Someone needs to tell Noel this ain't no House Party
Per the NY Times, the NCAA has begun to nose around into star Kentucky recruit Nerlens Noel and his recruitment. The inquiry involves some financial issues, some academics, and a possible link (through an "advisor") to an agent. It's all pretty vague, everybody's cooperating and downplaying at this point, it's not even a formal investigation yet, the kid deserves the benefit of the doubt at the outset, etc., but still . . .
Here's the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/sp...r=2&ref=sports
edit: title of the thread should've said "Inquiry" instead of "Investigation" -- don't think I can change it now.
Someone needs to tell Noel this ain't no House Party
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/sp...a-inquiry.html
Man, I hope Calipari gets nailed for this one . . . doesn't sound like he had much to do with it as of now, but come on . . . it's more than just a trend at this point. UK fans are already in full panic mode, and I can't help but grin.
EDIT: whoops . . . didn't see the other thread, feel free to toss this one.
Three down... http://www.dukebasketballreport.com/...Opened-by-NCAA
I listened to an ESPN Podcast from the Scott Van Pelt show who had Pete Thamel talk about it. It is still pretty vague, but a lot of little different things worth looking into. I'm still not quite sure if its a formal investigation, or if its just clearing a few things up. Always interesting though when the final question that comes up is: Will Nerlens Noel play for Kentucky in the fall? His answer: I don't know. It at least makes you think twice. I'm not going to start trying to speculate what will come of it, and I am certainly not going to start the "how this will affect Amile's decision making"
Can you just imagine both UK and UNC being taken down in the same year?
Nothing will happen to UNC because Roy has already completely debunked the whole AA studies issue with his declaration that: A, other students not just athletes took the courses, and B, that the BB players did the work assigned to them. So we have, both a rationalization (they did EVERYTHING that was not asked of them) and an "everybody else was doing it" statement from the head man... nothing left to discuss here.
This is old hat for UK and Calipari. Rose (at Memphis), Bledsoe, Kanter, Davis and now Noel. I wouldn't be surprised if they have someone in the SID's office that works on this full time. Nothing came out of the Davis thing last year and it was quickly sweep under the rug. The only reason Kanter was forced to sit was because his old euro club felt spurned and spoke out about his salary. I'm not holding my breathe for truth or justice if somethings wrong.
Update on Noel's recruitment -
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...caa/index.html
"The presence of two NCAA enforcement officials and Bell [UK chief compliance officer] gives the appearance that this case has gone beyond the routine checking of top prospects, according to one former NCAA investigator....A veteran compliance official with no direct connection to Noel's case called the presence of Kentucky's Bell in the meeting with the NCAA: 'unusual but not incredibly unusual.'"
And: "The NCAA didn't focus on Noel's academics in the meeting and asked mostly about the people involved with Noel's recruitment."
Si.com has a story up that the NCAA has been back up to New England earlier in August, this time to his prep school in Tilton, NH to re-open the investigation of Nerlens Noel's eligibility. This time they're focussing not on academics but rather on benefits he may have received -- how he paid for visits, that kind of thing. Kentucky sent its Chief Compliance Officer to be involved in the meetings, which has been described by some as unusual.
Thanks for keeping up with this guys. During the summer I've been a little out of pocket and didn't really notice this in May due to taking my final exams. This IS a big deal for me b/c my younger cousin is currently on the Tilton HS basketball team and was teammates with Noel last year. Of equal importance is my own cousin's academic background b/c he transferred from a school in Saudi Arabia straight to Tilton. So we are keeping an eye on this now in a major way.
Not sure if this belongs in its own thread, or maybe we could update the title of this one, but Shabazz Muhammad is also under investigation for receiving improper benefits and has been ruled ineligible for the team's trip to China. Is it possible that we dodged some major bullets by avoiding Purvis and Noel and being turned down by Shabazz?
(It should be mentioned that Purvis's situation is very different from the other two and involves his high school's certification, not anything that he himself has done).
Unforgettables II? This could turn out to be a heartwarming story for the Wildcat faithful. We've already started grooming MPIII for the starring "dagger through the heart" role, I hope.
Man, if your Mom made you wear that color when you were a baby, and you're still wearing it, it's time to grow up!
Just to be clear, you are right -- we're dealing with two very different situations. In the Purvis case, Duke WAS interested, but voluntarily backed off the kid because of concerns about his academic situation. This is very much lik Eric Bledsoe in 2009 -- we were interested, took a look at his academic record and couldn't back out of the room fast enough. I don't think Purvis' case is that bad, but there were concerns that caused us to quit recruiting him.
I'm not as clear about the Muhammad case, except there were strong rumors after he committed to UCLA that he told friends that he had wanted to go to Duke, but there were reasons that he had to go to UCLA. Again, just rumors, but the rumors were that his father had reaped a large sum from adidas to deliver his son.
Now, those are just rumors, so take if FWIW. We'll let the NCAA investiogation play out.
But in Purvis' case, I'm glad we backed off the kid ... while in Muhammad's case, it's very possible that we didn't get him BECAUSE of irregularities .. ie, he or his family was paid to go elsewhere.
Wait I thought Bledsoe took and passed Alg. II before taking Alg I or maybe I misremembered
But with regard to Purvis is anyone really shocked that a school called Upper Room Academy has questionable academic standards? Glad Duke backed off on him.
I'll be interested to see what happens with Muhammad's case though as there was a lot of speculation about Adidas and the possible intaglements the family may or may not have had with his sister's connection to Adidas as well as UCLAs. He seems like a good kid (not that Purvis doesn't) but I'd hate to see things others may have done cost him but it happens.
"Upper Room" is a common term of Christianity that references Jesus' teachings to the Disciples as related in the Gospel of John. I'm not sure the name alone should indicate questionable academics but I have noticed that it is common for these basketball academies to adopt Christianity based names. Does anyone have an opinion regarding Christ School from whence the Plumlee boys hale?