The Goat Pen

Creen looks like he just saw something highly unusual and is still trying to process his thoughts...

hedge wrote:Creen looks like he just saw something highly unusual and is still trying to process his thoughts...

eCat wrote:Jurich was the first fired, which is a little surprising - not because he should have been but that this is what caused it. An AD has zero connection to this.

Pitino is meeting with the interim President now.

According to KSR, the Board of Trustees are the ones to fire Jurich which they'll take up at their next meeting. Jurich was placed on paid leave and UL's hiring an interim Athletics Director. Pitino's contract says that he must be given 10 days notice before he can be fired. He was placed on indefinite leave with no pay. An interim coach will be hired.

eCat wrote:just when you thought it couldn't get any better....


Tom Crean is a Candidate to Become UofL’s Interim Head Coach

Wikipedia had him as the "interim head coach of University-6" for a bit

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So, are these players or their reps going to be arrested for taking money? It's a two-way street.

its not against the law for them to take money is it?

I don't know but I don't see why it wouldn't be if it's against the law to give it. After all, if the players weren't asking for it, the schools damn sure wouldn't be giving it out.

Taking the money as a player will probably not break any laws (except NCAA rules). The players are simply "honestly" taking the money in exchange for whatever agreement. The reason coaches are going to jail is because they are taking money in order to exercise their influence on others, while also being agents of the schools. It's like if your financial advisor got a kickback from the company in the stock market for getting people to buy that stock while misrepresenting it to them. The coaches were having players sign with certain agents, because they were getting paid to tell the kids to do so, while couching it as just giving good career advice in their role as coach for their University.

That said, players and families may yet be in trouble....with the IRS.

UL fans start Pitino photoshop thread on Rivals...... some are actually pretty good.

https://kentucky.forums.rivals.com/thre ... no.243427/

aTm wrote:Taking the money as a player will probably not break any laws (except NCAA rules). The players are simply "honestly" taking the money in exchange for whatever agreement. The reason coaches are going to jail is because they are taking money in order to exercise their influence on others, while also being agents of the schools. It's like if your financial advisor got a kickback from the company in the stock market for getting people to buy that stock while misrepresenting it to them. The coaches were having players sign with certain agents, because they were getting paid to tell the kids to do so, while couching it as just giving good career advice in their role as coach for their University.

That said, players and families may yet be in trouble....with the IRS.

I still say the players are the ones who are demanding the payments and should face some consequences, you know, if they really want to fix the problem. Otherwise, it's just build a new mousetrap for colleges.

I got to thinking about Pitino and his son tonight.

I wonder if they ever have honest discussions about this sort of thing?

Does Little Ricky think dad is innocent? I can't imagine so, so then does he rationalize that his dad is a great coach?

For whatever reason, that's a dynamic that interests me.

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Considering the level of recruits we've gotten over the past 5 or 6 years, I don't think there's any question UNC isn't involved in this. Don't get me wrong, I love the guys we've gotten and the results speak for themselves. But Roy has cobbled together a bunch of 3 and 4 year guys to do this, I can't think of anybody we've gotten since Harrison Barnes (and not a whole lot the few years leading up to him) that any shoe company was thinking "we need that guy bad." I think Barnes we probably the only guy that anybody thought had a remote chance to be a one and done. Before all this stuff broke, the obvious reason seemed to be b/c of the academic scandal, but maybe there was more to it than that. I do like to think that none of our assistants would have any part of something like this and I think it goes without saying Roy wouldn't...

The easiest solution to this mess is do away with the one and done rule, or otherwise known as the Kwami Brown rule but that isn't up to the NCAA, its up to the NBA.

The second solution is to pay players, but how do provide enough money to kid that is worth $100K on the open market and still pay a kid at William and Mary who is lucky to be even playing Division 1? If you have a scale then you are paying on a ratings system based on potential, and this is only basketball. Baseball, Football.....

The NCAA isn't equipped to deal with this - not only are you going to see some wholesale cleaning at college programs (the irony of Pitino getting fired and then the NCAA decides players should be paid) but I think the NCAA is going to have to bring in new management that is focused on player equity.

I think amateur sports as we know it is dead.

You don't seem nearly as outraged about this as you do about the UNC academic situation. Of course for most one and done's, academics aren't any issue at all, as long as they pass one semester, it doesn't even matter if they go to class. I guess that's one way to get around it...

I wouldn't assume that just because UNC didn't get top 10 players that it's not involved. The thing to watch is if a rep (asst. Coach, third party, etc) interacted with shoe companies to pay a player at the school. Right now, the FBI is charging people, not schools. That will be the NCAA's job later

hedge wrote:You don't seem nearly as outraged about this as you do about the UNC academic situation. Of course for most one and done's, academics aren't any issue at all, as long as they pass one semester, it doesn't even matter if they go to class. I guess that's one way to get around it...

I've said all along - even before UNC that paying players isn't as bad a crime as academic fraud.

The reasoning behind that is whether school X pays or not, the kid is going to play basketball somewhere - but academics are the reason the kids are amateurs. They are student athletes. You take the student component out and then they are just paid professionals. The NCAA should put academic fraud first and foremost of any infractions/eligibility issue, because when a school that prides itself on its academic rigors can get a stud player who scores a 17 on the ACT and has a 2.0 GPA admitted (and in UNC's case, makes the goddamn Deans list) then its the entire academic community that suffers. When a student athlete at not cheating school X has to put in 25 hours a week to study and go to classes and still put in another 25 to play basketball - while cheating school Y kids get to play on the courts as much as they want - that is a clear advantage to the cheating school

Paying a player is just a variance. He's getting an education worth X amount based on the schools tuition costs, etc., he is getting top of the line gear, first class facilities, catered food, first class medical care,financial advising, access and influence, throwing $10K at him is nothing. I'm not saying its not a problem and I think if you get caught paying a player he should be ineligible just like anything else, but academic fraud is the cardinal sin of college athletics eligibility.

I don't even think the hooker scandal at UL is that big of a deal because at the end of the day, it had nothing to do with UL gaining an advantage on the court and it didn't really make a difference in their recruiting. Now from a criminal aspect, yes, its a big deal, its potential human trafficking and all that, but criminal charges should be a separate issue from NCAA eligibility issues.

Pitino is coach 2

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Coach-2 was the coach with the “big swinging d—“; the coach with all of the power. Coach-2 was also in the discussion of getting more money for Brian Bowen’s family, and was asked to call Jim Gatto, the adidas rep, for the funds.

If true, Pitino’s “I’m shocked” and “I’m innocent” approach is a complete lie (shocker) and what little is left of his legacy is completely destroyed.

At this point many UK fans believe that since UK, Duke, KU, UNC, etc are such high profile schools they would have been mentioned already by the FBI so they think they are in the clear.

I do not share that opinion and their gloating may be setting them up for a big fall. If you dug around on this, depending on what your standards and limits are, there are probably 150 schools that could be caught in this trap.