I was listening to Gary Parrish's show, and he has Keith Easterwood on every Tuesday. For those that don't know, Easterwood is a long time AAU coach in Memphis and knows alot of people. He is very pro Memphis, but he also has a good relationship with Steve Forbes and I think even Bruce Pearl.
This story came up after the Louisville commit, Blakely, just decommitted and announced he was visiting all Nike schools. Louisville is an Adidas school. They suggest that there is no doubt that someone made a call to either his high school coach or his AAU coach and said that the Nike support of their programs will be taken away if he ends up at Louisville. Thus, the change. Easterwoood also said that companies will threaten not inviting kids to their big camps if they attend a camp or school that they don't sponsor.
Easterwood then told a story that Forbes/Pearl invited he and some Memphis kids up for a weekend camp a few years ago (I think the group with Chris Crawford, etc.). He said that Pastner hadn't done much at the time, and he figured he would take them to Knoxville. Well, he gets a call from Glenn Cyprien, who was an assistant at Memphis at the time, and he proceeds to warn Easterwood that he better not take them to Knoxville. I think he said Cyp even came to his house to tell him. Basically, the inference was that Memphis didn't want them to go, and Nike would withdraw support for his program because he was taking the kids to UT, an Adidas school. They didn't go.
The next story then came up about Pearl. Parrish is certain that Pearl has not had contact with recruits until his show-cause was up. However, he has no doubt that Under Armour was able to connect with some of the kids, and that is why you had several big commits here recently.
Easterwood is a bit of a homer, but he is very open and honest and tells some very interesting stories. Basketball recruiting is just a dirty game.
This story came up after the Louisville commit, Blakely, just decommitted and announced he was visiting all Nike schools. Louisville is an Adidas school. They suggest that there is no doubt that someone made a call to either his high school coach or his AAU coach and said that the Nike support of their programs will be taken away if he ends up at Louisville. Thus, the change. Easterwoood also said that companies will threaten not inviting kids to their big camps if they attend a camp or school that they don't sponsor.
Easterwood then told a story that Forbes/Pearl invited he and some Memphis kids up for a weekend camp a few years ago (I think the group with Chris Crawford, etc.). He said that Pastner hadn't done much at the time, and he figured he would take them to Knoxville. Well, he gets a call from Glenn Cyprien, who was an assistant at Memphis at the time, and he proceeds to warn Easterwood that he better not take them to Knoxville. I think he said Cyp even came to his house to tell him. Basically, the inference was that Memphis didn't want them to go, and Nike would withdraw support for his program because he was taking the kids to UT, an Adidas school. They didn't go.
The next story then came up about Pearl. Parrish is certain that Pearl has not had contact with recruits until his show-cause was up. However, he has no doubt that Under Armour was able to connect with some of the kids, and that is why you had several big commits here recently.
Easterwood is a bit of a homer, but he is very open and honest and tells some very interesting stories. Basketball recruiting is just a dirty game.
