, Calipari built the University of Massachusetts (UMASS) into a basketball power in the mid-1990s.  They were the it school.  The place where the country’s best high school basketball players flocked.  And UMASS won.  They won big and on big stages.  And then - voila! - it was gone.  The coach was gone.  The players were gone.  The seasons were gone.  Wait, the seasons were gone? Yes, the seasons were wiped clean by the NCAA because of multiple violations.  The school’s basketball program was left in ruins.  Those fabulous players transferred, bolted to the NBA, or just fell off the face of the Earth.  The wins were vacated.  Never happened.  Worst of all, Calipari walked away without a mark.  He skipped town, dabbled in coaching at the NBA level, only to return to the college ranks at Memphis University.  

And guess what happened?

He did the same thing; built a basketball powerhouse attracting the country’s best players, won a shitload of games - except a national championship (I’ll get back to this point later) - and then had the whole thing wiped off the record books because of NCAA infractions.  Yep, whole seasons just disappeared.  They never happened.  Those wins?  Gone.  The players?  Left for the NBA, or dropped out, or transferred to another school.  And guess what?  The basketball program is shit and Calipari walked away without even so much as a slap on the wrist.

He leaves Memphis and goes to Kentucky.  But, and here’s the part that really grinds my gears, he acts like nothing happened.  Like he didn’t do anything wrong.

I’m not alone in my hatred for Calipari.  Any decent person who hasn’t filed for moral bankruptcy, despises him.  My buddy, Wade, stews about Calipari too.  Perhaps sharing that hatred has helped foster our friendship?  But I digress.  

But why?

Because we can’t figure out how Calipari is still coaching.  Why he’s not banished to Beirut.  Why other schools just refuse to play against teams he coaches.  Why anyone hires him! On top of it all, we still can’t quite confirm whether he is just so stupid he can’t figure out why everything he touches turns to shit, or if he’s just smart enough to act oblivious to it all.  I think he’s retarded…but maybe he’s not.  Regardless, he just shouldn’t be anywhere near a sport millions enjoy playing and watching.  He is crushing it…in a bad way.

I pose to you this scenario; imagine Calipari was the CEO of your favorite Internet site  in, say, 1998 - AOL.  And then the whole damn thing implodes.  Then, just as you’re beginning to get the hang of this social media thing, he returns as the head of MySpace and destroys it too.  Now, how would you feel if, suddenly, Calipari is appointed the CEO of Facebook?  

WHAT THE FUCK is he doing here?  Who is hiring this guy?  Why does he insist on ruining everything?

You would be livid - rightfully so - because he would screw it up and kill the whole, beautiful tool so many of us derive so much value from.  That’s exactly what I know - and Wade knows - and everybody knows is going to happen to the University of Kentucky’s men’s basketball program.  These past few seasons, marked by wonderfully gifted players, dozens upon dozens of wins, and a shitload of revenue for the university, will be wiped off the books.  I’m wasting my time - and you are too - watching a basketball team play games that, when we look back at the history books, will show that they never happened.  They won’t count.  Calipari’s teams never count.  Schools doing the right thing will be penalized because they will never get a chance to play for a national championship as long as Calipari keeps assembling a professional team masquerading as a college squad that decimates opponents.

“It all comes out in the wash,” says my astute friend, Weissman.  It does.  Or at least it has. To this point, Calipari has not coached a team to a national championship.  His teams always screw up at the most important moments.  They’re always the best team - clearly.  But lose championships.

So maybe, just maybe, when this year’s squad plays in the Final Four, an underdog team will knock off the Kentucky Wildcats - preventing them from winning a crown Calipari wants so badly, yet is so far from deserving.  If his team does break through and win the title, future generations will not know.  In the future, the record books will show the winner of this year’s NCAA Tournament as…

2012 - _N/A_