FanHouse Memphis Basketball

Lance Stephenson is one of the top high school players in the country. He was a McDonald's All-American. He is also just about the only major recruit not running screaming from the rubble of USC that is without a college destination.

Where once he seemed headed for Kansas, that door has closed. Arizona opted against wanting him. Now Maryland has decided they are not interested any longer.

Like or loathe the NCAA, this much is certain about this unique, voluntary association that houses the largest collegiate athletic organization in the world:

It's good to be the King -- and royalty certainly works at its own pace and plays by its own rules.

Following Thursday's announcement that 16 teams at the University of Alabama have been penalized for their involvement in improperly obtaining free textbooks for other students, three high-profile NCAA investigations are currently on the books for fans to score at their leisure.

Memphis officials, Kentucky coach John Calipari and the NCAA had their little four-hour pow-wow Saturday concerning that whole SAT scandal. The verdict? No verdict for six weeks or so, reports the Associated Press. As Clay Travis discussed Friday, Calipari is hiding chilling in China and had to phone in to the assuredly awkward hearing. (Note that he had to phone in. The NCAA demanded he participate, even if he's on the other side of the planet.)

Six weeks (or more) leaves a lot of time for Tigers fans to sweat the impending doom of (gasp!) NCAA sanctions. But even more, it provides the opportunity for more allegations to come out against the program. Since the Derrick Rose story came to light, reports have placed the SAT scores of Robert Dozier in question. Another month-and-a-half leaves plenty of time for more shady recruiting stories to pop out.

Saturday, Memphis appears before the NCAA Infractions Committee to discuss the Derrick Rose -- excuse us, name redacted -- imbroglio. Kentucky coach John Calipari will not be physically present. Why not? Because he has a previously scheduled trip to China. Boy, is that convenient. Coach Cal has known since mid-January that Memphis would be appearing before the infractions committee on June 5-7, 2009 (the letter preceding the notice of allegations informed Memphis of this date), and he just happens to schedule a trip to China during that time?

What a coincidence!

Calipari informed the NCAA via letter that he'd love to attend the hearing, but would be in China. The NCAA replied that they wanted him there anyway, by phone if necessary, foiling Calipari's ultimate rejoinder. "The NCAA hearing? I don't know anything about that. I was in China when they had the infractions hearing!"

Great timing, Memphis. Pay a visit to the Tigers' Athletic Compliance page and you'll see that it is "temporarily under construction" (hat tip to Gary Parrish at CBS Sports).

I'm sure Memphis' athletic department has a lot on its plate in preparation for tomorrow's hearing before the NCAA Rules and Infractions Committee, but they might want to get on this.

What a bombshell from the University of Memphis. It has exhaustively determined that it has found nothing to suggest Derrick Rose did not take his own SAT test. Just for good measure it has also concluded that even if -- somehow -- it did turn out that someone other than Derrick Rose took the SAT there was no way the school could have known. Therefore, in Memphis' humble opinion, there should be no punishment of Memphis.

The main thrust of the document (PDF) seems to be to make it clear that Memphis knew nothing. This should not be surprising since it will be a document that Memphis plans to submit to the NCAA as part of its defense.

When initial reports surfaced of the allegations against the University of Memphis when it came to an anonymous freshman's contested SAT results, most assumed the University learned of the charges on January 16, 2009 when they received a letter of discovery from the NCAA. According to an ESPN report by Andy Katz, that isn't exactly true.

The University of Memphis actually found out about the nefarious testing allegations via email, and they found out just one month after their April 7, 2008 NCAA Championship appearance. Public assumptions -- due to the logistics of the allegations -- point to then-freshman superstar Derrick Rose, who now plays for the NBA's Chicago Bulls.

Lost amid the kerfuffle overtaking John Calipari, Memphis, and Kentucky is the question that everyone should be asking: Is your average athletic director smart enough to handle their job given the intense pressure and attention that now descends upon the position?

"With the first pick in the 2008 NBA draft, the Chicago Bulls select Derrick Rose from the University of Memphis."

That's what NBA commissioner David Stern said 11 months ago. Now, the NCAA apparently thinks that someone else took Rose's SAT college entrance exam for him, helping him to be eligible at Memphis.

When the news of the NCAA investigation of the University of Memphis broke, the first thing that came to mind was that Kentucky is heading down the same road as Indiana -- having hired a coach who recently came under fire by the NCAA. The situation does seem a bit different, though, because the allegations at Memphis are allegedly not personally tied to John Calipari.

On the other hand, Kentucky knew the allegations were coming to a head and would be made public prior to the June 6 hearing. UK officials have released a statement that says as much.