Anyone who follows College Basketball, knows about ESPN Analyst Dick Vitale and the fact he likes to go on rants from time to time. Well earlier today, he took to twitter in response to the legion of fans about their unfounded comparison of Kentucky Coach John Calipari.
Amazing all the tweets I have rec'd on Larry Brown stating @UKCoachCalipari should be banned /get facts/never charged he was cleared by NCAA
— Dick Vitale (@DickieV) September 30, 2015
Dick Vitale Twitter Video To Follow.
On Tuesday, the NCAA banned Southern Methodist University basketball from the 2016 postseason and suspended coach Larry Brown nine games for multiple rules and academic violations.
After news came down, apparently Vitale was inundated with tweets comparing Kentucky coach John Calipari’s past to Brown’s NCAA indiscretions. Kansas and UCLA also received NCAA sanctions after Brown began coaching there.
These tweets from fans apparently pushed Vitale into deciding to record this video and try to set the fans straight.
“I’m unbelievably taken back by all the tweets I’m getting concerning John Calipari,” he said. “You would have thought he was in the headline yesterday instead of Larry Brown. It’s unreal. … You people just don’t get it, man. You don’t get it. You have an anti-sentiment against Kentucky, and certainly against Calipari. Success, success, success brings that all out. You know, you people trying to equate him with the Larry Brown situation, understand the facts. Many of you just don’t get the facts. They don’t want to hear the facts. It’s really amazing.”
Then Vitale proceeds to say he isn’t going to get any more into it… before getting more into it.
“The facts are that the NCAA cleared (Calipari) of any scenario of being involved in the infractions both at Memphis and the University of Massachusetts,” Vitale said. “The one at Massachusetts involved an agent with Marcus Camby. It was proven John Calipari was totally out of the mix. At Memphis with Derrick Rose and his SAT scores it was, again, proved that he had nothing in any shape or form … but people don’t want to hear that.”
After some audio difficulties, Vitale gets more into Brown’s situation directly.
“Larry Brown – brilliant tactician, great coach. Nobody can deny that. But please, … how SMU can justify allowing him to continue to coach is beyond me. There is nobody who has been a bigger fan of coaches than I have been, but I’m telling you … Larry Brown was a vital reason why UCLA was placed on probation. Fact No. 2: Larry Brown was a reason why Kansas was placed on probation. Fact No. 3: Larry Brown was a vital reason why SMU was placed on probation. That’s three strikes, man. Three strikes, you’re out. You should be banned from coaching on the collegiate level. Should not be allowed to coach college basketball. That is fact – fact No. 4.”
