NCAA Basketball about to go Boom
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Anyone that thinks the FBI gets involved in something like this, spends millions of dollars investigating it, and won't bring some indictments, is smoking something. If this were just the NCAA, I would certainly agree, but this is a federal agency that's under the jurisdiction of the justice dept. They don't get involved just to clean up the NCAA's mess.
Just saw that they have video of Sean Miller talking to someone about a $100,000.00 payment to Ayton. If so, then he's done, and so is Ayton as far as playing in another college game. Arizona will have to forfeit every game they won this year, and certainly won't be in the tournament. I doubt Miller will ever coach another college game.
Just saw that they have video of Sean Miller talking to someone about a $100,000.00 payment to Ayton. If so, then he's done, and so is Ayton as far as playing in another college game. Arizona will have to forfeit every game they won this year, and certainly won't be in the tournament. I doubt Miller will ever coach another college game.
Miller is taking the night off. As a Cats fan I'm pretty devastated that we now seem to be the poster children of this mess. Ayton is playing tonight, they're railroading Trier and Miller says he'll be vindicated. I would think if he winds up holding the bag it won't be good for the NCAA as a whole given the amount of top recruits UA lost to Kansas and Kentucky the past 3-4 seasons.
I'll be honest, I've never been a big fan of Miller as a coach. He's a good recruiter, but in general, I feel his teams have under performed based on the talent that they've had. That said, I don't wish anything like this on him or the school. It doesn't look good. I'm surprised that Ayton is playing tonight. I figured the school would step in and keep him off the floor until this thing is resolved, but hey, that could take months.
As a Cats fan, I would say yes and no. They overachieved early, I think. For whatever reason his two best teams probably just did not match up well with Wisconsin at all. He was a point guard yet seems to struggle to develop play at that position which has hurt the team through the years.
All in all, we could have done a lot worse post Lute.
All in all, we could have done a lot worse post Lute.
My guess here is that Arizona knows/feels confident that their season is going to be vacated anyway, so why not win a few more games and try to have a tournament run up until the point the NCAA brings the hammer down. It does not look like Arizona is going to be a makor player in the PAC-12 for the next few years at least.
Sadly, that's probably true. I ran across this article and video about the situation in Arizona.
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...dre-ayton-signing-according-fbi-investigation
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...dre-ayton-signing-according-fbi-investigation
Yeah, it is a bit strange, but then Miller is a much higher profile person, so maybe their making sure all the I's are dotted and the T's are crossed. Sometimes the FBI will leak things to see what kind of reaction they get by the suspect. I certainly hope that Miller is vindicated, but it doesn't look good at the moment. It's amazing how many other college coaches are putting distance between themselves and Dawkins. What's that old saying, "He who protests the most".
Well, I think it's pretty clearly a denial. I mean, people are trying to spin this as "Lonzo said 'everybody' which obvious includes himself" but given that he obviously simultaneously denied that he had received money it's pretty clear that "everybody" here actually means "lots of guys". Figurative language, and all.
It's entirely possible that his denial is false, but the idea that the word "everybody" was a tacit acknowledgement of self-guilt, especially given the explicit denial, is silly to me.
It's entirely possible that his denial is false, but the idea that the word "everybody" was a tacit acknowledgement of self-guilt, especially given the explicit denial, is silly to me.
Webber took the extra step of making false statements on the record in a grand jury trial. That's a whole other ballgame and what really happened to him as a result? A three game suspension. That's a pathetically small monetary penalty and some extra rest in the regular season. He was then put on trial for perjury (not taking money from boosters) and settled with a plea deal and paid another fine. All the NCAA ever does is say "your wins don't count while player X was on the team". I still don't see any kind of punishment that is strong enough to change people's behavior.
Who is in charge of NCAA Basketball? IMO that person and the College Administrators have knowingly allowed this to go on for years. Making the Players, Coaches and Agents the fall guys is a bad look for Justice IMO. College Basketball is a multi million dollar sport with huge advertising dollars coming in. Anyone who takes any of the money from the game is liable and responsible IMO. You can't reap the benefits of the revenue and pretend to be innocent.
