Is the proverbial shoe about to drop on college basketball royalty?

[NineOneSeven]

Bilas looks awful.

Probably not much sleep with all this going on

 

[Fly Rodder]

Why isn't Syracuse listed on that spreadsheet. That is real evidence, but nope, no Syracuse. Except for some scribbling on the margin for a player that nobody else wanted that could have been put there at any time.

Because it was four pages out of 4,000.

Yesterday afternoon Wildcat fans were saying they were in the clear and worried only about Trier’s suspension. Things change.

 

[Cusefan0307]

I mean JB once called the Watkins/Nichols/Roberts class his “best ever.”

So yeah.

I see you conveniently left off Louie McCroskey.

 

[HOFCeluck]

I see you conveniently left off Louie McCroskey.

Well I figure everyone got the idea of what class I was referring to, and I didn’t want to type out his entire name.

Oh, and he also sucks and )$&@ him.

 

[pearl31]

still nothing from UofA? Interesting...
Are they going with the "until we are presented actual proof from the FBI themselves..."?

 

[br801]

Dicky V. has been turning it over like the bad Frank Howard for years on this topic.

 

[Day2]

Absolutely. I think Calipari coming back to college basketball was a game changer. Before that, things seemed fairly even. Cal took it to a new level, and when he got to Kentucky, he was the only guy at that level. Until Duke got fed up and they and a few others decided to up their game.

Cal is Mark McGwire. K is Barry Bonds.

 

[Consigliere]

I’ve always believed nobody is completely clean and they mostly live in the gray area. But it’s a matter of the shade of that gray.

And I am a little surprised at how this is being painted with a broad brush. Dennis Scott receiving a $70k “loan” does not equal Wendell Carter’s mother being treated to lunch.

 

[dasher]

K has the exact same philosophy and he has to pay players?

How many top 20 players have we got over the last 15 years?

 

[OttoinGrotto]

And I am a little surprised at how this is being painted with a broad brush. Dennis Scott receiving a $70k “loan” does not equal Wendell Carter’s mother being treated to lunch.

Eh, I think it's more because nobody really believes the benefit stopped at a nice lunch.

 

[dasher]

Dicky V. has been turning it over like the bad Frank Howard for years on this topic.

Just wait until K is implicated.

 

[Consigliere]

I’ve said it before, others have said it before. Go to the baseball model.

The big hang up with the baseball model is that kids can decide AFTER the draft, right? Maybe less of an issue in a 42 round baseball draft than a 2 round NBA draft. Not sure if the NBA would be willing to give up that leverage.

 

[br801]

Just wait until K is implicated.

Vitale will announce his retirement right before that happens.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Quade Green - remember when he announced for Kentucky and that one poster popped up and said no matter where he was going, he was getting a bag? In light of all of this other stuff coming out, it makes me think that a) Green's "Plan A" included he and his peeps making their own sneaker deals for $$$ no matter where he played so long as he'd be featured and b) he would get more out of his deal if he could go to an ultra high profile school like Kentucky and be featured.

I do believe Kentucky was complicit in some way.

 

[rrlbees]

The big hang up with the baseball model is that kids can decide AFTER the draft, right? Maybe less of an issue in a 42 round baseball draft than a 2 round NBA draft. Not sure if the NBA would be willing to give up that leverage.

True, so you tweak that part. Go after HS or you have to stay 3 years, even 2 would be ok.

 

[Cusefan0307]

I’m all for letting players profit off themselves and paying them if the system is right, but I struggle to see how any organization is going to keep agents away from college and elite high school
players. The agencies are going to do anything to beat out their competition to sign elite talent.

 

[shandeezy7]

I’m all for letting players profit off themselves and paying them if the system is right, but I struggle to see how any organization is going to keep agents away from college and elite high school
players. The agencies are going to do anything to beat out their competition to sign elite talent.

Right. Whether you are for or against paying players, I do know that paying players won't really clean any of this stuff up.

 

[Alsacs]

I’m all for letting players profit off themselves and paying them if the system is right, but I struggle to see how any organization is going to keep agents away from college and elite high school
players. The agencies are going to do anything to beat out their competition to sign elite talent.

Let the kids have agents. Like they do in hockey and other sports.
Agents would market kids likeness and other stuff.
The problem is this would be creating players as employees which they basically are.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I don't think this is the NBA's problem to fix, and even if it is, it would require pretty big adjustments to the CBA. I don't see the owners giving up "leverage" to solve this problem for college hoops since they'd need to give something to the players in exchange.

