Bill Self: reputation tarnished "immensely"

ESPN: Kansas' Bill Self says NCAA probe tarnished his rep 'immensely'/Myron Medcalf, ESPN Staff Writer
"I think my reputation has been tarnished immensely," Self told ESPN at Big 12 media day in Kansas City. "But the whole thing is we knew right from the jump what we had done and what we had not done. The bottom line is I'm proud of how we conducted our business. At the end of the day, it was a long blip, but it was still a blip in the big scheme of things."

Well spoken by HCBS and reported by Medcalf IMO.

Also agree with the follow-on story -- OKState didn't deserve a post-season ban.

I vehemently concur with this comment by Self to Medcalf:

Self to ESPN's Medcalf:

"I think it's been so frustrating because we haven't been able to speak out or speak up or to have comment or even defend ourselves in many ways," Self told ESPN. "But looking back now? Frustrating, taxing, a lot of different things. But [I'm] so glad that it's behind us. That's a lot of stress to put on a lot of people for that many years. Of course, the narrative wasn't exactly what the end result ended up being. And certainly, the end result is exactly what we expected all along."

Sadly, over the course of those 6 long years, the narrative got baked into the national/social discourse - that KU and Self were serial cheaters. THAT is the NCAA's legacy in this case: 6 years of unmitigated reputational harm inflicted upon our school, our coach, and our historical basketball program. And as someone who follows the social discourse on sports, and certainly on KU, off this board, I can tell you that the haters are swarming like hornets - even after KU was absolved of Level I violations due to lack of sufficient evidence in the exhaustive IARP investigation and findings - and continuing to peddle the narrative that KU and Self are supremely dirty.

It's infuriating and exhausting.

As for Medcalf and this article, as well as the follow-on one, I dunno, I feel he helped feed the above KU hater narrative a bit by the way he wrote it up (sans the Self quotes, which are solid and apt on the counter-narrative). Especially by then resorting to the "kitchen sink" approach and throwing in the rape issue as well - which KU haters are excoriating Self and KU on as we speak, even after Self and KU immediately released Morris once allegations turned into actual police charges. (Damned if you do, damned if you don't if you're Self and KU - and the reason is he's the best coach in the game at arguably the best program, which inspires a shit-ton of envy, butthurt emotions, and hate by all KU foes and rivals and their fans)

As for the OSU article, in contrast to the KU article he wrote, Medcalf refused to cite the one detail that separated the cases the most, and therefore matters the most:

Their coach literally and explicitly pocketed bribe money - for himself - from influence peddlers while employed at OSU.

Uh, Myron, that's a pretty massive omitted detail, no? Instead, he went with the following vague, anodyne line:

Oklahoma State was banned from the 2022 men's basketball tournament by the NCAA as punishment for former assistant coach Lamont Evans' role in the FBI bribery investigation. Evans' infractions unfolded before Boynton was hired.

Maybe it's just my exhaustion and frustration with having to fight back against the incessant KU haters and trolls online, but I don't come away from this Medcalf article feeling KU was treated fairly - with the exception of the apt and telling statements by Self.

I agree with your comments, konza63.

Reckon I should have started my comments with “In comparison to the usual stuff he writes, well written by Medcalf”.

But in reality even his opening paragraph is factually inaccurate…
the case “ended last week without additional penalties imposed on him or Kansas by the independent resolution panel”…
… uh, Myron, 15 wins were vacated…
… and sets a poor stage from which to discuss Bill’s position.

He later mentions the 15 vacated wins, but only in passing, and doesn’t mention how they not only cost us the wins and FF and NCAA appearance, but also the NCAA record 14th straight conference title, or all the postseason $$ KU will have to return to the conference as a result of the V15W.

But it’s better than his usual, sad to say.

I could say that compared to Forde he’s the Chet Huntley* of sports reporters, but that is what we call “damning with faint praise”. Hell, almost *anybody* is better at covering Kansas than Forde. (Certainly no one is worse).

So yeah, I guess it’s best to say Medcalf did better than I expected he would… and even that is damning with faint praise.


*I was originally going to write “the Walter Cronkite” of sports reporters, but that was a comparison too far, and Chet was the second best I could come up with.

Slayer2384 wrote: With those journalist references, you are definitely dating yourself.

I may like to spend time in quiet solitude, but I’ve *never* dated myself!

Seriously, being this old means I’m a survivor, and I’m always gonna own it!

Growing old ain’t for wimps!

ROCK CHALK!