FanHouse DerrickRose

You're going to have to forgive us here in the early season for a bit. If we don't report on trends that are developing, we're ignoring what we're seeing. If we do tell you what we see, we're over-emphasizing games that are so young in this season that they can't even legally get into a screening of New Moon.

Basically, that's my way of imploring you to remember that we do take these things with a gigantic mountain of salt, but here's what happened. And trust me, the Spurs are going to want to brush this one off.

FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.

The 2008 Bulls, hopefully, won't be remembered for defining mediocrity at 41-41. Instead, they'll likely be remembered for a thrilling first round series against the Boston Celtics in which were able to only do so much (it's italicized because it's a shoddy theme, y'all!) before heading home for the offseason.

And that offseason saw them very quickly lose -- even if it was expected -- their top scorer from last year. Ben Gordon's explosive, albeit one-dimensional, game will be missed a team that was already middle of the pack in terms of offensive efficiency last year. And John Salmons, a trade-deadline addition along with Brad Miller, will help counter Gordon's loss, but, guess what? He can only do so much.

The punishment never seemed to fit the crime when the NCAA decided to erase Memphis' entire 2007-08 Final Four season because star point guard Derrick Rose allegedly committed academic fraud by not taking the SAT college admission test himself.

Even with no solid proof Rose didn't take the exam and certainly no evidence Memphis played any part in the alleged fraud, the NCAA still took away all 38 of the Tigers' wins.

On Thursday, Memphis filed an appeal of the sanctions according to a story in the Memphis Commercial Appeal.

I don't aim to defend the practice of cheating on your SAT, as Bulls star Derrick Rose is alleged to have done prior to enrolling at the University of Memphis in 2007. Even at age 17, Rose should know better. His brother Reggie Rose should have known better. Any other advisers potentially involved in the alleged fake-out should have known better. No excuse erases that.

But humor me for a second. We're told by David Stern that the NBA age minimum is a business decision, that the league's owners benefit from being able to see these bucks play for a year elsewhere (college, Europe, D-League). That the league benefits from being able to remove its scouts from high school gyms and AAU tournaments. That, in the end, the players benefit from the softer transition from amateur to pro.

Rose, one of the league's brightest young stars, saw his reputation take a massive hit Wednesday, all for a violation that never would have occurred if he didn't have to wait a year to join the league. The age minimum rule essentially paved the way for the criminalization of Rose's image. And Rose isn't the only one.

New Memphis basketball coach Josh Pastner was bracing for anything, but hoping for the worst as he, along with all the Tigers faithful, awaited Thursday's NCAA ruling on a two major infractions.

Pastner was able to let loose a sigh of relief Thursday afternoon once the NCAA Committee on Infractions ruling was official. The Memphis Tigers program was ordered to vacate its 38-win Final Four season under John Calipari and the team is on three years probation, but the silver-lining in it all for Pastner was there are no sanctions for the current or future teams, meaning there is no postseason ban or reduction in scholarships.

"You hate to see anything like this happen in the sport you love to student-athletes, coaches, university officials, that's no fun for anybody," Pastner told FanHouse Thursday. "But for us, the current and future of the program, there are so many positives to look forward to. Nothing inhibits us from competing at the highest level and having an opportunity to win at the highest level and compete for the best student-athletes in the country."

On this episode of the Young And The Cap Flexible...

In our last episode, we clued you into a potential deal that would send Carlos Boozer to Chicago, Kirk Hinrich to Portland, and Tyrus Thomas to Utah, among other moving pieces. The deal was refuted by several sources, but ESPN's sticking to their guns that the deal is on the table, but has hit a snag.

That snag? The Blazers insistence on keeping a phenomenal young player so that they can ... not play him?

According to Stein and Ford (the newest cast members of Dragnet), the snag is Jerryd Bayless.

This photo has been making the internet rounds over the past few days, and it features a younger Derrick Rose flashing what appears to be some sort of gang sign.

Gang signs and professional athletes, as you might imagine, don't mix very well. Especially if you're the multi-million dollar organization, or the multi-billion dollar league that employs the athlete in question. Quite simply, it's bad PR, which in turn is bad for business.

That's why Rose issued a statement apologizing for his appearance in the photo, even though it's pretty clear after reading it that he (in all likelihood) had absolutely nothing to do with drawing it up.

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!"

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.