Westbrook waiver denied

[Bigpetunia]

Do you honestly think a head coach saying “I don’t want her here” doesn’t play a factor in the NCAA granting immediate play time? I have to think Geno is smart enough to know what he’s doing when he makes a public comment like that.

I agree with you that there is a large absence of facts here. Assumptions are abound on both sides, but isn’t conjecture what message boards are for?


My final thought before I head out... I really believe Tennessee’s job here is to grant the transfer request with no limitation. That was done. After that, it’s up to Uconn to push for the waiver request. Any statement from Tennessee supporting her request to play immediately is an admission of guilt. It is impossible to support her right to play immediately without also admitting the environment was unsuitable. Its all good to support a student athlete, but if there are claims that the environment could “warrant an investigation”, why on earth would a school admit to that? That kills your brand.

Thank you, Southern Gentleman, for your thoughtful and insightful posts on our forum. You're the kind of fan of WCBB that I most admire...I suspect it would be fun to take in a game, especially one between our two favorite programs, sitting next to you in the stands!

Personally, I am neither living nor dying on the outcome of this waiver request. The fact is that all parties involved entered the process knowing that they were confronting an inevitable crapshoot, the final disposition of which could not - and still can't - be accurately predicted. My chief problem with that inevitability is that its unpredictability is invited by the NCAA, an institution on a fast track to irrelevance. The inconsistency that characterizes their handling of waiver issues always results in long and ultimately tiresome discussions like this multi-page one because, by its nature, it encourages accusations of favoritism, petty jealousies, boorish behavior, etc. The only real...and fair...solution to this issue lies, quite obviously, in the adoption of a consistent policy, either allowing all transfers to play immediately or making all sit out a year...no exceptions. I am utterly indifferent as to which direction might be chosen, but, unless consistent policy is adopted, one way or the other, hot messes like this one will always be the result.

On a separate note, I, unlike many of my fellow Boneyarders, am pulling hard for Kellie to return the Lady Vols to the forefront of WCBB, where it belongs, and which Pat's legacy so richly deserves. It would be great for the game, and would potentially recreate the intense rivalry that once got most of us hooked on the game in the first place. Right now, I am a card-carrying member of the "hate" ND club, longing for reason to renew my membership in the "hate" UT club. These are the elements that make all sports fun!!

 

[HuskylnSC]

And it will be 2 games and done.

I don't believe Geno will cancel the series. The series must go on. It is too important to WBB and eventually someone has to act like an adult. Put your umbrage aside and work together for a greater good. If we can't do that over basketball, how do we expect to do it in the more critical areas of life.

 

[HuskylnSC]

Do you honestly think a head coach saying “I don’t want her here” doesn’t play a factor in the NCAA granting immediate play time? I have to think Geno is smart enough to know what he’s doing when he makes a public comment like that.

I agree with you that there is a large absence of facts here. Assumptions are abound on both sides, but isn’t conjecture what message boards are for?


My final thought before I head out... I really believe Tennessee’s job here is to grant the transfer request with no limitation. That was done. After that, it’s up to Uconn to push for the waiver request. Any statement from Tennessee supporting her request to play immediately is an admission of guilt. It is impossible to support her right to play immediately without also admitting the environment was unsuitable. Its all good to support a student athlete, but if there are claims that the environment could “warrant an investigation”, why on earth would a school admit to that? That kills your brand.

On the admission of guilt point. I make another speculative point. If UT had fully supported the waiver, we would never have these discussions. there would be no news story of friction between the two schools. No one would be discussing the potential for toxicity at UT and your concerns to protect the sainted image of Lady Vol basketball need not be addressed. In the long run, the lack of support has hurt UT more than an approval. For now every recruit will be told, "If you go to UT and then feel like you need to be elsewhere, they will insure that you cannot get a waiver. At UConn we want you to be happy over everything else and we will support your decisions just like we have done for every player who wanted to move on."

 

[ghost]

All of this would be moot if the NCAA simply applied a consistent blanket rule of wait one year. For whatever reasons they started granting/denying exceptions that raise questions about the motives behind the decisions.

 

[CocoHusky]

Respectfully, I’d like to add another orange perspective here.

