- Put. The. Phones. Down. UT-Chattanooga was placed on two years probation by the NCAA for “major” violations that AGAIN included a situation where the head coach John Shulman was busily texting recruits during a no-contact period. The Mocs will not suffer a postseason ban as a result of these violations, but we simply cannot understand why coaches continue to fall victim to such an easily traceable mistake. Every husband in the entire world knows that you don’t text or call your mistress using the phone that your wife can access — yet coaches seem oblivious to this codified man-law, so time and time again we see problems arise in this area. Gary Parrish discussed this last week, but coaches have proven to be slow on the uptick here. Get some burners, fellas — hell, use Skype — just stop this nonsense already.
- Speaking of Parrish, his latest article captures John Wooden’s mantra of “don’t mistake activity for achievement” really well. Too many coaches waste too much time trying to recruit prospects that they never had a shot with to begin with. To continue with the analogies, it’s like the guy who sadly yet consistently shoots for 9s when everyone in the bar knows that he should be focusing on the 6s. Finishing second or third in recruiting is like hearing the click with five more bullets in the barrel — you end up in the same place regardless.
- Scathing. That’s how we’d describe the latest piece by Fanhouse’s Ray Holloman about the Bruce Pearl/Tennessee recruiting violations that were exposed last week. Better than any other article we’ve seen written on this situation, Holloman perfectly exposes the true underlying motives of the “executive officers of a multi-million dollar athletic program.” The lesson here, and we sorta already knew it: treat these guys like politicians or CEOs by assuming that everything that comes out of their mouths is a half-truth or outright lie. Start there, and then figure out the rest.
- We rarely mention women’s college basketball here but this was too bizarre to ignore. UNC-Wilmington head coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke (this is not a joke) apologized for a punishment that her assistant Johnetta Hayes put junior guard Julia Finlay through during practice on Monday. Apparently Hayes forced Finlay to ‘log roll’ up and down the court at least twelve times in a row during a half-hour period as a penalty for getting booted from practice last week. She’s suffering from plantar fasciitis, so incredulously, Hayes believed this would be an appropriate punishment in place of the normal sprints a player gets as punishment. Finlay vomited several times during the “puke-and-roll”, and we’re pretty certain that a little piece of America died as a result of this story.
- “Dumb Catholic boys.” Oh, Bob Knight, always making friends. Just days after enjoying his roast in Hammond, Indiana, Knight took shots at both the NCAA and Notre Dame during a speaking engagement at the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Indiana yesterday. In reference to whether Notre Dame should join the Big Ten, Knight ripped the ND brass, suggesting that being in the Big East in all sports other than football hurts their recruiting. Surely this will come up at some point during Gameday with Digger Phelps this coming season, although we think we already know how this ends, right? Do we even need to say it?
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Or maybe coaches should, instead of finding a way around the rule, just, you know, not contact recruits during a non-contact period?
Now why would they want to do that?
Keep at it Mr. Knight. The more people representing (officially or not) the Big 10 that blast Notre Dame the more likely they'll join the ACC, not the Big 10. Remember, the last time Notre Dame almost joined a conference it was the ACC. This kind of stuff just pushes them toward us.