For one thing, the issue has nothing to do with the articles Tipton wrote. The issue had to do with the telephone conversations that Tipton had with the parents of Kentucky recruits where he made them ‘feel uncomfortable’ (their words) and where he apparently tried to bring up rumors and innuendo that was damaging to UK coach Billy Gillispie. At least one of the parents said he ‘reconsidered’ his son’s commitment after speaking with Tipton.

To those who have read Tipton for years, none of this is surprising. Tipton has exhibited a negative streak for many years and has done some completely classless things (most notably the way he used the fact that Kelenna Azubuike’s father had legal issues to try to drag the young man through the mud and continually write stories about it, as if it had any bearing on the player himself.)

The only thing that is surprising in this case was that 1.) someone had the balls to directly ask about Tipton’s tactics and 2.) that it was captured on a podcast so that people could hear exactly the types of negative things that Tipton tells recruits and their parents. These are the ‘podcasts’ which you refer to but mistakenly suggest they come from Tipton or the Lexington Herald Leader (the Podcasts come from a recruiting guru/blogger/UK fan)

I’m sure you and countless other clueless outsiders will assume that this issue is about UK fans taking to task someone who does not fall into lock-step with praising UK. This is not the case at all.

There are plenty of well-respected columnists who do a credible job covering UK who are critical of the programs when warranted but also aren’t one-sided (either negatively or positively) and who do their job in terms of covering what’s going on. They do this without turning everything into a negative, without digging for dirt wherever possible and without being classless and vindictive the way Tipton has been. And beyond that, Tipton in the last few years has become so negative that he really doesn’t do a good job at what he’s supposed to do, that is to cover the UK program. (ie he now rarely says anything positive about UK that he fails to mention much of the news)

Again, this is not about taking to task someone because they don’t agree with UK. This is confronting someone who has been caught redhanded trying to directly harm UK’s recruiting efforts. The fact that he for a long time has been overtly critical of the program to the point of being one-sided, and has been shown to be classless and out of touch hasn’t engendered much sympathy from those who are familiar with his work.

This reaction is really the culmination of many years of Tipton’s own negativism and shoddy work. It was simply lit off by public evidence of things that many people have suspected of him for some time.