Sleaze Uncovered at Tennessee

Wow -- the traffic and hits here are up I guess due to the diverse topics discussed on the blog! Now I am getting little notices from the online company asking if I want to do ads...but don't fear, there'll be no ads. Ad sites really can't be trusted, because the very presence of ads means money and revenue are the important factors, and it'll always sway what people say. Even "reality" shows are so phony and fake because they say and do what makes the most money -- newspapers have also been proven to do the same.
So the last bastion of true and independent thought is on the free blogs and we'll keep it that way.



Just a couple days ago I mentioned in a disclaimer how little respect I have for the cheaters in the sport that I love....now it looks like yet another one has simply pushed the limits of cheating so far, that even thought they are among the protected BCS bunch, the NCAA is finally saying we have no choice and we have to go after them...

But let's tie the cheating news in with another big news story today....
oToday on the 10 year anniversary of one monumental event, and yet another monumental event occurs. Let's discuss these two events in reverse order, but in a remote way, they are connected.

This morning, news broke that the NCAA has found evidence of serious NCAA rules violations committed at University of Tennessee by basketball head coach and at least one assistant.
The violations involve excessive phone calls to recruits and use of illegal phones - likely for the purpose of avoiding getting tracked or having the phone use subject to scrutiny. Clearly they cannot use the "I didn't know a thing about it" defense or proclaim "we didn't know this was a violation"...given the current atmosphere. Clearly this, if true, is willful and intentional cheating.

NCAA has found evidence of ..
"excessive telephone calls and the use of unauthorized phones to contact recruits, sources ..say.."
So -- obviously Bruce Pearl is taking a few pages from the Kelvin Sampson playbook!

The NCAA is beginning an investigation...
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=5552505&campaign=rss&source=NCBHeadlines
http://www.govolsxtra.com/news/2010/sep/09/ncaa-questions-ut-basketball/

Tennessee football is also under NCAA investigation...as they quite often are........and it looks like NCAA is going to have to hire a whole bunch more investigators...
One recent issue that prompted the NCAA to look into Tennessee football is their use of "hostesses" - or good looking female students to be hostesses and provide "favors" for recruits both ON and OFF campus!!
Hmm...let's end the discussion there - but you can find more at many other sites that gets even jucier....
Maybe all those Tennessee "hostesses" (coed/escorts) can go to work for the NCAA, they might need more investigators....
Here are some stories with pics...
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/andy_staples/12/11/tennessee-recruiting/index.html
http://www.inquisitr.com/51575/update-pics-ncaa-investigates-recruiting-violations-tennessee-hostesses/
http://deadspin.com/5422400/tennessees-hostess-program-catches-recruits-and-ncaas-eyes-updated

Well -- getting back to Bruce Pearl.....
I have always wondered why he gets a free pass from the press and clueless fans on so many issues. He has had more players booted for drugs, arrests, booze, DUI's, failed drug tests, and fighting than all but a couple college coaches (Huggins, Calipari). Yet how often do we hear about how great of a coach he is!!
Well, just maybe he's NOT so great a coach -- just maybe he's using the precise same cheating techniques that a few others guys have used to get good! I think the evidence is going to prove this to be the case. Bruce seems to love being in the limelight...whether it's making offensive and racist remarks about the KKK...
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/Bruce-Pearl-tells-joke-about-the-KKK-apologizes?urn=ncaab-192104

..or the many times that Bruce is involved in stories and rumors of his affairs even while married...

But the real claim to fame for Bruce Pearl was when he turned over to the NCAA a detailed but false diary he supposedly kept about his recruitment of Deon Thomas, and ratted with claims that Illinois cheated but of cousre he didn't and was as pure as the driven snow. He did all this so he could accuse the University of Illinois and bring them down to keep the Illini from getting all the recruits that Pearl wanted while he was an assistant at Iowa.

Here are the lengthy details of what Bruce Pearl claimed happened in the Deon Thomas fiasco -- keeping in mind, that this long, and exquisitely detailed diary of about a million blatant NCAA recruiting violations including paying Thomas $80,000 and a Blazer....was all thoroughly investigated by the NCAA and found to be FALSE --
they couldn't find a shread of evidence to support it. Even all the other names in this rat-faced, stool pigeon's rant were also interviewed by NCAA and they all told the NCAA the exact opposite of what Bruce Pearl had made up.
In the end, Deon Thomas was allowed to go to Illinois and become one of their greatest players ever. So how did NCAA NOT find anything to support Pearl's accusations?? Because they were all lies. Case closed.
http://underscorebleach.net/jotsheet/supplementary/bruce_pearl_ncaa_memo.html


Here's even more on how crooked and unscrupulous Bruce Pearl has been proven to be...and how he committed even worse NCAA violations pursuing Thomas than Illinois was ever found to have committed...
http://underscorebleach.net/jotsheet/2005/03/bruce-pearl-illinois-iowa-recruiting-scandal

Sorry to those few Bruce Pearl fans out there, but facts are facts...

In the end, Pearl's career stalled, he ended at D-II Southern Indiana for many years before resurrecting his career at UW-M then Tennessee. In the interval, had he not stunk up his resume with all his backstabbing and lies while an Iowa assistant, he might well have been in the big time 10 years earlier...
In fact it is widely thought that in 2000, when Bobby Knight was fired, he'd have been a top candidate and might well have gotten the chance to be head coach of Indiana at that time (Pearl in 2000 had just completed an 8-year run averaging 26 wins per year --going a remarkable 205-42) -- except IU simply was NOT going to dip into the D-II ranks for a replacement for Bobby Knight.

So this event that happened exactly 10 years ago TODAY -- is tied in with Bruce Pearl and his long legacy of sleaze...and now the NCAA is finally waking up to the fact that Bruce IS STILL CHEATING on a daily basis...

10 years ago today --Bobby Knight fired for attacking a student on the IU campus....the last in a long line of rage issues Bobby had that resulted in his firing. Once he no longer had the talent base and the recruiting "prowess" that anyone would have had as head coach at a basketball rich school like Indiana has...he showed he's little more than an average to better than average recruiter of talent and floor coach.
His record at Texas Tech was a little less than impressive, and his conference record there in his tenure was no better than those Big 12 teams at the bottom of the pack...
http://www.indystar.com/article/20100910/SPORTS0601/9100373/1275/LIVING19/Former-freshman-says-Knight-incident-blown-out-of-proportion

So sadly, on a day that IU fans should remember fondly, most remember this day with pain and regret because of what Bully Bobby had become, and now y'all have another reason to circle this date on your calendars...as the day the exposure of another cheater hit the fans...


One last thought...isn't it odd how many BIG TIME programs have come under NCAA scrutiny lately? UConn, Kentucky, Tennessee, USC, etc...
What this proves to me is that OBVIOUSLY all these guys have been cheating for years but NCAA has been long looking the other way and instead going hard after the little guys.
So, why all this time have they been spending exhaustive effort to bring down small time "crime", while ignoring the BIG TIME crooks for decades?