Gopher assistant, Saul Smith, comments on Cal/UK mess

via his Facebook page:

Meanwhile, former UK point guard Saul Smith used his Facebook page to caution the basketball program about running afoul of NCAA rules. He questioned Barnhart's leadership of the athletic department.

"Bad bad day for my alma mater," Smith wrote on his Facebook page Thursday. "The UK athletic program will never regain its true champion nature with Businessmen running it. Never, no matter how many so called blue chip players you bring in. You can't sacrifice your integrity for success. You just can't do it. I'm an alum and I deserve a clean-ran program, plain and simple. Period, and if anyone disagrees, you, my friend, shouldn't support the program I played 4."

Smith now works as an assistant coach for his father, former UK coach Tubby Smith, at Minnesota.

Later in a follow-up interview, Smith said he did not mean to suggest Calipari used questionable methods.

"Coach Cal is my guy," Smith said. "I'm close to him."

Smith said he interviewed for a spot on Calipari's Memphis staff in 2007.

Of the Memphis allegations, Smith said of Calipari, "I don't think he knew about it."

Smith also said his father refused to "pay" for players as Kentucky coach.

"He had the opportunity to get great players," Saul Smith said. "But the integrity wouldn't be there. ...

"I'm not saying Cal has done that. I'm just saying (Kentucky) can't afford it. We've been down that road."

The Smiths, father and son, witnessed Rick Pitino's resurrection of Kentucky basketball after the rules violations — including academic fraud — and subsequent NCAA penalties of the late 1980s.

Apparently, there was a negative reaction to Smith's word of caution.

Later, he made another posting on Facebook. It read: "1st of all. Calipari is my guy. UK is my team. Where r u knuckleheads coming up with this crap. All I said was I'm sick of hearing negative about my alma mater (u know the team I bled, sweated, and cried for. U know the program I have 6 SEC titles and 1 national title)."

http://www.kentucky.com/978/story/811565.html

Go Gophers!!

In this instance, it would have behooved Saul to avoid comment on the Cal/Memphis/Kentucky situation. Not good judgment, moreso because his father used to be the head man at UK than him being a former Wildcat player. He had to know nothing good could come out of it.

Chat boards, facebook, blogs, twitter, etc are not always what they're cracked up to be. Some users don't show the sense they were born with.

SelectionSunday said:

In this instance, it would have behooved Saul to avoid comment on the Cal/Memphis/Kentucky situation. Not good judgment, moreso because his father used to be the head man at UK than him being a former Wildcat player. He had to know nothing good could come out of it.

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Seriously, a D-1 assistant coach shouldn't be making zingers about another school on a public forum like Facebook. If Saul wants to diss Kentucky, he can do it anonymously on a board like this!

Normally I don't like coaches taking shots at other programs, but I don't think Saul has to apologize for anything. As a 4 year player/alum he has the right to speak out if something upsets him. He was pretty vague in his criticism, and could have been talking about plenty of things unrelated to Calapari and the Memphis allegations (signing John Wall after he was arrested, running off players to bring in new recruits, UK's mess with Billy G and the lawsuit that followed, etc).

Just because he coaches somewhere else now, that doesn't mean he doesn't get to speak up. If he started saying stuff about another school's problems that would bother me, but I don't think this is a bad thing.

I think Saul forgot who he is now. I have a feeling Dad will be talking to him soon.