Louisville announces self-imposed postseason ban

[CorduroyG]

hopefully our game at the yum just got a little easier

 

[Alsacs]

If I were Lee or Lewis I wouldn't play anymore and I would petition the NCAA for an extra year elsewhere.
NCAA can make up whatever rules they want. Like when the Duke LAX players lost a season because of Mike Nifong. The NCAA gave all those players an extra year when they lost a half of a season.

Lewis/Lee should get the same benefit.

 

[AlaskaSU]

Curious minds want to know where the money came from.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

hopefully our game at the yum just got a little easier

Maybe harder. The regular season is all they have.

 

[OttoMets]

Oh I know it is worse than SU's. Way worse. I just think it is possible that McGee did this all without Don Pitino knowing. I mean there was a point SU/JB didn't know about Kissel, so...

Have they traced the money to potentially the Athletic Dept. yet? Did McGee use any of those resources? If so then it will only get worse for them.

I couldn't agree more with your logic. But wow, the idea that Boeheim or Pitino didn't know about these misdeeds has always seemed far-fetched to me.

These are smart guys who love their kids and programs. For better or worse, they're tuned in to what's going on, despite the post hoc attempts to establish plausible deniability.

 

[OttoMets]

hopefully our game at the yum just got a little easier

That was my first thought. Don't care about Louisville, sorry for the fans, but hopefully it helps us with the hardest game on the schedule. Pitino often seems to have a couple shaky effort guys on the team - maybe they'll lose some motivation?

 

[jr4750]

I couldn't agree more with your logic. But wow, the idea that Boeheim or Pitino didn't know about these misdeeds has always seemed far-fetched to me.

These are smart guys who love their kids and programs. For better or worse, they're tuned in to what's going on, despite the post hoc attempts to establish plausible deniability.

I agree Otto. Seems unlikely JB didn't know. Pitino as well. As the Chief of the clan and wanting to win as much as both of those guys do, you tend to pay attention to the details.

 

[OttoMets]

I agree Otto. Seems unlikely JB didn't know. Pitino as well. As the Chief of the clan and wanting to win as much as both of those guys do, you tend to pay attention to the details.

I think an argument could be made that a coach couldn't be so wildly successful at a high level without paying attention to all those details.

The obtuse guys got weeded out at the lower levels while the Boeheims and Pitinos were winning championships.

 

[MSOrange]

I still feel sorry for Lee and Lewis. They don't get to go to the NCAA tournament and I think all this had broken when they took their visit to decide on Louisville so they probably didn't get any of the action either! Doubly whammy!

 

[SoBeCuse]

I think an argument could be made that a coach couldn't be so wildly successful at a high level without paying attention to all those details.

The obtuse guys got weeded out at the lower levels while the Boeheims and Pitinos were winning championships.

Right. I also agree that it seems far-fetched like you said earlier. I'm just very interested to see where the money trail leads and if Don Pitino will have to serve a suspension and/or wins vacated.

 

[sabach]

I still feel sorry for Lee and Lewis. They don't get to go to the NCAA tournament and I think all this had broken when they took their visit to decide on Louisville so they probably didn't get any of the action either! Doubly whammy!

I get your sympathy but the fact is that this all did come out before they enrolled at U of L. An argument could therefore be made that they took a chance with Louisville that something would not come of it until after they were out. They guessed wrong. It might be different if all of the allegations came out after they got to Louisville and there was nothing they could do about it.

 

[MSOrange]

The fact is that this all did come out before they enrolled at U of L. An argument could therefore be made that they took a chance with Louisville that something would not come of it until after they were out. They guessed wrong. It might be different if all of the allegations came out after they got to Louisville and there was nothing they could do about it.

That's a really good point. I was basically making a lame attempt at humor.

 

[sabach]

That's a really good point. I was basically making a lame attempt at humor.

FWIW, I did laugh.

 

[CuseHulk]

How do you leave a Masters program in October?

Leave after the first semester.

