NCAA screws over Michigan basketball and Aaliya
Per the agent who was helping Lee Aaliya navigate the international student maze, the NCAA totally screwed Michigan basketball and Juwan Howard:
The agent who helped him in his attempt to gain NCAA eligibility is livid.
“The issue is the massive hypocrisy of the NCAA,” Alex Saratsis told MLive. “The NCAA, for whatever reason, screwed this kid out of an opportunity to play college basketball.”
The short story is Aaliya received a cost-of-living stipend from the club he played with in Argentina, totaling $900 over 10 months. The NCAA investigated his "amateur" status and determined that he had to repay $1,155. But they made the determination too late for Aaliya to enroll for the winter term. Financially, he wasn't able to survive until next fall, so he chose to play overseas.
While much of the criticism of Juwan Howard may be warranted, he's also been flying into many headwinds, between the NCAA, Michigan's own admissions department and one-and-dones.
FYI - The agent referred to is not acting as a professional agent. My wife runs an international HS student program. All of the kids she places come through agencies who help these kids navigate the gov't and school requirements.
February 5th, 2024 at 8:49 AM ^
"NCAA Screws over Michigan...."
February 5th, 2024 at 8:50 AM ^
The agent is correct.
February 5th, 2024 at 12:46 PM ^
While the agent is correct and the NCAA keeps finding new lows to sink to, the OP’s assertion that Juwan Howard is taking flack for his lack of effort is not the issue.
In fact, the dismay many fans/alumni are working through is the quality or results based on his efforts. It’s well documented that UM admissions, NCAA requirements, and a elementary school-structured NIL program are all barriers to successful programs but it seems Juwan is licking the stamps instead of pushing the envelope like Harbaugh did.
In other words, he’s 100% Plan A in an era that requires backup plans to be titled somewhere in the middle of the alphabet. I’m sorry to hear his efforts to bring in international talent didn’t work but there’s gotta be some players closer to home he can bank on when these high-risk, high-reward occurrences happen.
February 5th, 2024 at 8:54 AM ^
Kids show up to signing / commitment activities in a Lamborghini - and it’s fine.
Schools spend $800K on an OV and it’s fine.
The NCAA comments publicly - against it’s own policy - regarding allegations - and it’s fine.
The NCAA and B1G reach suspension decisions in hours.
A prospect meets academic requirements and it takes five months to challenge a $90 / month stipend?
Ridiculous. Just ridiculous.
February 5th, 2024 at 9:05 AM ^
Yeah, im starting to think the NCAA just has a culture of incompetence. Even if they're policies and strategies are problematic, they do a lot of stuff that's just like boneheaded and every level and betrays lack of organization beyond just existing to keep players from getting paid.
February 5th, 2024 at 9:10 AM ^
In my daily life I try to abide by Hanlon's Razor which is: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." It helps you look at humanity in a more bumbling way than a- nefarious way.
However, even I have more respect for the human intellect to think people at the NCAA are actually THIS stupid. I have to assume for some reason I don't know if they spin the wheel (and Michigan is 7 of the 8 options on the wheel, and the 8th is "Spin Again") and say "okay we're going to screw over this young athlete; oh look, it's from Michigan again. Go figure?"
February 5th, 2024 at 9:28 AM ^
Being an idiot is just as bad.
February 5th, 2024 at 10:41 AM ^
This. If some idiot presses a big red button that gets a million people killed, do we really fucking care if it was an "oopsie"? If someone's an idiot instead of evil, they shouldn't be allowed anywhere within farting distance of responsibility or power ANYWAY.
I fully believe the NCAA is greedy, petty, and socipathic, but if someone tries to Hanlon's Razor them then I'm all, "I don't care." They shouldn't be running things, period.
February 5th, 2024 at 2:26 PM ^
"The only thing worse than an idiot is an idiot with power."
(Don't know if this saying has a title, but I've seen it way too many times not to be true.)
February 5th, 2024 at 9:54 AM ^
The main issue with Hanlon's Razor is its intrinsic presupposition that stupidity and malice don't come bundled together, especially in the face of ample evidence to the contrary - Hanlon pretty clearly never went to Columbus or East Lansing on a football Saturday.
February 5th, 2024 at 11:52 AM ^
This 100%. Getting back at people for alleged slights is a prime motivator, and it's also deeply, deeply, dumb.
February 5th, 2024 at 12:25 PM ^
I hold that in the same regard as Occam's Razor--none at all. You can't boil down the vast complexity of human relations to a single dopey aphorism.
February 5th, 2024 at 11:05 AM ^
When the pattern is that obvious, maliciousness is the only answer.
I've often wondered if Hanlon's razor was decreed by very malicious people.
February 5th, 2024 at 11:27 AM ^
Thanks for posting Hanlons Razor. I never heard it and it's tremendous. Another equally good saying is from the film Snatch. "One should never underestimate, the predictability of stupidity"
February 5th, 2024 at 1:52 PM ^
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity, except the stuff that is more accurately explained by a combination of malice, stupidity, greed, hypocrisy, and general rectal-cranial inversion."
