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Baylor fans should be ecstatic about timing of ESPN’s report

Baylor Bears head coach Scott Drew directs his team against the Kentucky Wildcats during the first half of their men's NCAA South Regional basketball game in Atlanta

Baylor Bears head coach Scott Drew directs his team against the Kentucky Wildcats during the first half of their men’s NCAA South Regional basketball game in Atlanta, Georgia, March 25, 2012. REUTERS/Tami Chappell (UNITED STATES - Tags: SPORT BASKETBALL)

REUTERS

On Monday afternoon, Trent Johnson was formally introduced as the head coach at TCU, which made official something that we had expected for nearly a week.

A few hours earlier, ESPN.com had published a report from Jason King that Baylor’s men’s basketball program could be facing possible NCAA sanctions stemming from a 29-month investigation. The sanctions are the result of more than 1,200 impermissible phone calls and text messages that were sent by both the men’s team, which is coming off of their second Elite Eight in three seasons, and the women’s team, which was led to a 40-0 record and a national title by Player of the Year Britney Griner.

The details of the investigation’s findings are, for the most part, irrelevant. When you recruit at the level that Scott Drew does and the NCAA investigates your program for 29 months and only comes up with impermissible phone calls -- a rule that has since been changed; there are no more contact restrictions -- than you are doing something right. Baylor’s already instituted a number of self-imposed slaps on the wrist and may end up getting a few more from the NCAA. Whoop-dee-doo.

What’s much more interesting is the timing of this report being leaked.

You see, Trent Johnson’s decision to take the head coaching position at TCU opened up the same job at LSU. One of the names that keeps coming up as Johnson’s replacement? Scott Drew. Is LSU going to hire a coach days after news breaks of a recruiting scandal he was involved in? Are they willing to make that leap when the overwhelming sentiment was “that’s all you got?”

It begs the question: where did Jason King get this scoop? Did Baylor leak this story in an effort to try and keep their head coach?

And here’s where the irony begins. Baylor fans are fired up about the findings. They are mad that they will get in trouble for rules that are no longer in place, they are mad that this will only further sully the reputation of their head coach and they are mad that their program will continue to be considered “cheaters”. What they don’t realize, however, is that this report may be the reason that their head coach remains their head coach.

Think about like this: In early April of 2009, John Calipari left Memphis to take over at Kentucky. He’s since led the Wildcats to an Elite Eight, a Final Four and the national title. Memphis replaced him with Josh Pastner, who missed the NCAA tournament in 2010 and failed to get out of the first round in 2011 and 2012 despite having a roster stocked with talent. In late May of 2009, the news that Derrick Rose may have cheated on his SATs and that Memphis could have their 2007-2008 season -- the year in which they made a run to the national title game -- erased from the record books finally broke.

If the folks at Memphis had leaked that news two months earlier, would Kentucky still have come calling for Calipari?

And don’t underestimate the importance of Scott Drew to Baylor. The reason that Johnson was able to take the TCU job is that it was opened up when Jim Christian went to Ohio. In other words, based on the movement of the coaches, Ohio is better than TCU, which is better than LSU. And Scott Drew wants the LSU job?

Jason King’s inbox should be filled with thank you notes by the end of the day.

Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @robdauster.