Stones cast in glass houses

[trb123]

You will find the minor WCBB violations halfway down.

 

[01Neaggrad02]

Mistakenly sent two text.... Yeah right. And I am the King of France.... knowing my luck I would be Louis XVI....

 

[chuck.r]

Somewhat off-topic -- but seriously?, a tennis coach is violating NCAA rules by being present & watching live matches of upcoming opponents (which would totally make sense from a scouting standpoint)? Someone has to explain to me the "slippery slope" this rule is meant to forestall.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Somewhat off-topic -- but seriously?, a tennis coach is violating NCAA rules by being present & watching live matches of upcoming opponents (which would totally make sense from a scouting standpoint)? Someone has to explain to me the "slippery slope" this rule is meant to forestall.

I thought it a little odd. In person scouting is not permitted in general, and I understand the rule - both the idea of spending money to send "scouts" to opponent's stadiums / arenas but also the fact that not all schools could afford to do so. So a dual waste of money and unfair advantage. And they are fairly strict - when Kay Yow attended the Jimmy V game at Rutgers between RU and Maryland (for the purpose of announcing the creation of the Kay Yow fund) she was sequestered away during the game because she wasn't allowed to see Maryland play in person.

That said, as you know, there is permitted scouting at multi-team tourneys in WBB, at least, so I'm not sure I understand the situation. Could have been just back-to-back games, I suppose, like the conferences that play their 2 games each week a day apart - the opponent from the 2nd game of the weekend can't come to the first game even if in town.

 

[JS]

The spin on the TN hotel room recruiting display was rather humorous. They're at pains to point out that if they'd only stacked the recruiting materials on the bed it would have been fine. But they arranged them so that they formed ("framed"?) an image of the recruit.

Cool, right? Notably, the NCAA increased the self-imposed sanctions on that one, so they actually lost recruiting days.

Maybe it's because they've done this sort of thing before.

A trip down memory lane yielded a BY thread from 2013 on similar self-reported TN violations including: A women’s basketball coach created a personalized notebook and placed them in a prospect’s hotel room, a violation of the ban on personalized recruiting aids. (Mercedes Russell).

Unkind commentators will recall that the ban of "personalized recruiting aids," a/k/a the "Tennessee Rule," stemmed from the over-the-top preparations for Ann Strother's official visit to Knoxville. These included stocking her hotel room with bowls of her favorite candy.

Seems they just can't stop messing with the hotel rooms, creating little recruiting shrines, evidently following the adage that practice makes perfect. Or the adage that maybe if it's really imaginative it won't be a violation this time.

So, recruits, don't just flop on your Knoxville hotel bed when you get there without looking first. A pyramidal display of eight plastic championship trophy facsimiles filled with Lady Vol key chains with your initials on them may come tumbling down on you.

 

[dtbtbtb]

TN is clearly much better in displays on a bed than on the court

 

[CocoHusky]

That this is TN is ..well somewhat laughable.
The NCAA does come off petty and potentially more laughable. NCAA has time to be checking on display in a recruits hotel room and takes well over three years to determine if students actually went to class or wrote their own papers in the case of UNC.

 

[Charliebball]

Don't even understand this one:

 

[Bestiarius]

The Volnation folks think the NCAA violation and penalty is ridiculous and petty. Remembering back to when a UCONN staffer provided an ESPN free tour phone number to a recruit who asked for the contact info, the Lady Vol fans were outraged and lambasted the character of everything UCONN.

 

[reno tony]

Is this really what the NCAA does with all the money they receive? I am surprised they even have a rule about decorating a room. I must be out of touch with reality.

 

[Adesmar123]

Don't even understand this one:

Its called karma. Or in Tennessee its called Kermer

 

[reno tony]

If a recruit is influenced by the display of some papers on a hotel bed.... well... I am speechless.

 

[Alydar]

When I thought about it I realized that most recruits are/were under 10 years old when Tenn won it's last championship so the LV staff needed to make sure they knew about it.

There's a big difference between programs that are making history and those that are just historic.

 

[CocoHusky]

When I thought about it I realized that most recruits are/were under 10 years old when Tenn won it's last championship so the LV staff needed to make sure they knew about it.

There's a big difference between programs that are making history and those that are just historic.

Nice...

 

[willtalk]

That this is TN is ..well somewhat laughable.
The NCAA does come off petty and potentially more laughable. NCAA has time to be checking on display in a recruits hotel room and takes well over three years to determine if students actually went to class or wrote their own papers in the case of UNC.

