Rose certainly does not appear to be very book smart, but he is smart enough in other ways and like you say he is now making millions.
I feel bad for Memphis, and I am pleased to hear they will appeal what appears to me to be a hypocritical and bogus NCAA ruling. From what I understand, Rose took the SAT three times in Illinois and never came close to scoring well enough to be accepted at Memphis (which btw is not a bad school academically). He then went to Detroit and mysteriously scored well enough to meet entrance criteria, but the SAT folks said the increase was (statistically) very improbable and threw the score out. This is what technically made Rose ineligible, but only retroactively. Memphis had no idea the score was thrown out because they rely on the NCAA clearing house to verify eligibility. When Memphis asked the NCAA if Rose was eligible, the NCAA accepted the score from Detroit and declared him academically eligible to play for Memphis. So based on the NCAA’s decision Memphis gladly accepted Rose into their basketball program. Whether Calipari actually knew Rose took the SAT or not is debatable, and I highly doubt he cared or wanted to know. But for the NCAA to punish Memphis for an error that they (the NCAA) made seems ridiculous to me and I’m not even a Tiger fan (Running Rebels and Jay Hawks baby).