Mystery Revealed: Patrick Beverly's Recruitment
Never trust a man with a ridiculous unibrow.
Basketball recrutniks will remember one Patrick Beverly, the late-rising Chicago wing that Amaker had seemingly locked down before a late trip to Arkansas suddenly flipped the kid. Beverly would go on to be a freshman All-American in 2006-2007. After a strong sophomore year he was ineligible as a junior and left Arkansas; he currently plays in the Greek league. If Beverly had signed up with Amaker there's a strong possibility he's still around today.
Anyway, afterwards there were more than the usual grumblings about dolla dolla bills y'all, many of them from moderator types on Rivals who usually shoot those things down. There wasn't any proof, though, and these things get old and people forget them.
There still isn't any proof, but hey… Arkansas assistant coach Oronde Taliaferro was Beverly's prime recruiting contact. What's Taliaferro up to these days?
[Oklahoma] acknowledged Wednesday that it was investigating phone calls made by former basketball assistant Oronde Taliaferro to determine whether he had committed any NCAA violations. In a statement, the school indicated that Taliaferro had made calls to a Merrill Lynch representative in Florida and the content of those calls was under review.
Oklahoma claims Taliaferro did not break NCAA rules by simply making the calls. The school's investigation started after a TMZ.com report that former player Keith "Tiny" Gallon had received a wire transfer from a Merrill Lynch representative. …
Taliaferro resigned in April after three seasons on coach Jeff Capel's staff, and the school said he wanted to "focus on other employment opportunities." Warren and Gallon have both entered their names in the NBA draft. …
The Tulsa World and The Oklahoman reported Wednesday that the school released documents showing that Taliaferro exchanged at least 41 phone calls and 25 text messages with Hausinger between May 2009 and March 2010.
Getting that cheddar, yo. Also of note: when Beverley exited Arkansas he outed a massive team-wide cheating scandal before someone got him to recant. Chances Beverly's change of heart were because of the majesty of Fayetteville: minimal. Also see new Golden Knight Isaiah Sykes. Here's to the NCAA hammering Oklahoma and taking a hard look at Arkansas.
Excellent work by the local papers in both these situations, by the way. #*&$ing stretching is the end of the world over here.
If Beverly had signed up with Amaker there's a strong possibility he's still around today.
Enough Said.
We can probably add Scotty Reynolds to the list of guys who could have saved Amaker. After seeing him for four years at Villanova, he would have really been a program changer.
What I call infractions, assuming they are proven anyway.
Where are the anon sources and twisted quotes?
It's just a conference full of institutions oozing with 'family values' and all...
Someone get the man a spot on Kwame's legal team!
Wait, a hoops assistant at Oklahoma is using the phones too much?
Good to see Kelvin Sampson's how-to manual is still getting some use down in Norman.
I don't follow basketball recruiting too closely, but can someone explain the reference to "new Golden Knight Isiah Sykes"? I don't see how that's relevant...
Sykes suddenly took a visit to Arky this spring. The interest seemed to come out of nowhere.
I think Brian is drawing a connection to that and the Beverly situation.
Right . . . and he ended up signing with Central Florida.
I just don't see how that points to shady dealings by Arkansas.
Jake Ryan signed with Michigan, so Bowling Green must have offered him money!
Doesn't that sound a little ridiculous?
Glad you asked Magnus, as I was wondering the same thing. I think jamiemac nailed it though. I had forgotten about the Arkansas interest.
Let's stop acting as if all the allegations boil down to confusion over stretching.
I understand your sentiment, but the excess practice time is what recieved the most headlines. If you asked most fans what Michigan is get investigated for they would say it was for excess practice time. Not a for having quality control people doing things they shouldn't be at 7v7, voluntary practices.
MAJOR sounds better when it's coming from a Spartyish kind of guy, as in "MAJOR VIOLATIONS! Huh, huh. MAJOR! Huh."
