This board has had several chicken little's and even more disgusting, some who are gloating over the current problems our basketball program is enduring.
Just as "Jordan McRae will be suspended for the season because the NCAA will make an example out of him" ended up being absurdly wrong, people keep acting as if TN is going to be the most penalized program ever and we are not.
"The enforcement staff does not believe that the information developed during its preliminary inquiry supports allegations of major NCAA infractions and, absent the emergence of new information, is closing the case," is from the letter to Binghamton the NCAA just sent. That would be a best case scenario.
It is also unlikely. We may end up with some major violations. Major violations?!?!?! That means postseason ban for certain right? Nope.
All of our underlying violations are minor. The only reason this is anything more than a blip on the NCAA radar is because Bruce Pearl lied to the NCAA. Call it a lawyers trick if you want, but Bruce Pearl also came clean about lying, before the NCAA said anything. Now if the NCAA does not give some leniency to Pearl and the TN program, the message they are sending is "if you are going to lie, keep lying." They do not want to have to keep trying and failing to prove their case because they are stonewalled by all the coaches and all the players and all the AAU coaches and agents and handlers...they want rule compliance and they want people to be scared of them.
BBQ gate,
Bruce Pearl let some commits to the TN program who were juniors who called themselves a part of the TN family, come to the family BBQ that he had at his house. Subsequently, Selby's mom wanted $ and took Josh around to look for a better deal and Aaron Craft went to Ohio State. When we beat them in the tournament, the Craft's became snitches thanks to the urging of the staff in Columbus. So one of our current players got a free BBQ meal, and the extra benefit was such a big one, that two of our commits left and went elsewhere.
This case is going to be great precedent for the NCAA.
TN had a minor rule violation. Bruce Pearl lied about it. The University dropped a hammer on him by taking away 25% of his pay. There are lots of people who have said that losing 1.5 million does not hurt. Those people are idiots. Of course it hurts. Ask other coaches if they would be excited about staying at a school that took away 25% of their pay for extra text messages and bbq and you would be laughed at. Bruce was nailed to the wall already precisely because he lied.
TN is not going to be one of the biggest NCAA enforcement scandals in this time frame.
Scott Drew at Baylor is under investigation now.
Report: Baylor basketball under NCAA investigation - NCAA Basketball - SI.com He is under investigation for excessive text messaging, which is an idiotic rule and one that almost every coaching staff violates routinely. I would be stunned however if that is the only NCAA rule being broken by Baylor.
Lute Olson denied singing a letter soliciting funds for the Cactus Classic he sent out on University letterhead.
He worked with a booster to host a tournament during a dead period where he recruited players. The NCAA hammered them with a post season ban right? Nope. Arizona self imposed and the NCAA accepted it. They took away a scholarship, took away some recruiting visits and they vacated some wins. Vacating wins will not be an issue here.
Oregon has an investigation where Dunigan received extra benefits. These benefits are of the $ variety, not a bbq dinner.
Calhoun!!!! That jerk got notice of eight major violations from the NCAA and this was his statement:
Im going to be educated by certain matters
if indeed we did make mistakes, and well finalize that over the next 90 days and well move forward. No one wants this to happen.
Did I see it happening? No. But were going to handle it like we always handle things, up front, transparently, and do it the best way we can. It will be interesting to see what the NCAA does to UConn with 8 violations. I can tell you this, if Calhoun had 25% of his pay taken away, he would have a meltdown that would make Bob Knight look like Ghandi.
UConn had a sports agent send a player to their program. This agent was a representative of their athletic interest. Do I think that this happens a good bit at other programs including some in our conference who have not been caught yet? Yes I do. But the attitude towards the NCAA from UConn contrasts sharply with the attitude of TN. They did things that are a much bigger deal in the NCAA rulebook, and they fought them tooth and nail.
USC, Oklahoma, Ohio State, all very big deals.
Even so, most fans have already forgotten about the scandal at the school where current snitch head coach Thad Matta resides. Matta may or may not end up in trouble for breaking NCAA rules himself. Clark Kellogg as a recruiter is not as big a deal to me as the $$$ that are bringing studs to the school just as surely as they are bringing guys to Baylor.
At the end of the day, we will not have a lack of institutional control and the NCAA will thank Mike Hamilton and the compliance office for working so closely with them
The biggest penalty in terms of impact will be that TN basketball will have to follow all the rules moving forward in recruiting in a way that puts us even further behind. I said before it is like having to drive 55 in a 55 while trying to race other cars that do not have police problems. It is very difficult.
TN basketball will do very well moving forward and Bruce Pearl will be an incredibly successful coach, to the chagrin of some and to the delight of the fans who are glad we get to keep the greatest coach in the history of our basketball program.
