As for the shaming, I’ll just do what you did and remind you that many in the national media called for Swarbrick and Kelly’s termination and/or resignation as a result of those events. I do not personally have enough information to defend those potentially responsible but I assume the family and their legal counsel did. I’ve made my apologies.

As I mentioned in the previous comment, if I personally offended anyone in these comments, I apologize. But what you are doing is essentially attacking these “student athletes” even though you begin by saying they’re “just kids.” That paints all University of Kentucky students and alumni, myself included, in a poor light. This is not Alabama football or Louisville basketball where kids who clearly cannot cut it academically are recruited and then run off campus. This is not North Carolina where the students don’t have to go to class.
I’m not defending what Calipari did before he came to Kentucky as I did not follow him and I am not familiar. I know what he has done since he’s been in Lexington. Ultimately, you’re right that we have a disagreement about college athletics as a whole. I have been a Brian Kelly supporter but my main criticism of him doesn’t relate to on the field performance. I have a problem with how he “recruits” juniors who are contemplating entering the draft. ND football will be better with Ronnie Stanley next year but I’m not sure Ronnie Stanley benefits as much. So far, I have reconciled this by telling myself that football is different than basketball as there are many more risks of long term physical injury.
Again, see my response to Ryan’s comment for my larger point. Saturday was a great game and I hate to see such bitterness in the loss.

Hi jdthom1: thanks for reading and for commenting. I appreciate your thoughtful comment, but I honestly cannot believe that you used the words “John Calipari” and “admirable” in the same sentence. I guess we have a perhaps impossible-to-bridge difference of opinion as to what the role of a college coach, in any sport, is. That said, whatever I wrote, and it was enough to earn a “hyperbolic” badge, pales in comparison to what, for example, Dan Shaughnessy wrote in the Boston Globe on March 7, 2015, calling him, among other sobriquets, “a glorified AAU bag man.” The NCAA’s self-invented metrics, GSR and the Academic Progress Rate (APR), I believe were created to sustain the fallacy of the student-athlete across college sport. That’s the reason I chose to include reference to the Federal Graduation Rate, which, too, is flawed, but ultimately has, as its sina qua non, a requirement that the student graduate. If there’s a flaw in my piece, it’s that I failed to note or otherwise explain that the most recent FGR and GSR numbers come from the 2007 freshman year cohort, two years before Calipari arrived at Kentucky. But, if you look at Memphis, his previous stop, its GSR/FGR numbers for the years he coached there are appalling: the highest GSR, 67, was achieved in 2008-09 based on the 2002 cohort. The 2000-2007 cohorts have not achieved a FGR higher than 55 and average 37.8%. In his first two years at Kentucky, the attrition rate of his freshman classes was 67% and 83.3%, respectively. That he manages the “one-and-done” system well is of really no moment to me as we are, after all, talking about student-athletes.

And since you threw it in the water, I’ll rise to your Seeburg/Sullivan bait for a moment. Shame on you.

You’re right. That’s kind of the point. Those two tragedies, taken out of context by someone with an agenda to attack ND football can be and have been used to leap to misleading allegations and conclusions. If I went too far and personally offended anyone by bringing them up in the comments here, I apologize.
But the larger point was this: You don’t have to attack the opponent to take pride in the season ND basketball just had. The ACC tournament championship was a huge deal and had they gotten the win Saturday I think they win it all. If Kentucky takes care of business and finishes 40-0, this will be THE game everyone talks about when they talk about this UK basketball team and this basketball season. That is a special place in history.

“ND fans should be above making hyperbolic attacks so I’m going to bring up two of the worst tragedies that happened to ND in recent memory and use them to make a point that has absolutely nothing to do with graduation rates” <- you, basically.

Hi jdthom1: thanks for reading and for commenting. I appreciate your thoughtful comment, but I honestly cannot believe that you used the words “John Calipari” and “admirable” in the same sentence. I guess we have a perhaps impossible-to-bridge difference of opinion as to what the role of a college coach, in any sport, is. That said, whatever I wrote, and it was enough to earn a “hyperbolic” badge, pales in comparison to what, for example, Dan Shaughnessy wrote in the Boston Globe on March 7, 2015, calling him, among other sobriquets, “a glorified AAU bag man.” The NCAA’s self-invented metrics, GSR and the Academic Progress Rate (APR), I believe were created to sustain the fallacy of the student-athlete across college sport. That’s the reason I chose to include reference to the Federal Graduation Rate, which, too, is flawed, given that, for example, it does not account for players who are drafted early but return to college to get their degree after the six-year period. If there’s a flaw in my piece, it’s that I failed to note or otherwise explain that the most recent FGR and GSR numbers come from the 2007 freshman year cohort, two years before Calipari arrived at Kentucky. That said, if you look at Memphis, his previous school, their GSR/FGR numbers for the years he coached there are appalling: the highest GSR, 67, was achieved in 2008-09 based on the 2002 cohort. The 2000-2007 cohorts have not achieved a FGR higher than 55 and average 37.8%. In his first two years at Kentucky, the attrition rate of his freshman classes was 67% and 83.3%, respectively. That he manages the “one-and-done” system well is of really no moment to me as we are, after all, talking about student-athletes.

And since you threw it in the water, I’ll rise to your Seeburg/Sullivan bait for a moment. Shame on you.

Bob: thanks for reading and for commenting. I don’t know if NDMBB has ever enjoyed a season as meaningful as this one and I think it could very well turn into one of the more important, if not the most important, in the program’s history. An ACC championship is massive in the world of basketball. Brey’s reputational renaissance is another great thing. Winning the whole thing is unbelievably challenging. ND showed, however, that it can be done by doing it the right way.

John: thanks for reading and for commenting. I couldn’t agree more.