Just figured I should mention as I came down pretty hard on Kansas yesterday – at a time when their fan base might be down. So want to make several things clear by going on another ridiculously long rant that probably doesn’t clear anything up.
I actually have always liked Kansas, and I had a lot of respect for how amazing a coach both Roy Williams and Bill Self have been. They always seem to be a title contender – which is amazing to be in the mix every year. (By the way, not saying that Roy Williams is involved in any of this – just saying that Kansas has had amazing coaches).
It also might be that this player was involved with the Adidas runner because of another school, and somehow ended up changing his mind and going to Kansas. There are lots of pieces of information that are unknown – and the only public information implicates the player, not the school.
It also might be that all the schools are guilty of this – everyone does it, and it just happens so far behind the scenes that the NCAA looks the other way. I really hope this isn’t the case, but with all the stories you hear, it is hard not to believe that some of the players are being paid behind the scenes and that it is not isolated to 4-5 schools.
My problem with what Bill Self said is that the NCAA’s punishment was vindictive for what is a clear violation to the rules. As a Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame basketball coach, he needs to be making statements about how we need a fair playing field and these players being paid by runners and agents is a major problem. He could have said something like De Souza knows what he did was wrong and is really sorry for it, and considering past punishments for this type of violation, two years seems like too much.
But there is a difference between saying that a violation happened and the punishment doesn’t meet the crime, and saying that the NCAA is being vindictive to a player who didn’t commit a violation (despite a federal case sending people to jail for that non-violation).
If he believes the players should be paid, he should work behind the scenes with the NCAA to change the rules – I am sure a hall of fame coach would have some weight in that conversation if he approached it correctly. But what is happening with the FBI investigation into college basketball recruiting is a big deal – saying the player did nothing wrong is a horrible message to send.
In the meantime, it came out in a Yahoo! Sports Exclusive today that LSU’s coach Will Wade is actually on the wire-tap talking to the runner who was sentenced to six months in federal prison discussing an offer about a current recruit and a future recruit. Once again, this makes me sad because I like Wade – he was VCU’s coach for a couple seasons before heading to LSU.
But it shows why this is a problem. LSU was 10-21 the season before hiring Wade. And in only 2 years Wade helped LSU achieve the 17th and 4th best recruiting classes in the country according to 247Sports, and now are 24-5, tied for first place in the SEC and are the #10 team in the country. Pretty amazing turnaround for a program. That is amazing unless the program is paying these top recruits to come to LSU…..
Another problem is there is a difference between a Yahoo! sports article saying that the FBI has this evidence vs. the evidence has already been revealed in federal court. The FBI has federal charges of bribery being tried in April where Wade and Arizona coach Sean Miller have been subpoenaed to testify. Maybe during that trial, these wiretaps will be officially revealed.
If the report is correct, the NCAA should be ruling the LSU Tigers are immediately ineligible for the Tournament and Will Wade will no longer be able to coach in college basketball. But I don’t know that the NCAA can act to suspend Wade for wrong-doing and potentially impact whether the federal bribery case can get a fair trial (although I guess can they get a fair trial if Yahoo is reporting evidence that a potential jury pool can see). Maybe LSU would step in and do the right thing and suspend Wade and the team. I doubt that LSU will do that with the money that is potentially available from the tournament, but stranger things have happened. While I hate to admit it, one of the comments that ex-Louisville coach Rick Pitino said rings true – the NCAA can take away our banners, but they can’t change what happened on the court – we won that National Championship. Hard to do the right thing when winning is so important to everyone….
In a perfect world, the NCAA would send more of a message – while they might not have enough evidence to stop LSU from playing in this year’s tournament and due process is necessary for such a major claim of breaking the rules, they have enough probable cause to suspend Wade indefinitely until all the evidence plays out. It will be interesting to see what happens. And if that evidence is true, his coaching career should be done. Sadly though, this case will probably drag out for a long time, and we all know NCAA investigations are anything but fast (I think the UNC academic scandal first came to light in 2011 and the investigation ended in 2017 with no punishment…)
Maybe Self is right – considering academic scandals don’t get a school punished, why should a player be suspended 2 years for taking money. I just hate to think that is right – we have rules for a reason that should be followed. But sadly, the NCAA simply isn’t very consistent with its rulings.