February 6th, 2024 at 4:56 PM ^
7 of the 8 are Michigan because they know Michigan won't fight back. They'll just quietly accept whatever the NCAA hands down to them.
Meanwhile in the south an entire states government will go to war with the NCAA to protect its college football program.
February 5th, 2024 at 9:15 AM ^
"The NCAA has a culture of incompetence"
I dont see it that way at all FWIW. The NCAA are bullies and bullies pick on people who cant or wont fight back. When they see Michigan is involved they absolutely know we'll sit back and take whatever they dish out without any institutional resistance. They then can flex their muscles and say "see, we are absolutely not powerless".
When I was in 5th grade at Webster Elementary in Pontiac their was a kid in 6th grade who'd been held back two separate times so we was significantly more developed physically than everyone else. And he was a stone-cold bully too. For whatever reason he decided to make me a target and everyday at recess I got pushed, shoved, hit and made fun of by this clown. Finally I had enough so one day after he did this I took a swing at him and he quickly got the upper hand and had me pinned down sitting on my chest punching my face. But after one punch his thumb went into my mouth and I bit down on it for all I was worth. He started screaming and his blood was running down my face but I refused to let go and literally bit threw to his bone. Took a bunch of teachers to get him off of me and get him to a hospital for stiches.
He never bothered me again.
February 5th, 2024 at 9:32 AM ^
This story made me laugh out loud. I enjoyed it way more than I probably should have.
I wonder where that kid is now?
February 5th, 2024 at 9:37 AM ^
Rumor has it he's commissioner of a major college football conference....
February 5th, 2024 at 9:47 AM ^
I imagined mGrowOld as Ralphie from A Christmas Story
February 5th, 2024 at 11:21 AM ^
Much of that was filmed in Cleveland... so maybe.
February 5th, 2024 at 1:54 PM ^
Is Cleveland a suburb of Pontiac?
February 5th, 2024 at 9:37 AM ^
I can't upvote this enough. Bully will bully until strong resistance.
Can you tell this exact story to Warde?
February 5th, 2024 at 9:44 AM ^
What I like best about your story is that you were ultimately effective but not in a Hollywood sort of way (where a tiny kid improbably KOs a kid twice his size).
February 5th, 2024 at 10:00 AM ^
No I was absolutely getting my ass kicked until he fucked up and had a punch slide off my face so his thumb landed in my mouth.
From that day on he literally left me alone and turned his attention to other kids. He realized I was crazy and wanted no part of me anymore. When I was a bouncer at the Village Bell and guys wanted to fight for whatever reason I used to say "you might win the fight but tomorrow you'll remember I was there."
February 5th, 2024 at 10:06 AM ^
Best rule of thumb is to never be just the biggest kid. Bullies will try their luck every now and then with those, just if they feel their status as the biggest and baddest is threatened. You want to be the kid who seems so unstable that "yeah he probably can't fight. But I can't rule out that he has a samurai sword stashed behind his back."
February 5th, 2024 at 10:24 AM ^
Yeah, the advice I got from my father, a life-long Harlem resident, was essentially to feign crazy when threatened by bullies. Nobody, regardless of how tough, wants to fight the crazy guy. You don't want to fight a guy who wouldn't mind doing prison time if it means kicking your ass. THAT guy doesn't want to fight some dude with no conception of the consequences of any action. My solution to bully problems was lifting weights. Once I could bench press and leg lift the entire stack on a Universal...well, no one was fucking with that. My father was always a pretty slender guy--19 inch biceps and tree-trunk thighs mean never having to fake crazy.
February 5th, 2024 at 12:07 PM ^
Hal from Malcolm in the Middle "See, it's what I always tell you boys. Crazy beats big every time."
February 5th, 2024 at 9:52 AM ^
possibly mgrowold's picture....
February 5th, 2024 at 9:56 AM ^
The TN legislature and Danny White, who is the AD at TN, understand this. NCAA is not your friend.
The problem with the NCAA (and government in general) is that you need regulating bodies. Without rules and laws people cheat their asses off and will screw everyone else over for the slightest advantage. We need a functioning version of the NCAA or something like it. We need clear rules that evenly enforced. EDIT: and the violations that are enforced should be material. Cream cheese, cheeseburgers and anything generally cheese related should not constitute a violation.
February 5th, 2024 at 11:12 AM ^
I don't see what the NCAA is enforcing in terms of eligibility these days. The rules about paying players are a joke. Academic requirements are a joke. Just let everyone play, and do what you can to make sure the facilities are safe and the game officials are fair.
February 5th, 2024 at 10:10 AM ^
Could not agree more, MGrowOld. The NCAA is looking around for any signs of legitimacy it can claim for itself because everyone else is getting the word that at their core, they are powerless and are getting sued left and right. So its going to go after the institutions that they know, historically, will not fight back.
