From March of 2008 until March of 2009, Derrick Rose or his attorney declined six requests to respond to questions about the SAT entrance exam that led to his ineligibility and the NCAA punishment this week against the University of Memphis.
For its part, the university knew of the cheating allegations against Rose as early as October of 2007 and was informed that Rose’s test score was cancelled in May of 2008. The university got an official notice of an NCAA inquiry in September of 2008 and a notice of allegations in January of 2009. But university officials did not make any of this public until months later when the 2009 NCAA men’s basketball tournament was over and John Calipari had announced his move to Kentucky.
The NCAA Infractions Committee report released yesterday contradicts Rose’s recent claims that he cooperated with investigators. And while university officials did, as they said Thursday, “cooperate fully with the investigation,” the report indicates that they also kept the Rose investigation secret for a year.