For one thing the extra practice time allegations werent confined to the fifteen minutes of stretching. There were also allegations about the length of voluntary workouts in the summer and that on certain days a specific limit was exceeded.
The extra coaches allegation, while maybe not as publicized, is the more serious accusation. It reflects a disregard for the rules and can't be explained away as a misinterpretation.
You don't know what virtually every football program does, you're assuming that they break the rules because we did. Also, how does a quality control guy not become a coach when he's watching film with players? That's not splitting hairs, it's a clear rule violation.
The time frame is unclear.
During the last two years, the NCAA alleged that Michigan’s quality-control assistants “regularly monitored and conducted skill-development activities” during voluntary winter and summer workouts; “regularly” assisted with warm-up activities during spring and fall practice; “sometimes” watched game and practice film with players; and “sometimes attended meetings involving coaching activities” according to the allegations.
We weren't the ones saying everyone else uses QC coaches for purposes against the rules. Bloggers for other schools openly said it. I think it was Tomahawk Nation guy who said that basically all the "big boy football programs" do exactly what we were accused of doing. I don't think the rules are very black-and-white on what they can and can't do, but pretty much everyone has a bunch of QC staffers and they do things that could likely be construed as coaching if the NCAA ever decided to investigate.
And, in any event, everyone thinks of this scandal as being about the overages, because that's what virtually the entire Freep "investigation" article was about. The QC coach thing was almost a throwaway line in there, although a decent number of us caught it and said 1) that allegation was more likely to be true than the absolutely insane amounts of overages the Freep claimed, and 2) it was arguably more serious than the overages were likely to be.
I believe Herron was a graduate assistant, not quality control. He did things that no other UM graduate assistant was doing and then lied about it because he fucking knew he had been breaking the rules. He is the heart of the allegations from the NCAA perspective (as opposed to the Freep bullshit). Whatever the QC people did, they clearly thought they were within the rules or at least in a grey area -- so no loss of "institutional control" there -- erroneous institutional control, yes, but no lack thereof.
Look at the notice of allegations. The QC stuff doesn't appear minor, and it doesn't appear as if it was a misunderstanding. UM's own compliance staff asked about it within 3 months of Rodriguez's hiring. Continually referring to the whole thing as a few minutes of stretching seriously erodes credibility.
People 'round these parts downplay every shady Michigan situation, and blow every OSU or MSU shady dealing out of proportion.
"It's as dirty as a dirt sanwich, with extra dirt."
Who cares about what could have been, you have to deal with the [now] Michigan people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wish you all could grow up and stop all of this cry baby stuff!!!!!!!!
F Amaker and people that say things like [enough said or as a U of M fan or I feel this way about the state about my team! give it a rest please.
The [now] is the ongoing NCAA investigation which was the subject of the OP. Thanks for playing though.
F Amaker and people that say things like [enough said or as a U of M fan or I feel this way about the state about my team! give it a rest please.
Again in English, please? Seriously, how does anyone who uses that many exclamation marks in one post still have a positive point total on this site?
He no longer does.
Most of us have other things to do ,other then point checking!!!!!!! like that!!!
No, you grow up!!!!!!
*Takes ball and goes home*
When you get right down to it, major collegiate athletics are a complete fucking joke. I seriously wish I wasn't so emotionally commited to college sports. (Sadly though, I am ... forever).
Never trust a man with a ridiculous unibrow.
That was my yearbook quote.
As for the recruiting violations down at Arkansas and Oklahoma, I doubt anyone should be surprised. Sampson was a one-man NCAA violation machine, and I heard Capel's name thrown about for other coaching positions basically once he stepped on campus, so you have a sense he saw the writing on the wall and wanted to use the OU position (and Blake Griffin) as a quick stepping stone.
At this point, it is getting harder and harder to take revenue-generating collegiate sports as anything less than farm systems for the pros, with kids and coaches alike looking for the path to easy money and fame. **sigh**
The kid was on his way to stardown before he left Arkansas. Definitely could have used him at Michigan but things just didn't go our way.
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