Hell bent on finding the best talent in the nation, college coaches around the country are taking recruiting to a whole new level.
Whether it be shady deal in the bathroom of a small town restaurant or a brokered deal between sports agent and superstar athlete, recruiting ethics seem to be headed down the drain.
As the summer roles on, elite coaches like John Calipari, Tom Izzo, Roy Williams, and Jim Boehiem are looking for the next mega-recruit that could bring a national championship to their respective schools. It’s a tough process with many twists and turns, but recruiting is at the center of it all.
With such an emphasis put on following the rules and playing by the book, more and more college coaches are bending the rules to get the next Kevin Durant or Blake Griffin on their team. During an in-depth interview that caught the attention of several of the nation’s foremost coaches, ESPN’s Dana O’Neill found out the dirt on the shadiness surrounding college recruiting.
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When John Calipari took the head coaching job at Kentucky, he knew it was the defining moment of his career. They say if you win at Kentucky, you become the ‘King of Camelot.’
As August approaches Calipari will spend plenty of time away from his family, as he is on the road recruiting the nation’s top prospects to play their college basketball at the University of Kentucky.
Calipari succeeded in his first mission last April when he reeled in the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation. The ‘Cats 2009 recruiting went on to become the nation’s No. 1 class headlined by John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins, the No. 1 and No. 2 players in the nation according to Rivals.com.
From that point on, the spotlight was dead-center on Kentucky once more. Many knew Calipari would do wonders with the Wildcats, but no one knew how quickly it would happen.
Reeling in the ’09 class brought a lot of questions and plenty of scrutiny from Calipari’s peers. Fans cried foul, intent on uncovering the latest mystery behind the ‘Cats illustrious recruiting class. Here’s one that many people didn’t understand: Cousins committed to play for Calipari while he was still at Memphis.
How does that happen, despite Cousins ultimately playing at Kentucky?
For one, the NCAA rule-book is one, huge mess filled with pages upon pages on jargon that not many college coaches could recite if asked.
Cousins was able to get out of his commitment from Memphis because it was stated in his ‘contract’ with the University that he could leave if Calipari took another head coaching gig. Goodbye Memphis, hello Lexington. With such a spontaneous reaction, most around the nation figured Calipari was up to his old tricks. What would you think? Is Calipari up to no good?
Well for several of the nation’s best coaches, a move like that would be considered down-right despicable leading to even further speculation of Calipari’s recruiting tactics, as one coach explained,
"Here’s what I think happens a lot — a team loses a kid to someone else and allof a sudden that someone else is cheating. Every time North Carolina loses akid, someone else is cheating. It’s like there’s so much arrogance with them;they can’t believe someone would rather go somewhere else, so the other team hasto be cheating."
Is Calipari to blame for one of his recruits changing their mind? You wouldn’t think so, but many coaches around the nation believe moves like these are very questionable.
It doesn’t end there however, as many recruits and players around the nation have experienced the luxuries of being the country’s best prospect. One of the biggest questions surrounding college athletics is whether athletes should get paid. For many coaches the players already get paid with one coach saying,
"One of my players [who left early for the draft] was working out with anothertop-five draft pick, they got to talking and my kid said something about nothaving money or whatever on campus. The other kid said, ‘My coach set up expenseaccounts all over town for me. Yours didn’t?"
Wherever you look, rules are being broken and deals are being held behind closed doors. Despite what you think on the subject—good or bad—the ramifications of breaking these rules are serious, capable of putting any university in jeopardy.
“Kentucky’s Shame” rocked the Bluegrass State for years. Kelvin Sampson sent a once ‘clean’ program under Bobby Knight into oblivion for bending the rules. The ‘Runnin’ Rebels’ of UNLV and the Michigan Wolverines were scrutinized for years, centered on the shadiness of recruiting tactics as Michigan faced dire consequences for ‘cheating.’
The ‘Cats have been through it before, dating back to the late 40’s under head coach Adolph Rupp, when Alex Groza and Ralph Beard took part in a point shaving scandal. It happened again in the late 80’s under Eddie Sutton. Now it appears, that second year head coach John Calipari will have to face the heat as well. The only way to shut people up is to play by the rules and stay on the path.
Calipari will have to do both to ensure his time in Lexington isn’t a repeat of a programs past indiscretions.
This is part one of a three part series based on the premise of “What is wrong in college basketball recruiting”. Part two will air on the site Thursday night. This is not meant to be an expose on Kentucky recruiting or any particular school, but simply to expound on Dana O’Neil’s article a
nd acknowledge that the NCAA has allowed itself to become incompetent to police it’s own rules.
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