Interesting article on the seedy underbelly of NCAA bball
Right or wrong, the fact that UM does not engage in the gray area of college bball recruiting means that UM bball will always struggle, imho. Regardless, the story below is an interesting read.
http://www.slate.com/id/2248019/
I have been in Lexington for almost two years. Last year we had some furniture delivered to our house and I started talking to the delivery guys about UK basketball. They both said they don't care if there are any violations as long as UK wins a national championship. MANY people here think the same way.
I thought just about everthing in college basketball was seedy. Don't people have to work to find the clean areas?
Yet I tend to think that it's a bit cleaner today than it was in the 80's and 90's.
Why? The NCAA has only gone softer on schools since then.
Right or wrong, Michigan unfortunately did engage in the "gray area" in the 1990's, and is still paying for it. Ironically enough, Mateen Cleaves, who was probably encouraged by Tom Izzo to turn Michigan in, was Jalen Rose's "partner" against Skip Clueless yesterday on First and Ten.
The article refers to teams whose records were erased as if they didn't exist, but Cleaves certainly didn't talk about the Detroiters of the Fab Five as if they never existed. I think that is the bottom line; the NCAA can selectively persecute and "erase" all they want, but they can't erase the memories of the fans who watched the games.
As for throwing out the NCAA rulebook and ending shamateurism once and for all, I am all for it and have been since at least the 1980's. The NCAA could throw out ninety-nine percent of its rules and use the money paid to enforcement staffs to pay the players.
I'm sure that idea would make a lot of NCAA people happy.
Mateen was encouraged by Tom Izzo to turn Michigan in? They crashed a car with Mateen in the back seat. And the next week the Ann Arbor News had an expose on how Maurice Taylor got the car. Mateen didn't have to turn anybody in...
March 18th, 2010 at 12:10 PM ^
You are correct sir.
When Maurice Taylor flipped his brand new 1996 Explorer on M-14 while returning from a hookers and blow party sponsored by Ed Martin at the Westin at the Ren Cen, questions were inevitable. Such as: how did Mo Taylor afford a 1996 Explorer. Answer: not his, but his grandmother's (grandma earned $600/month in social security). It was all downhill from there.
March 18th, 2010 at 12:12 PM ^
You just won't stop clinging to your silly belief that Izzo is somehow responsible for the Ed Martin scandal, will you?
I forgot to post it. Very well written. I also never knew about Rose's house getting burglarized. "Honky Please!"
They claim that RR has lost institutional control but claim that Calipari is a saint. It's completely fucking insane.
March 18th, 2010 at 11:17 AM ^
People habitually complain—with ample reason—about the IRS, the USPS, and their DMV, but in reality the NCAA is a far more incompetent and corrupt organization than all three put together.
They claimed that RR "failed to monitor," not that there was a lack of institutional control.
the excuse that everyone else is cheating so that's why we struggle - or that it's a college basketball issue.
People have been cheating in every sport since the dawn of time.
Doping (Olympics, Tour de France, major league baseball, Tony Mandarich); messing with restrictor plates in Nascar, 1919 Black Sox, NBA refs.
IMO people that cheat either:
a) get caught eventually
b) lack morals so it spills over into other aspects of their lives to their runiation
March 18th, 2010 at 10:07 AM ^
To your second point, I give you John Wooden. The man is still held up as a saint (and maybe he is) despite the fact that UCLA had its own Ed Martin for many, many years in Sam Gilbert.
You don't hear about that name much when discussing the great run of UCLA basketball despite the fact that Bill Walton(!!!) basically said Gilbert bought a decade's worth of recruits for UCLA. http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=dw-uclalegacy040206&p…
I find it hard to argue that the best teams aren't cheating, especially when you see coaches consistently build programs out of nothing, despite not appearing to be great coaches (Bob Huggins).
March 18th, 2010 at 10:20 AM ^
that's why I'm happy we have the Hebrew National of college bball coaches in Mr Beilein.
March 18th, 2010 at 12:45 PM ^
Michigan Basketball: Where Rabbis Bless Every Mandatory Workout.
Hebrew Nationals are delicious now that you mention it…. might go to Costco for a late lunch