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The G league is becoming more and more viable for those that dont go first round as an avenue to the NBA and i feel it could be somewhat expanded.
The opportunity has always been there being to head overseas instead of collage on route to the draft but theres somewhat of a stigma associated with that road. Once that changes we'll see more and more kids go that way. They are hardly students first then athletes, primarily commodities under the NCAA
Go play overseas with grown men and get paid, prove yourself then come to the NBA and get paid some more. Dont join the circus that is the NCAA, its really all a facade
The opportunity has always been there being to head overseas instead of collage on route to the draft but theres somewhat of a stigma associated with that road. Once that changes we'll see more and more kids go that way. They are hardly students first then athletes, primarily commodities under the NCAA
Go play overseas with grown men and get paid, prove yourself then come to the NBA and get paid some more. Dont join the circus that is the NCAA, its really all a facade
One very well connected person on a forum I frequent states that the top 30 schools all have major pay-to-play systems in place for prized recruits and that there are even D2 and feeder schools that pay their top guys. And it has been this way for at least 3 decades now.
None of that is surprising in the slightest. The Olympics adapted and dropped the whole "amateur athletics" thing, why can't the NCAA just follow suit? It would possibly solve the 1 and done issues and maybe even encourage some student athletes to obtain their degrees before going pro. Maybe it's a title IX issue?
None of that is surprising in the slightest. The Olympics adapted and dropped the whole "amateur athletics" thing, why can't the NCAA just follow suit? It would possibly solve the 1 and done issues and maybe even encourage some student athletes to obtain their degrees before going pro. Maybe it's a title IX issue?
All this means is that more and more kids are going to want to jump right into the deep end with the big dogs when, in reality, most of them probably should walk the shallow waters first, and then make their way into the deep end once they are able to tread water...Sure, there have been cases where a high school kid gets drafted, and then goes on to make it big (LeBron), but it takes a special talent at that young of an age in order to pull that off. This might spell more trouble for the NBA than most probably think it will, at least if/when they look at it on the surface.
I wonder if it is ethical, and legal, to adopt a requirement that, if a HS graduate wants to skip college completely and make their way to the pro league(s), they must first report to duty in the G-League for at least 1 season (preferably more) before being eligible to make the main roster. A team can still draft him, but they would have to send him down to the G-League for 1 season first, before giving them a shot at a spot on the main roster...
If it is ethical and legal, I say why not?
I wonder if it is ethical, and legal, to adopt a requirement that, if a HS graduate wants to skip college completely and make their way to the pro league(s), they must first report to duty in the G-League for at least 1 season (preferably more) before being eligible to make the main roster. A team can still draft him, but they would have to send him down to the G-League for 1 season first, before giving them a shot at a spot on the main roster...
If it is ethical and legal, I say why not?
I have to say the NCAA looks like an institution who has outlived it's self. I am beginning to think the league might do more for young players by ending 1 and done and then encouraging G league play while building a program to help players go to college if they chose to after they leave. The arguments for the NBA protecting college ball are just not holding up thanks to the NCAA itself.
On a macro level, I think that's the problem here. College athletics on the surface are supposed to be about teaching kids life skills and preparing the lucky few for an eventual career as a professional athlete right? Except if the whole system is built around funneling as much money as possible to corporations that use athletes to sell products, it's highly unlikely that the best interest of the athletes themselves is being served by anyone.
The DeAnthony Melton case is just a small example of that. He's targeted by these people because he's playing well enough to merit NBA consideration and suddenly you've got agents and coaches talking about money behind his back and making promises and handshake deals and then as soon as the threat of sanctions is even a remote possibility the University itself essentially abandons him to his own devices. I work for USC -- it brings me no joy to say this, but I'm ashamed of the way Melton was treated by everyone involved and I think it puts the lie on the face of the whole "Trojan Family" mantra that apparently applies to everyone except athletes. One of our (ex) coaches is directly involved. 19 and 20 year olds can and do make mistakes all the time -- but the paid staff that's supposed to be helping them obviously knows better and those are the people who need to be punished.