Michigan is one of those institutions.
I said the exact same thing (minus the biting through a bully's finger, of course) in another thread a few days ago. The NCAA is just a bully in a school yard who is going to pick on anyone WHO LETS HIM. When Michigan caves and gives the NCAA its lunch money, tomorrow the NCAA is coming back to take your backpack, your favorite pair of shoes, and the answers to tomorrow's math homework assignment. Until you freaking fight back, they're going to keep rubbing your face in the dirt.
February 5th, 2024 at 11:12 AM ^
Always wondered about the origin of the expression 'Rule of thumb'. Much more intriguing than I ever would have guessed. Thank you for clearing that up.
And yeah, this is not simply explained away by malfeasance. Never one to cry 'picking on me' when dealing with issues, but after what we've seen over the years from the NCAA and how their 'governance' is applied and to whom, there is little doubt in my mind that it is selective and they make little effort to hide it. From the 'excessive workouts' to the 'cheeseburgers' to what some gleefully termed the 'sign-stealing scandal', it also really opened my own naive eyes as to how petty and revenge driven the teams in our conference are for getting their asses kicked by us over the years. It must be pretty miserable in their worlds.
February 5th, 2024 at 11:45 AM ^
first 5 min of the movie Boondock Saints gives the meaning behind ‘rule of thumb’ in a great scene
February 5th, 2024 at 12:21 PM ^
Always wondered about the origin of the expression 'Rule of thumb'.
This is said to be the origin of the term, 'rule of thumb.' It's...very, very awful.
"This has been said to derive from the belief that English law allowed a man to beat his wife with a stick so long as it is was no thicker than his thumb. In 1782 Judge Sir Francis Buller is reported as having made this legal ruling. That same year James Gillray published a satirical cartoon attacking Buller and caricaturing him as 'Judge Thumb'."
February 5th, 2024 at 12:58 PM ^
Ordinance 1.5x3.5 allows for women to hit back with 2 by 4 tho
February 5th, 2024 at 12:00 PM ^
I see it a third way: The NCCA is full of stupid bullies.
February 5th, 2024 at 2:03 PM ^
This scene deserves a depiction with Midjourney.
February 5th, 2024 at 9:52 AM ^
Incompetence doesn't cover the selective nature of enforcement which cannot be what everybody originally signed up for?
February 5th, 2024 at 10:01 AM ^
I think the NCAA is guilty of constantly going for low hanging fruit to feel like they're really upholding the rules and such. Small stipend? This is serious business! Kids being offered 6 figures to transfer to other schools? Well that's hard and people have lawyers so I give up. Better go beat up on the easy stuff again
February 5th, 2024 at 11:34 AM ^
More likely it’s corruption, and M is probably not adept at greasing the wheels to get what it wants
February 5th, 2024 at 2:20 PM ^
I like Joel Klatt's latest discussion of same where he says its like driving miles on an unposted speed limit highway and following the speed of the rest of the traffic and getting pulled over when you saw many speeding by you unbothered.
Just not a good idea to have Michigan plates, I guess.
February 5th, 2024 at 10:10 AM ^
This is America. How in the hell NCAA is not sued to oblivion is beyond me. UM should have taken a stance and shredded them in courts. Instead, here we are.
February 5th, 2024 at 10:47 AM ^
They are getting sued to oblivion. Court cases take time though.
February 5th, 2024 at 12:19 PM ^
Why does the University of Michigan and every other institution continue to have a relationship with this corrupt, inept organization.
Does the NCAA have something untoward on every president?
February 5th, 2024 at 8:58 AM ^
The NCAA cannot die soon enough, hopefully to be succeeded by a reasonable governing group.
February 5th, 2024 at 9:05 AM ^
Though somehow the phrase “reasonable governing group” sounds like an oxymoron…
February 5th, 2024 at 10:49 AM ^
It's not, that's just toxic anti-political nihilism.
BUT the foremost risk of any reform or turnover is "meet new boss, same as the old boss". The NCAA won't go away quietly and the first thing they'll do before they get dissolved is quietly cozy up to whoever gets to decide how to replace them.
If you're not vigilant about it, or yeah if you go "well it's all pointless because gummint", then yeah they will occupy the new chairs with ridiculous ease, completing a self-fulfilling prophecy.
February 5th, 2024 at 9:32 AM ^
Hope is not a strategy. Unfortunately i see the NCAA dying and being resurrected as a new entity with even more corruption and more power. People get the governance they deserve
February 5th, 2024 at 10:04 AM ^
I think people are gonna be highly disappointed to find out that the successor to the NCAA is just NCAA2. The NCAA is mainly run by the big boys and it's the governing structure they want. What everyone needs is separate rules for P5 or FBS football because the classic NCAA model just does not work for big time football anymore and it probably hasn't worked for at least 20 years