More NCAA violations at UK under John Calipari?
Seriously, is there anyone actually reporting the whole story? I suspect not, but here's what is being said.
--John Calipari has coached two teams to the Final Four that were later hit with major penalties for using ineligible players, causing both schools to have to vacate their wins and their Final Four appearance.
--Now Coach Cal is at Kentucky, and already news of more violations there are slowly leaking out.
Even Coach Cal's Athletic Director at Kentucky is trying to justify the rule breaking by not calling it violations, but just calling it "a gray area".
Here's what AD C. M. Newton says...
"Newton noted recently that the new UK basketball coach — like most of his colleagues — can drift into a "gray area" where compliance is open to interpretation."
.......oh really...so even the guy vouching for Calipari admits that Coach Cal drifts into gray areas where he thinks he can get around the precise letter of the rule and get away with cheating?
--Even the University of Kentucky President "recoiled" from those comments and said...
"We don't want gray areas".
Then the President made an amazing statement...that Calipari's past record of cheating and vacated win & Final FGours will actually be a BLESSING TO UK!!
"Todd suggested that Calipari's past — which includes two vacated Final Four appearances — will help block any impulse to cheat."
.........so since when does having a track record of cheating give a guy an advantage in NOT cheating?
--One of Calipari's assistant coaches that he had brought with him to Kentucky from Memphis was Bilal Batley. Batley just "left his position" but some say he was sent packing as a scapegoat to blame for the recent NCAA violaitons that are being uncovered.
Interestingly, before coming to Kentucky and getting fired for committing NCAA violations, Batley has been an assistant at Memphis, Indiana (under Kelvin Sampson) and Oklahoma (under Sampson).
So not only has Batley learned whatever he knows about NCAA compliance and cheating from one of the most prolific cheaters of all time, he also was at THREE consecutive assistant coaching spots at three different schools that ALL share the same fate....that they were ultimately nailed by the NCAA for hundreds of illegal phone calls, fraud with phony ACT tests and players taking the tests for other players, and numerous other violations.
"Earlier in his basketball career, Batley worked for three programs found guilty of major violations of NCAA rules ..
The three were Oklahoma as a student manager, Indiana and Memphis. Improper phone calls to prospects by Kelvin Sampson's staff brought punishments at Oklahoma and Indiana. Batley worked at Memphis in 2008-09, the season after Rose played while a cloud hovered over his SAT score."
--Batley is now cited as having broken more NCAA rules, and one news outlet obtained records via the "the open-records request" showing that another Kentucky assistant also has been violating rules.
Tracy Webster (ex-Illinois assistant) also has committed more than one NCAA violation....
"..Webster...violated a rule by engaging in a conversation with a prospect before April 22, which was prior to the permissible contact date. He received a letter of admonishment.
Another violation occurred on May 26 when a current player — who UK officials acknowledged in June was Darius Miller — had his name used in an advertisement for The Reggie Warford Basketball Camp in Muhlenberg County. The player was unaware of the advertisement, the UK letter said."
....as many will remember, Tracy Webster was actually lured away from Illinois and hired at Kentucky, exclusively so they could lure Darius Miller there, as Miller was close to Webster and was leaning to committing to Illinois. Once Webster was corralled by UK, then Darius Miller followed...and obviously so did a few enticements.......
http://www.kentucky.com/818/story/937012.html
Tracy Webster was dumped when Calipari came in and now Webster is hired as an assistant at DePaul. It's interesting that this whole cheating mess at UK involves Tracy Webster, yet there isn't even one mention of it at all on the DePaul message board, even though they have a thread going on the Kentucky NCAA violations.
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=430&f=2585
UK basketball will certainly be interesting....interesting to see if a team full of mostly just talented freshmen who plan to be gone and in the NBA in a year can mesh together. Or will there simply NOT be enough basketballs and on-court minutes to go around for those guys who want to showcase their skills and move as high in the lottery section of the next NBA draft?
