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He didn't violate any NCAA rules and there were no violations. He had a corrupt boss in Sampson.  If anything blame Indiana for hiring a guy who had gotten into trouble at Oklahoma.  If you're boss was a jackass, would you want people to assume that you are a jackass too?  Is that fair?  Crean was desperately trying to hold onto players, and he is an extremely competitive guy, and Holman was a big recruit. McCallum recruited Holman to Indiana.  They were like family.  If you were Eli, would you have wanted to stay in Bloomington the last few years?

chef - I'd call that irrational youthful exuberance. He shouldn't have done it. Please accept this sincere apology on behalf of the state of Michigan.  Let's take those two points off the board and call it an 18 pt win instead, k?

wh - those are some pretty weak links!  Coaches are very competitive people. Of course Crean didn't like losing Holman to Detroit. But the fact is, Holman had a relationship with McCallum and views him as a father figure and wanted to follow him to Detroit.  Crean tried to exert a sense of ownership over his new players, and Holman, to his credit, didn't want to stay and did what he needed to to get out.  It's a case of sour grapes. Crean tried to bully Holman into staying, and then tried to bully McCalum with his very unprofessional comments and handling of the issue afterwards.  Crean is a whiny little b*tch who I can't stand watching on TV for more than about 2 seconds.

Oakland and Detroit are rivals.  Kampe and Perry Watson hated each other.  So there is a history there that pre-dates McCallum.

If I was Western's coach, I'd be upset if two of my players left the program and went to Detroit too.  But there is abslutely nothing in that article you linked to that suggests any wrong doing on McCallum's part. Juwan Howard Jr is a Detroit product - he wen to Detroit Pershing.  Guys transfer back to U of D all the time after spending a year or two at other D-1 schools.  I wouldn't want to schedule a team with two of my former players on it either - it would be a reminder to all of my school's fans that my program is dysfunctional enough that players want to leave and play elsewhere.

By the way, the word is milquetoast, not milk toast, lol.

I think you're all missing the point. Of course it is absurd to take that 2009 MLK incident and use it to make assumptions about Valpo students or the community at large, just as it is absurd to take the actions of a few students (or non-students, we don't really know) and make assumptions about the broader U of D student body, or the city of Detroit.

Throughout these threads, the youthful exuberance and passion of Ray McCallum, at times perhaps misguided in its manifestation, is being used to portray the whole team, and its coach, in a negative light (e.g. words like "thugs", "sleazy", and "classless" have been thrown around) Why? Because Ray pounded the floor on defense, and tried to fire up Detroit fans and players after he made big plays, and, well, because you lost.

So the whole point of referencing the 2009 incident is that there are bad seeds in both communities, but none of these things have anything to do with basketball or the outcome of yesterday's game, or the character of its participants, or the quality of the two schools.

Fair enough!  Vent away . . . .

Tell you what, you promise not to paint U of D, it's players, fans, and city with broad strokes because of the actions of a couple people, and I'll promise not to assume that everyone associated with VU is a racist just because a few students set your MLK Center on fire a couple years ago, spray-painted racist grafiti around campus, like to call our mostly-black team "thugs" for no apparent reason, and that most of your players are Caucasian.

Deal?

wh - Since we are on the topic of "class,"  do you really think it's fair and classy to refer to another man as "sleaze" without a single fact to back up that opinion?  And for what cause? I think your comments say more about you than they do Ray McCallum.

Chef

Please post links to stories that directly tie McCallum to recruiting improprieties.  Not Kelvin Sampson, but McCallum.  Thanks.

I tried to post a link to an espn.com story from 2/23/2008 on the deal between Kelvin Sampson and IU but this site says I can't "post external links."  You can find it if you search for McCallum recruiting improprieties

So I'll quote it for you:  "Neither Dakich nor McCallum were implicated in the latest NCAA allegations, and McCallum also was cleared of any wrongdoing while assisting Sampson at Oklahoma."

Let's be fair.

Hi Valpo Fans,

Congratulations on a great season. I did not come here to gloat or talk smack. I have read with your interest all of the strong opinions about the actions of Ray Jr and Detroit's fans.

I did not see the dunk at the end.  The old cliche, "Act like you've been here before" comes to mind when it comes to Ray Jr.  But the fact is, he is a 19 year old kid who hasn't been here before.  The Detroit team and program and fans are not as highly evolved as a team that has success year in and year out like a Duke.

I will say that I think part of what has been perceived as Ray Jr mugging for the cameras was actually due to the fact that the end-court camera guy was right in front of the student cheering section at that end of the court. I really believe a lot of that was Ray trying to fire up the far-outnumbered Detroit faithful at that end of the court, but it appeared on screen as if he was doing it for the camera.  Beyond that, he was trying to keep his teammates focused and passionate and energized. And it worked, which is why Drew seemed to call a timeout after almost every McCallum basket in the second half, leaving him with no timeouts down the stretch.  As far as banging his hands on the court while setting up on D - any basketball fa knows that is a time-honored tradition for trying to fire up your teammates and fans and stay focused on playing the suffocating defense that he and his teammates displayed the whole second half.

I did not hear any obscenities by the Detroit fans by watching it on TV, but if that really happened, I would be disappointed that some of those kids did not behave with more class.  19 year olds can act like d-bags sometimes and again, they didn't really know how to act because they've never been there before.  But I think you'll find fans like that at just about any sporting event you go to (you should go to a Lions or Redskins game sometime).

A lot of people have lumped in the whole team together and described them as classless thugs.  But other than your disapproval of some of Ray's antics, who else on the Detroit team did anything classless last night?  Holman, for example, has shown signs of maturity since he came back from his suspension earlier this year.  I don't know if it's the meds they put him on, or he's just starting to bcome more emotonally mature, but it seems to be working.  Even when he had a couple BS fouls called on him, including the first one when he was basically called for being in the vicinity of a Valpo player tripping over his own feet, he didn't lose his composure or complain.

My main concern with all of Ray Jr's flexing and trying to fire up his teammates and the Detroit fans was that he was expending so much energy doing so that he wouldn't have enough left in the tank at the end of the game, when so many Titan games have been lost in recent seasons.  I do think he is a good kid - honor roll student, and everyone who meets him says so.  This game was validation for what was a very difficult decision - passing up on teams like Kansas, Florida, Arizona, and UCLA to play for his Dad in front of 1,500 mostly gray-haired alumni hanging on to past glory from the late 90s and 70s, and seeing a revolving door of players on and off the roster over the past two seasons. Injuries, suspensions, and recruits that never made it on campus, or only lasted long enough for a cup of coffee.  Two of the most talented players on the team - Steve Blake and Nick Minnerath - were gone and injured, leaving Ray relying on people like Donovan Foster (a MAC backup at best) and Chase (generally needs 17 shots to score 13 points) Simon as teammates.  This was the biggest night of his life and he had a ton of raw emotion and passion.  If he's on your team, you love it. If he's not, you hate it. I get that.

While Ray was clearly the MVP of the tourney, LaMarcus Lowe had a HUGE game and showed tremendous toughness and heart despite being gimpy for much of the game himself.

Good luck in the NIT - maybe you can make a run like Detroit did awhile back when they beat Dayton, UConn and others on their way to the semifinals.