Report: NCAA Investigating Kentucky’s Eric Bledsoe

It seems that it’s another school, another investigation for Kentucky head coach John Calipari. The New York Times is reporting that the NCAA is investigating the academic and financial circumstances surrounding Eric Bledsoe’s final year in high school.

According to the Times’ story:

Brenda Axle, the landlord for the house where Bledsoe and his mother moved for his senior year of high school, said that Bledsoe’s high school coach paid her at least three months’ rent, or $1,200. ... Maurice Ford, the coach, denied paying the money.

A copy of Bledsoe’s high school transcript from his first three years reveals that it would have taken an improbable academic makeover -- a jump from about a 1.9 grade-point average in core courses to just under a 2.5 during his senior year -- for Bledsoe to achieve minimum N.C.A.A. standards to qualify for a scholarship.

A college coach who recruited Bledsoe said that Ford explicitly told his coaching staff that he needed a specific amount of money to let Bledsoe sign with that university. The coach, who did not want to be named out of fear of repercussions when recruiting in Birmingham, said Ford told him and his staff that he was asking for money because he was helping pay rent for Bledsoe and his mother. Ford denied this, saying, “I don’t prostitute my kids.”

If that second allegation sounds slightly familiar, you’ve been paying attention to an investigation at Memphis, Calipari’s last head coaching stop, which was forced to give up a Final Four appearance because of Derrick Rose’s eventually invalidated SAT scores. Those scores were markedly better than Rose might have been expected to score based on his ACTs.