Penny wise and pound foolish or not being able to see the forest for the trees.

 

[stamfordhusky]

The Volnation folks think the NCAA violation and penalty is ridiculous and petty. Remembering back to when a UCONN staffer provided an ESPN free tour phone number to a recruit who asked for the contact info, the Lady Vol fans were outraged and lambasted the character of everything UCONN.

Providing a phone number would have been completely allowable - but that's not what happened.

 

[JS]

If a recruit is influenced by the display of some papers on a hotel bed.--- well... I am speechless.

Right. You could add a whole bunch of other stuff without the recruit being influenced.

The classic personalized recruiting aid is giving her a team uniform with her name on it. Maybe hang it in a team locker.

But why stop there?

You could have the whole staff greet her in t-shirts with her baby picture on them. Or have her enter the arena through a fireworks display and then receive a Letter of Intent delivered by remote-controlled mini-blimp.

No need to be speechless. Those things happened, along with the more modest bowls of candy, spawning the personalized recruiting aids rule.

The recruit wasn't influenced. At least not in a positive way.

 

[Charliebball]

oppppps..............sorry didn't see that the Tennessee story had been posted last night...........thought that was a home improvement thread

 

[Bestiarius]

Providing a phone number would have been completely allowable - but that's not what happened.

Maybe the call was made for them, or the phone was dialed for them, something like that. It certainly wasn't anything serious since I don't think there was any penalty. Perhaps you can provide the exact details.

 

[Bayareahusky]

The Volnation folks think the NCAA violation and penalty is ridiculous and petty. Remembering back to when a UCONN staffer provided an ESPN free tour phone number to a recruit who asked for the contact info, the Lady Vol fans were outraged and lambasted the character of everything UCONN.

Touche, Bestiarius..... I am for dismissing this sort of infraction normally, but yes, they are STILL yelling to the heavens about this down south, and you are good to note this.... if my memory serves me correctly, to set up an ESPN tour is fine if you are not affiliated with the athletic dept, but if you are, LOOK OUT!!!!

These seem to be similar infractions.....

 

[LesMis89]

A member of the UConn staff called ESPN about the tour on behalf of the recruit. The tour was available to any of the public so ESPN did no particular favor to aid UConn. But that phone call was deemed a secondary violation. Self-reported, IIRC

 

[SCGamecock]

A member of the UConn staff called ESPN about the tour on behalf of the recruit. The tour was available to any of the public so ESPN did no particular favor to aid UConn. But that phone call was deemed a secondary violation. Self-reported, IIRC

Not suggesting anything... but ESPN doesn't offer tours to the general public. Anybody off the street just can't walk up and request a tour... you have to know an employee who then requests the tour for you, which is then given by a tour guide (or somebody with a corner office if it's a VIP tour).. "regular" employees are no longer even allowed to give tours. Security issues caused ESPN to really tighten it up.

 

[Wbbfan1]

If Maya had made the call herself or for that matter any Top 10 HS players in the country ESPN would grant a tour. It happens all the time.

Not suggesting anything... but ESPN doesn't offer tours to the general public. Anybody off the street just can't walk up and request a tour... you have to know somebody who requests the tour for you.

 

[SCGamecock]

If Maya had made the call herself or for that matter any Top 10 HS players in the country ESPN would grant a tour. It happens all the time.

Obviously... but my point was that ESPN doesn't offer tours to the general public, the other poster said tours are public and that's not true and they've never been public... you can't just walk up and decide you want to tour ESPN today. It doesn't work like that.

It's possible that somebody, perhaps an SID called a friend (ESPN has great relationships with SIDS obviously), asked for a tour for Maya.. tours are only given to friends, family and civic groups.. so if the tour was requested between friends then that's "legal".. but I can also understand why somebody may see that as an unfair recruiting advantage.. not every school has a ESPN an hour from campus... but that's also not UConn's fault either. Happenstance.

It's a gray area and I doubt UConn would do that again because it's a gray area.

 

[LesMis89]

I remember quite distinctly reading on the Boneyard that ESPN tours were publicly available at that time. Having zero interest in touring ESPN, I didn't check the veracity of that post. But my post also mentions the call was self-reported. NOTHING of the mud/shineola slung by the University of Tennessee at the time stuck to UConn.