Sportsfrog.com

It is just about as bad as you can imagine for a town. The brief rundown:

1. King of the sports scene is Memphis Tigers basketball. Which is currently fighting the NCAA to retain the right to keep a banner flying from their choke against Kansas a few years back. And is dealing with the aftermath of John Calipari. And that’s the good part.

2. Memphis Grizzlies. Well. Yeah. Hasheem Thabeet broke his jaw on Zach Randolph’s head last night. Seriously.

3. Memphis Tigers football. Always the last in interest, in no small part because they generally suck. And even when they don’t (Deangelo Williams years), not enough of a vision to build on his competence.

It is that last part that has Memphis on the 24-hour sports cycles at the moment, as pieces of fired coach Tommy West’s rather on-point rant are getting air play from ESPN. West, among other items, told the Memphis administration to either support the program or give it up. And, he’s right. The Tigers have among the worst practice facilities in the country for an alleged big-time program and play in the off-campus crypt that is the Liberty Bowl. A few years back when some of the big money donors who actually care about the campus and the program came up with a reasonable plan for a genuine on-campus stadium of the appropriate size (35,000 – 40,000), the Memphis President and AD went out of their way to kill the idea. Why? I have no clue. Few do. Incompetence? Laziness?

At any rate, Memphis still retains RC Johnson as their AD. He was last seen fucking up the end of the John Calipari era, fucking up the handling of the NCAA investigation into Derrick Rose, bumbling through the hiring of Calipari’s replacement, is now tasked with replacing West and articulating a vision for the program. And he is woefully overmatched. Why? Incompetence? Laziness? The theme returns. Be that as it may, Johnson has provided one of the truly comical moments you could ever hope to get from a bumbling fool, after he followed West to the podium following West’s rant. I will let Geoff Calkins, Memphis Commercial Appeal columnist pick up the thread:

That’s right. West said Memphis should do away with the program rather than continue it as it has been. Wonder how that is going to play with potential candidates to replace him? Or with the guy who preceded him at the lectern? If West came out in favor of massive changes, RC Johnson seemed to prefer — you sitting down for this? — more of the same. He didn’t outline a larger vision for the program. He didn’t say he planned to change anything but the coach. “I shared with him I wanted our program to go in a different direction,” Johnson said. “What direction?” came the natural follow-up. “I don’t know if there’s a specific that I can give you,” he said. Is anyone out there surprised? Johnson didn’t say he had a plan to transform facilities. He didn’t say he understood Memphis would have to be much more aggressive in the coming years. He said, “I think this is a good situation.” Er, why? “I just think being in a populated area gives us a head start on some people,” he said. Riiight. Because big cities are known for their college football teams.

“We have a great airport,” Johnson continued.

Yes, indeed, he really said that. Coaches can’t take private planes to get recruits, see. So Memphis is going to put its dramatic airport-advantage to work. Let Tennessee and Ole Miss show recruits their indoor practice fields, massive scoreboards and on-campus stadiums. The new Memphis coach can show them Terminal B. “And if you come play at Memphis, young man, you, too can smoke cigarettes at Maggie O’Shea’s!” It was pathetic, honestly. It’s the reason West gave the speech he gave.

That’s just pure wonderful. The airport. It is the Memphis airport that makes the one of the worst jobs in college football attractive. And you know what’s even better? The Memphis airport sucks. Truly.

The incompetence and laziness from RC Johnson, it burns. It burns bad. At the least, the airport bizarreness has unleashed the funny in a lot of people. Peter Edmiston, co-host of the Memphis sportstalk morning show on 560 WHBQ had a series of tweets in the aftermath of that which were choice, including this:

During the toughest times in my life, there were only one set of footprints – because #memphisairport had been carrying me all along.

Heh.

As for Memphis football, Memphis basketball, Memphis “pro” basketball, well, beyond sad. A wasteland of despair and pain.

1. Uber-incompetent or uber-corrupt Athletic Director RC Johnson (take your pick) had “no plans” to tell anyone about the allegations prior to the June 6 hearing before the NCAA. Stupid Freedom of Information Act Request. And apparently Johnson’s bad luck that Memphis still (if only barely due to staff cuts) has an actual newspaper.

2. New coach Josh Pastner, who was an assistant of Calipari, was not told and had no idea about the allegations when he was offered and took the job.

Seriously. Because why would that be pertinent information for someone considering an offer to coach at a university?

The CA hit Johnson with the “why did you sit on it” question and got this in the exchange:

It’s highly common for universities to publicly announce an investigation and then release information about a pending NCAA charge within a few weeks of receiving a letter like the one Memphis received.

Johnson, however, said, “Talking about it publicly, I don’t know that that really gains anything. We’re not trying to hide anything. We’re trying to be as efficient as possible.”

What the fuck does that mean? Why is he babbling about being efficient? CA columnist Geoff Calkins (one of the really good ones) absolutely lays RC Johnson bare on this and his general incompetence when it came to management of Calipari and the men’s basketball program. It is a good read. Have at it.

…has not covered themselves in glory. At all.

So…the initial word from the NCAA that they were looking into questions over the Derrick Rose SAT test was in September of 2008. The formal letter of investigation and inquiry was issued in January 2009 (three counts against the men’s basketball program, three against women’s golf. Because when you think Memphis college sports, you think women’s golf…). And RC Johnson, Memphis’ AD, and Shirley Raines, Memphis’ President, sit on that and do not advise the public until forced to via a Freedom of Information Act request from the Commerical Appeal? Five months after formal notice and nine months after the initial inquiry? Really?

That seems ridiculously ill-advised. It is Public Relations 101 that when you have bad news (or potentially bad news), you get out in front of it. That serves two basic functions: (1) it lets you control the story a bit and (2) it keeps people from assuming that you are hiding somerthing.

Well, RC Johnson. What are you hiding? Because a quick google search yields that the general way universities handle this kind of formal notice is to make it public within a few days or at least within a week of receiving such notice. Generally with a statement that they are cooperating/want to get to the bottom of it etc. Which, at the very least, makes it look like the school is taking the matter seriously and has nothing to hide. Peter Edmiston, morning Sportstalk Host on 560 WHBQ did a quick google spin this morning and found, at first glance that initial full disclosure of the investigation is the norm.

So, why not here? And what of the fact that this was known to all Memphis decision makers when the Calipari to Kentucky stuff came up? And was it known to Kentucky as well? The word is it appears to have been. Just not to their fan base and the Kentucky media.

I just cannot fathom what interests were legitimately served by keeping this quiet. In the meantime, Memphis has continued to merrily collect renewals for season tickets, which includes paying the college equivalent of personal seat licences, so, yeah, there’s that. Congrats on sweeping this under the rug as much as possible to try and keep the money flowing a bit longer.

When the NCAA starts poking around this program – seriously poking around this program – what I suspect is that whispers of lack of institutional control will become shouts. And the lack of transparency about this from the Athletic Department only adds to the noise.