As for NCAA hoops sanctions, what about the winners?

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History suggests the best way to avoid punishing NCAA sanctions in college basketball is to win the NCAA title.

Anything short of that, and watch out: The NCAA will strip-mine your trophy case, order your banners out of the rafters and make you vacate the Final Four premises.

Isn’t it curious (OK, cynical, too) that the NCAA record book is filled with sanctions and asterisks but One Shining Moment has always survived?

I bring this up in light of the recent NCAA allegations against Memphis. Think about how close Memphis came to winning the national title in 2008. Memphis SHOULD have won. John Calipari’s Tigers blew a late lead and then allowed Kansas’ Mario Chalmers to send the game into OT with an impossible three-pointer. Kansas went on to win.

Think about if Memphis had won. The allegations that point guard Derrick Rose had someone take his qualifying SAT would also have an NCAA title hanging in the balance.

Memphis answered the NCAA allegations Tuesday Memphis claims it didn’t know Rose’s test score was invalidated until after the championship. We’ll have to see how it all sorts out.

If the NCAA hits Memphis with major sanctions, the Tigers will likely have to vacate their title-game appearance.

Reaction: Big Derrick Deal. Rose became the top pick in the NBA draft, Calipari cashed out for the best job in college basketball -- Kentucky -- and Memphis basketball will carry on in some way, shape or reform.

Would there have been an NCAA probe had Memphis defeated Kansas? Come on, now, that’s really jaded journalism.

It’s just curious, though. UCLA never got penalized for 11 national titles it won but had to vacate its 1980 title-game LOSS to Louisville. That taught the Bruins a lesson they never forgot.

Michigan got to keep its 1989 title but had to vacate its ‘Fab Five’ Final Four appearance of 1992 and ’93. Shame on you Wolverines.

Calipari is shooting for the rare ‘vacate double-double.’ His Final Four Massachusetts team of 1996 had to give it up for sins committed by Marcus Camby. Ohio State’s 1999 Final Four loss to Connecticut has literally been purged from NCAA annals. Same goes for Minnesota (Clem Haskins) in 1997. Apologies to all the non-championship NCAA violators we don’t have space to mention.

In fact, when Ohio State returned to the Final Four in 2007, the school could not even mention the 1999 Final Four appearance in its game notes even though dozens of us who were there clearly remember, for Pete’s sake, Scoonie Penn and Michael Redd taking the court in St. Petersburg....

So be warned, all you sneaky sneaker wearers: Win the NCAA title -- or else.

-- Chris Dufresne