[McDunkin]

Andy Katz and Dana O’Neil filed a report today that pretty well destroys the argument that Bruce Pearl’s self-described ‘mistake’ in having former Tennessee recruits Josh Selby and Aaron Craft over to his house was a one-time thing.  This new information begs several questions, not least of which is whether this is a modus operandi for Pearl in his usual recruiting strategies, and how many other unknown occurrences might there be?  According to the story:

Kevin Fitzgerald, the compliance director at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee — where Pearl previously coached — confirmed that the university self-reported a violation on Aug. 19, 2004, after “Coach Pearl invited a prospect [and his parents] to his daughter’s graduation party hosted at his house, a violation of 13.05.5.3.”

The recruit in question was independently confirmed as 6’9 forward Mike Shachtner, a three-time academic all-american who graduated from Wisconsin-Green Bay in 2009.  Schachtner is currently playing ball overseas and refused to comment for Katz/O’Neil’s story, but it’s fairly clear that if UWM reported it to the NCAA and Pearl later confirmed it today, it happened.  We honestly have no idea if the NCAA will use this information to punish Pearl, and by proxy, UT, for violating the same rule twice (and lying about it the second time — at least we have a better understanding as to the ‘why’ now), but it would seem incredibly difficult to believe the NCAA won’t at least take it into consideration when meting out its punishment.

The other thing that we have to wonder about is whether Tennessee brass were aware of this violation when the school hired Pearl back in 2005.  It’d be astonishing if UT as part of its due diligence failed to request all self-reported violations under Pearl’s tenure at UWM, so we have to assume that they did.  Imagine if Pearl somehow was able to keep that information to himself during his original interviews and subsequent contract negotiations?  Given that Pearl’s existing deal with Tennessee is extremely restrictive in terms of  the elements of “cause” for the program to justify firing him, it would seem to our untrained eyes that if he kept secret that rather relevant information, they would have grounds to void the contract for misrepresentation under false pretense.  A lot of speculation here, but an interesting thought nonetheless.

No matter what comes out of this, we wonder if anyone else sees the obvious problem here?  Put simply, Pearl needs to trick out his casa a little better.  We now know of three players he was recruiting during their junior years who visited his crib, but none of the three ultimately signed with the guy.  Put in the infinity pool, buy a Bose stereo system for the deck, go for the 66-inch 3D television, offer free iPads to the first hundred visitors if that’s what it takes… because whatever he’s doing when he takes recruits to his house for a short visit isn’t working out too well.

 

http://rushthecourt.net/2010/10/05/fool-me-once-shame-on-you-fool-me-twice-shame-on-pearl/#comments

[knicksfan7Participant]

As most users know I am not a fan of Calipari, but hearing this and Bruce Pearl confirming it makes me lose a lot of respect for Coach Bruce Pearl. I don’t know if his punishment of a salary cut among other things is something that fits the crime. I think Tennessee should look into terminating Bruce Pearl because keeping him as the head coach is sending the wrong message to people.

[stanford hoops]

wait this is against ncaa rules?..i never knew that. a couple of my aau teammates have been over coach ks house for dinner while being recruited, the same with when coach dourgthy was at unc and at nc state. this is a rule i never knew about and i bet my teammates didnt either

[LeroyJenkinsParticipant]

Stanford Hoops i think it would be shorter if you just made us a list of things you havent done and people you havent met. Didnt you have dinner at Bill Clintons house when Arkansas was recruiting you?

 

Anyway Knicksfan i read  that Tennessee cant fire him because of a clause in his contract that says he cant be until the NCAA rules any violation by him as "major"

[stanford hoops]

huh?  well its kinda hard not to meet good basketball players when you played basketball for a very good highschool team that travels across the country on top of playing aau ball all youre life on top of going to alot of camps including ABCD, Five star. on top of meeting players because of youre older brother who was a top 50 player who played major college ball and was in the hawks and lakers vet camp who is now actor

its not really hard if you just speak to people and make friends while doing all that

do

[stanford hoops]

its funny how some guys think its impossible to actually know nba or famous people. you must not know that all those people were once not famous

[Author]

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