The NCAA needs to fix this for themselves, and let's not kid ourselves, this isn't exclusively a men's basketball problem.

 

[721Comstock]

So - a decent college PG who became a decent college HC, didn't magically start pulling insanely deep and talented Top 5 recruiting classes from across the country in on the reg -
just based on the local weather and co-ed talent?

 

[pearl31]

I don't think this is the NBA's problem to fix, and even if it is, it would require pretty big adjustments to the CBA. I don't see the owners giving up "leverage" to solve this problem for college hoops since they'd need to give something to the players in exchange.

The NCAA needs to fix this for themselves, and let's not kid ourselves, this isn't exclusively a men's basketball problem.

only thing NBA needs to do is allow players straight from high-school again and/or require them to be in college 2 yrs to be draft eligible

 

[Fly Rodder]

Right. Whether you are for or against paying players, I do know that paying players won't really clean any of this stuff up.

If the black market in basketball is at 80%, getting it to 20% would be an enormous step. IMO, the biggest money is in the top-10 kids, which probably equals everything paid out to the rest. The next tier of players, say top-30-ish are probably paid well. The rest are getting relative scraps. A few grand here and there.

Getting the very best, frosh impact recruits out of the pool limits the amount of money because there isn’t nearly the same floor for the remaining players. No agent is going to pay a kid $100k to go to UA or wherever to sit the bench for a year or two and then maybe develop into just a solid college player. Look at the ability/floor of someone like Kaleb versus someone like John Wall. Everyone knows some kids are NBA bound and I’m sure the bid heavily to get involved.

Spending a lot for players who can easily flame out is a good way to go broke.

 

[cuse10]

Let the kids have agents. Like they do in hockey and other sports.
Agents would market kids likeness and other stuff.
The problem is this would be creating players as employees which they basically are.

In hockey, you will lose your eligibility if you have signed with an agent. One of the college players for Team USA was outed as having an agent during one of the games.

 

[shandeezy7]

If the black market in basketball is at 80%, getting it to 20% would be an enormous step. IMO, the biggest money is in the top-10 kids, which probably equals everything paid out to the rest. The next tier of players, say top-30-ish are probably paid well. The rest are getting relative scraps. A few grand here and there.

Getting the very best, frosh impact recruits out of the pool limits the amount of money because there isn’t nearly the same floor for the remaining players. No agent is going to pay a kid $100k to go to UA or wherever to sit the bench for a year or two and then maybe develop into just a solid college player. Look at the ability/floor of someone like Kaleb versus someone like John Wall. Everyone knows some kids are NBA bound and I’m sure the bid heavily to get involved.

Spending a lot for players who can easily flame out is a good way to go broke.

Right, but just because a school is paying a kid let's say $100,000 to go there, how is that going to stop agents from funneling kids another $100,000? You think the kids wouldn't take that dough just because they are already getting some? I think paying players and getting this shady agent stuff out of college athletics are two separate issues and fixing one won't fix the other.

 

[MikeSU02]

only thing NBA needs to do is allow players straight from high-school again and/or require them to be in college 2 yrs to be draft eligible

The NBA doesn’t need to do anything to bail out the NCAA. They have a monster tv deal, the most coveted franchises in all of sports to purchase with ratings soaring.

The NBA will “fix” this when they can make money off the G-League through tv deals and sponsorships that make it lucrative enough for the owners and it doesn’t displace veterans who aren’t giving up roster spots.

NBA’s age limit doesn’t say a kid has to go to college. Kid can do whatever he wants before the nba.

Allowing HS kids direct to the nba means bad organizations will make bad selections because the variance widens in the talent pool and the good organizations will get better. Not sure the NBA wants that.

 

[Madbiker]

He probably felt that he had to go the extra mile to get players that Kentucky and Duke wanted.

Exactly. Once you have one or two or three coaches cheating many more will have to cheat to keep up and be competitive. Not excusing it but it's a simple fact. No AD is going to accept the excuse we can't win because others are cheating. The pressure to win to stay employed for millions of dollars drives these guys to do anything. Maybe now it's understandable why SU recruiting has fallen off from the glory days as cheating has become more widespread and JB doesn't go in for it. He has his faults but he also has a moral compass.