I watched evina play for two years under holly here. Her first season started great.There was tremendous excitement around the program, and we thought we’d turned a corner. There were myriad chemistry issues that led to the lack of success that season and the following. I think evina played while not 100 percent quite often. This led to what some called lackluster efforts (especially on defense). Holly was not able to get the best out of evina (or anyone for that matter).
I saw a tremendous amount of support for evina while she was here both on campus and off. We are a passionate fan base that loves our players. There are bad fans in every group that harp on the negative. I remember mama Westbrook posting on the summitt often. When she would stick up for her daughter, 95 percent of posters agreed with her. The remaining five percent had valid points as well. Evina did not live up to her potential as a lady vol. It may have been the staff, it may have been injuries l, it may have been disengagement. I think it was a combination of all the above.
I was upset when evina spoke publicly about her frustration with the situation at Tennessee. Emotions run high in sports but you have to leave that between you and the team. Basic media 101. She entered the portal but stuck around campus to “weigh her options”. She saw kellie hired and met with her multiple times. Kellie finally pressed her into a decision and evina decided to go. We as fans were understandably disappointed but most wished her well. Then she got petty on social media and made it a lot worse for herself. It’s clear she felt slighted or hurt by UT in some way, and that came out in her “sorry not sorry” post. I try to take actions of teenage girls with a grain of salt, but given the history between our two programs, it’s proven to be a difficult thing to do here.
All that to say, I see no reason Tennessee has to advocate for evina to be approved to play right away. If evina’s point is that this environment was so toxic she couldn’t stay, admitting that publicly by supporting her request would be recruiting suicide. And this is because she made the decision to go after kellie was hired. She could have withdrawn from the portal, but she deemed kellie’s program to not suit her needs. That’s okay, that’s what the portal is for, but you don’t get to say the environment was toxic when that toxicity was removed before you made your decision to leave. I think this is why the NCAA ruled against immediate eligibility. Just because you put your name in the portal, doesn’t mean you’ve decided to transfer. When the decision was made formally, all the reasons she publicly stated for a transfer had been resolved.

Appreciate your perspective but this seems like a catch 22 to me. If Evina had decided to leave before Kellie's arrival she would have been blamed for not giving Kellie a fair shot.
Serious question to you and all other Lady Vol Fans. Would you have been supportive of Evina's immediate eligibility had she transferred to someplace besides UCONN?

 

[CocoHusky]

On the admission of guilt point. I make another speculative point. If UT had fully supported the waiver, we would never have these discussions. there would be no news story of friction between the two schools. No one would be discussing the potential for toxicity at UT and your concerns to protect the sainted image of Lady Vol basketball need not be addressed. In the long run, the lack of support has hurt UT more than an approval. For now every recruit will be told, "If you go to UT and then feel like you need to be elsewhere, they will insure that you cannot get a waiver. At UConn we want you to be happy over everything else and we will support your decisions just like we have done for every player who wanted to move on."

Not every player. EDD was not released from her UCONN scholarship agreement when she decided to transfer to Delaware.

 

[soxfan23]

Not every player. EDD was not released from her UCONN scholarship agreement when she decided to transfer to Delaware.

Did she ask for one from UConn? I thought she never even asked for a release?

Delle Donne won't play basketball this year; will enroll at Delaware

[...] less than 48 hours after UConn coach Geno Auriemma issued a statement that she will...

www.newstimes.com

 

[oldude]

Not every player. EDD was not released from her UCONN scholarship agreement when she decided to transfer to Delaware.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but when EDD decided to leave UConn, she had no interest in playing basketball at all at first and wasn’t even on the team that first season. I believe she switched to volleyball at DE until she came around to wanting to play basketball again.

 

[CL82]

I don't believe Geno will cancel the series. The series must go on. It is too important to WBB and eventually someone has to act like an adult. Put your umbrage aside and work together for a greater good. If we can't do that over basketball, how do we expect to do it in the more critical areas of life.

There is no series. There used to be one, but Pat canceled it. Now there are just a couple of games scheduled. Fulmer being petty about Westbrooks transfer makes a future games unlikely. Actions have consequences.

Keep in mind that Fulmer also refused to honor the contract for a football home and away with Connecticut. In the end we were able to get a pay game with them but he hasn’t shown UT to be a good partner. The Westbrook issue is just the latest in Tennessee showing that it isn’t particularly honorable as an institution.

In any event what made that series so special was two teams and two coaches at the top of their game playing against each other in games that mattered. Those circumstances don’t exist anymore. I fully expect that to become readily apparent when we play Tennessee.

 

[meyers7]

@meyers7 and @Tonyc tried to convince me UTenn with or without PAT is a Petty grudge holding unthinking unreasonable bunch of -----fill in the blani.

Oh they are much worse than that.

 

[UConnCat]

Did she ask for one from UConn? I thought she never even asked for a release?

Delle Donne won't play basketball this year; will enroll at Delaware

[...] less than 48 hours after UConn coach Geno Auriemma issued a statement that she will...

www.newstimes.com

That's right, she didn't ask for her release. When she left UConn her plan was not to play basketball at another school. In fact, she was said to be burnt out on the game. UConn releasing her was not even on the table. Why is Elena even part of the discussion here?