Oct 14, 2015 3 min read

Kentucky coach John Calipari said if any of an escort’s allegations that a former Louisville men’s basketball staff member hired strippers are true, “it’s not good for college basketball.”

Calipari added he hopes the allegations “aren’t true” and “can’t believe” Rick Cardinals coach Rick Pitino “would know anything about it.”

Calipari said during the Wildcats’ annual media day Wednesday he hasn’t reached out to his in-state counterpart and fellow Hall of Famer about allegations in Katina Powell’s book, “Breaking Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen.”

Powell alleges former Louisville staff member Andre McGee paid her and other dancers to strip and have sex with recruits and players.

Pitino denied knowledge of the activities in the book. Four separate investigations have been launched to review the allegations.

Villanova pick in Big East: Villanova can only hope the Big East coaches are on the money as they were last season.

For the second straight year, the Wildcats are the unanimous choice in the Big East preseason poll. They proved the coaches to be pretty good prognosticators last season, winning the regular-season title by four games with a 16-2 mark and then taking the Big East Tournament crown.

At Wednesday’s media day at Madison Square Garden, senior forward Daniel Ochefu was asked why it didn’t seem the Wildcats were enjoying the news.

“What’s there to enjoy?” he said with a smile. “Now, if this happens again like last season, then we have something to enjoy.”

Senior guard Ryan Arcidiacono was asked what last year’s team will remember more, the school-record 33 wins or the three losses, the last of which was a stunner to North Carolina State in the round of 32 of the NCAA Tournament.

“I’ll remember the 33 wins. That’s a great season what we did last year,” said Arcidiacono, the conference co-player of the year last season. “I will always look at a whole season. Maybe some of our guys will use the last loss as motivation, but people go about things their own way.”

SMU players disappointed with sanctions: SMU athletic director Rick Hart reiterated the school’s decision to accept a one-year postseason ban in men’s basketball after players released a statement on their own expressing their disappointment over NCAA sanctions.

Hart said Wednesday he shares that disappointment but the severity of violations acknowledged by SMU mandates a minimum one-year postseason ban.

In a statement to CBS Sports, the players Wednesday expressed their “profound disappointment” with the sanctions and claimed the NCAA “exercised questionable judgment in punishing innocent people.” They also asked the NCAA to reconsider the sanctions.