At the end of the day the coaches (some of them anyway) will be dismissed but they get to keep however many millions they've pocketed over the years. Sean Miller at Arizona apparently gets to keep his entire salary whether he's fired with cause or not. Nobody is coming after Nike or Adidas -- just the unfortunate underlings following orders who will be cut loose as quickly as USC washed their hands of Melton. But the kids who just want to play basketball who's lives are screwed up because they got bad advice from all these people who really had no interest in them at all other than their ability to make them money -- those kids don't get a second chance to re-enlist in college, reclaim their scholarships, finish their degree.
You could say that there's no harm in colleges paying top recruits to play there. They generate money for the school through TV deals and jersey and ticket sales anyway right? Shouldn't they be getting a cut? To that I say absolutely! But the way it's done now is more like organized crime. Maybe there's a way to legitimately pay these kids a fair cut so we don't have all these vultures circling around slipping them envelopes of cash and writing contracts out on napkins or however this is done.
Here's another article about what's going on with this investigation.
The NCAA is complicit in allowing this to happen. We all know this kind of thing has been going on for decades. I've been trying to figure out why it is that certain schools and players get busted while others are allowed to continue the behavior unabated. I think it has something to do with the illusion of conformity. As long as an example is made out of a few very public offenders, the rest can go on pretending like they're all on the up and up.
I remain skeptical though that anyone involved will make an effort to improve things. Even with the FBI now involved. The marketing money involved is astronomical -- that's the carrot on the stick. And if the carrot is big enough, the bat you're going to need to dissuade people from chasing it is going to need to be of equivalent size to actually work as a deterrent. I'm talking "break up the major apparel companies with federal anti-trust legislation" size -- which is an enormous task that I don't think anyone is willing to take on.
The DeAnthony Melton case is just a small example of that. He's targeted by these people because he's playing well enough to merit NBA consideration and suddenly you've got agents and coaches talking about money behind his back and making promises and handshake deals and then as soon as the threat of sanctions is even a remote possibility the University itself essentially abandons him to his own devices. I work for USC -- it brings me no joy to say this, but I'm ashamed of the way Melton was treated by everyone involved and I think it puts the lie on the face of the whole "Trojan Family" mantra that apparently applies to everyone except athletes. One of our (ex) coaches is directly involved. 19 and 20 year olds can and do make mistakes all the time -- but the paid staff that's supposed to be helping them obviously knows better and those are the people who need to be punished.
At the end of the day the coaches (some of them anyway) will be dismissed but they get to keep however many millions they've pocketed over the years. Sean Miller at Arizona apparently gets to keep his entire salary whether he's fired with cause or not. Nobody is coming after Nike or Adidas -- just the unfortunate underlings following orders who will be cut loose as quickly as USC washed their hands of Melton. But the kids who just want to play basketball who's lives are screwed up because they got bad advice from all these people who really had no interest in them at all other than their ability to make them money -- those kids don't get a second chance to re-enlist in college, reclaim their scholarships, finish their degree.
You could say that there's no harm in colleges paying top recruits to play there. They generate money for the school through TV deals and jersey and ticket sales anyway right? Shouldn't they be getting a cut? To that I say absolutely! But the way it's done now is more like organized crime. Maybe there's a way to legitimately pay these kids a fair cut so we don't have all these vultures circling around slipping them envelopes of cash and writing contracts out on napkins or however this is done.
Here's another article about what's going on with this investigation.
The NCAA is complicit in allowing this to happen. We all know this kind of thing has been going on for decades. I've been trying to figure out why it is that certain schools and players get busted while others are allowed to continue the behavior unabated. I think it has something to do with the illusion of conformity. As long as an example is made out of a few very public offenders, the rest can go on pretending like they're all on the up and up.
I remain skeptical though that anyone involved will make an effort to improve things. Even with the FBI now involved. The marketing money involved is astronomical -- that's the carrot on the stick. And if the carrot is big enough, the bat you're going to need to dissuade people from chasing it is going to need to be of equivalent size to actually work as a deterrent. I'm talking "break up the major apparel companies with federal anti-trust legislation" size -- which is an enormous task that I don't think anyone is willing to take on.