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The Bradley Braves Eaxminer has some really nice stuff covering Bradley and the rest of the Valley. Check out their latest, the ranking of the Top 15 seniors in the MVC--
#15 through #8
http://www.examiner.com/x-7020-Bradley-Braves-Examiner~y2009m9d10-Missouri-Valley-Preview-200910-Top-15-Seniors--numbers-15-through-8
and #7 through #1
http://www.examiner.com/x-7020-Bradley-Braves-Examiner~y2009m9d14-Missouri-Valley-Preview-200910-Top-15-Seniors--numbers-7-through-1
The Braves Examiner even has soccer coverage!
http://www.examiner.com/x-7020-Bradley-Braves-Examiner
Bradley and the Valley are fortunate to have people like Joe writing about Valley topics....
too bad the fans on the message boards at one team's site are so jealous that they cry like babies when topics like what's written in the Braves Examiner come up there.
--by the way....the Examiner web site used to also include an ISU Redbirds Examiner...
his columns can still be found in the archives, but he is no longer listed anywhere in the index on any of the Examiner sites.
I am curious to know what happened...as just about the only way to get kicked off the index is if you've violated rules. He disappeared suddenly just as football and basketball season are getting underway.
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--lastly....we had a laugh once on BradleyFans when Illini assistant Wayne McClain bragged about how Illinois would never stoop to dirty tricks that other schools do, like hiring a kid's dad or his high school coach just to land the recruit.
Crazy thing is that McClain himself basically GOT THE JOB HE HAS because he was the dad and/or high school coach of at least THREE talented recruits who ended up landing at Illinois!
What hypocrisy!
Here's the McClain link, but now we have even a better one!!
"Some colleges take short cuts in their recruiting, hiring a high school or AAU coach or a dad to sign a great young player. ...
Cheating is always a possibility in major college basketball recruiting. Some players have their hands out, some high school and AAU coaches are looking to profit from their players, shoe and other apparel companies have a financial stake in results, and some schools take short cuts to produce a winner.
Some schools hire high school and AAU coaches to gain access to their players. And some provide jobs and other opportunities for parents of players so they can remain close to their offspring. Illinois is not one of those schools, and McClain is proud of that fact.
...Some people are in the market for that (extra inducements), there's no doubt about that.
"That to me is the most important part. We can sleep at night. We know the kids we get have done it the right way."
http://illinois.scout.com/2/879040.html
But now listen to what the fans at Indiana are saying about their squeaky clean program that just got caught with major NCAA violations....
"..there's no question that CTC (Coach Tom Crean) has gone about recruiting him (and others) the right way. If sleazier ways of getting recruits would have worked better (cf. Calipari and World Wide Wes and getting Weems as grad assistant, Pitino hiring the Pike Assistant Coach to improve his leverage with Marquis Teague), so be it. I'm glad that CTC isn't willing to be "successful" in that way."
http://indiana.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=731&tid=132190000&mid=132190000&sid=942&style=2
Hmmm..really??? So Coach Crean never hires some kid's AAU coach in order to land him???
Funny how the fans there don't even know who their players and coaches are.
Tom Crean has indeed hired as one of his top assistants and recruiters, Roshown McLeod.
http://iuhoosiers.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/mcleod_roshown00.html
...who just happens to be an ex-AAU coach with lots and lots of connections....and one of his AAU players just happens to be...
David Williams........the kid who played on McLeod's AAU team that JUST committed to...
Indiana!!!
...so indeed, Tom Crean has done precisely and exactly what was said he'd never do!
He hired the AAU coach of a kid that he was recruiting, then the kid commits to Indiana!
http://iuhoops.blogspot.com/2009/04/out-goes-nick-williams-in-comes-david.html
This package deal technique is used widely by the big boys.....and the really wealthy programs like Rick Pitino's can afford to hire lots of recruits' dads and coaches as his personal assistants!
Just what are personal assistants?? Remember what Rick Pitino did for one of his prior personal assistants....he hooked Tim Sypher up with the blonde woman from the restaurant and she became his wife!!
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Hersey Hawkins is in the news..........
Hersey was just hired as Director of Player Development for the Portland TrailBlazers.
Great news....and kudos to Bradley's all time best!!
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=13105
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One little recruiting note...
ISU is going head to head against Cal State-Northridge, battling for the services of junior college recruit Carlton Guyton, a 6-3 SG at Mineral Area juco.
http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/cguyton2.html
ISU, who have graduated seven jucos and transfers in the past 15 months, now have replaced them with numerous other juco transfers and other DI transfers. The Current ISU roster has eight jucos and transfers...many of whom are even lured to be walk ons. How many walk ons are they going to play, as the CHN blurb about ISU even suggested some of their walk ons will be impact players for them!
http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=140191#post140191
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