Why Flopping Is Different from Playing One-and-Done Recruits

One of the interesting things about the Kentucky press is how so many smart people can live in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, spend years writing about its basketball team, and never understand what it's like to be a Kentucky fan, or how Kentuckians look at the world.  For example, here is a quote from today's column by our old friend Jerry Tipton at the Lexington Herald-Leader:

When critics question UK's dependence on so-called one-and-done players, Calipari notes that he is following the rules. Likewise, UK opponents like Duke are following the rules when players get in position to force referees to make a decision on blocking or charging.

Now this is a classic Tiptonism -- a shot at the program and its fans, and a boost for Tobacco Road, buried deep into a column that starts off talking about Joe B. Hall.  But, as usual, he misses his target because he doesn't understand how UK fans see the world.

Let's start with the first sentence:  "When critics question UK's dependence on so-called one-and-done players, Calipari notes that he is following the rules."  This is certainly true as far as it goes.  As Tipton concedes, it's not against the rules to have guys like Anthony Davis on your team -- but there is some unspoken "criticism" for UK's efforts to recruit such players, presumably because it feels wrong to people like Jerry Tipton.  But why on earth should we care how he feels -- or how any other critic feels, for that matter?  Guys like Tipton hate Kentucky, hate the UK basketball program, and want to see us lose every game.  Why would we pay any attention to their views on recruiting at all -- much less field weaker teams in order to avoid offending their sensibilities about how the game should be played?  Tipton never explains this -- and he can't explain it, because there is no good reason why UK would value his preferences over the desires of its own fans.

Let's look at his second sentence:  "Likewise, UK opponents like Duke are following the rules when players get in position to force referees to make a decision on blocking or charging."  That "likewise" is meant to signal a parallelism -- in other words, Tipton wants us to conclude that UK violates the spirit of the game when it recruits one-and-dones, but hides behind the rules -- just as Duke violates the spirit of the game when it flops, but hides behind the rules.  But the two cases are not parallel.  Kentucky fans do not complain -- and have never complained -- about players who "get in position to force referees to make a decision on blocking or charging."  Kentucky fans understand the principles of defensive basketball, and they know that when someone is heading for the basket, a good defensive player gets in the way and sets his feet.  No one has a problem with this, and Tipton is wrong to pretend that this is what UK fans are complaining about.  Our complaint with "UK opponents like Duke" (i.e., Duke and UNC) is that they are cheating.  Their players are throwing themselves to the ground with the cynical expectation that because they play for Duke or UNC, there is a good chance that referees will call charges when no charge has actually taken place.  And that expectation exists because they do, in fact, get calls that no other team would get.  Time after time the other night, UK players were called for charging fouls that should not have been called -- and that would not have been called against almost every other team.  Again: this is cheating and it should not be tolerated.


Tipton could have figured this out if he had thought about why Calipari used the term "flopping" to describe what Duke was doing.  No one would criticize someone for "taking a charge" -- Calipari himself urges his guys to do this.  But "flopping" implies that the defensive player is not merely taking a charge, but is faking in an effort to persuade the official to call a foul that never took place.

So Tipton's alleged parallel falls apart.  There is a huge difference between playing a guy like Anthony Davis (which is perfectly within the rules) and flopping (which is not).  By contrast to Tipton, Kentucky fans are being absolutely consistent.  When it comes to recruiting, we want the NCAA to enforce the rules as written.  When it comes to block/charge calls, we want the same.  What we do not want -- and will not accept -- is the notion that some teams should get special treatment on the grounds that their programs are somehow "more respectable" than other programs.  NCAA basketball should be governed by clear and fixed rules, not by the feelings of men like Jerry Tipton.

I don't know how Tipton has lived in Kentucky for so long without figuring this out.  But it would help if he would spend less time criticizing UK fans, and more time listening to them.