 

[Cheriehoop]

I get your sympathy but the fact is that this all did come out before they enrolled at U of L. An argument could therefore be made that they took a chance with Louisville that something would not come of it until after they were out. They guessed wrong. It might be different if all of the allegations came out after they got to Louisville and there was nothing they could do about it.

They also may have been assured that what Pitino was saying publicly, was the truth and like Rick had said, that they would find nothing. Didn't Lee and Lewis commit in April and the Louisville prostitute allegations become public in October or do I have the timeline wrong? If the timing is correct, I'd imagine they started practice, classes over the summer.

 

[Ragman2000]

A live look-in at the Pitino press conference:

You're killing it today Frozen.

 

[sabach]

They also may have been assured that what Pitino was saying publicly, was the truth and like Rick had said, that they would find nothing. Didn't Lee and Lewis commit in April and the Louisville prostitute allegations become public in October or do I have the timeline wrong? If the timing is correct, I'd imagine they started practice, classes over the summer.

If your timeline is correct then they got a raw deal.

 

[br801]

I really wish the NCAA passed a rule that teams that impose in-season bans allow all players on the team to transfer following the season without sitting out.

Now it would have been fair game for any player on our team last year as well. That way kids who get screwed can move on immediately as well. I mean give the kids some break NCAA.

That would effectively eliminate the possibility of a team self-imposing a postseason ban. I'm not sure how that would be a good thing for the sport.

 

[Moontan]

we had somebody do a paper for one of our players

Yup, SU had someone do a paper for a player, while UL had some people literally do several of their players and recruits.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Yup, SU had someone do a paper for a player, while UL had some people literally do several of their players and recruits.

Both schools were done in by "hard drives".

 

[Cuse House]

I feel bad for the players, but that opens up an at large bid, so not that bad.

 

[joct]

Curious minds want to know where the money came from.

That to me is a key to the case. I don't think this guy McGee made the kind of money on his own to be throwing it around to the amounts shown...unless he just budgeted poorly. I think he was a GA or director of operations at the time, which typically don't have thousands to spare over the years. Don't know the specifics though, the this screams "follow the money".

 

[jgeorge322]

Im curious is lvilles nc is in jeopardy. Could these players be inelligible for accepting the sex acts? Or is this simply violation of moral code? Whats the bigger picture for lville basketball? I just have a hard time thinking that lville and unc shouldnt be punished twice as hard as syracuse. Not that i want them to be. In fact, i rather not. But the harsh manner in which syracuse was treated just makes me feel like id be angry is proportionately greater punishment was not handed out for what i interpret as much greater misdeeds.

 

[Moontan]

Curious minds want to know where the money came from.

Papa John's? Yum?

 

[bballbeadle]

I have two thoughts about this whole mess.

#1. Let's not be too quick to pile on Louisville. To outsiders looking in at the Syracuse situation, the headlines looked pretty bad. We knew that the NCAA hadn't come up with much of anything with substance, but the rest of the teams, jealous from our success, were too willing to laugh with glee and assume that we must be guilty. Rivalry hatred led to assumption of guilt; the NCAA derives its power and immunity from this. Can you imagine how the NCAA would look if Kentucky, Syracuse, and Duke fans all joined up to attack the NCAA over its inconsistent, unprofessional, and slipshod handling of all of these cases? But that doesn't happen because we're too happy to see a rival take one in the face. I'm not saying Louisville is innocent. I'm saying we don't really know what's happening on the inside and who is to blame; we shouldn't be too quick to take the NCAA's side. Ever.

#2. I really hate these self-imposed post-season ban. They're a a joke. They are all about timing recruiting and preserving the program at the expense of the current kids. If a post-season ban was announced before the start of a season, all of the recruits would leave, and future recruits, who assumed they would be joining a quality team would also leave. It's a domino effect and could potentially be the death of a program. The only way to escape it is by penalizing the current program so that next year's recruits don't leave. The school could easily choose to penalize none of the players by taking a ban next year, and letting all recruits and current players leave if they want. But they prioritize the program at the expense of the students. I guess that's the AD's job, but the NCAA let's schools (Syracuse included) get away with it. I don't know what the answer is--maybe getting rid of post-season bans altogether, or imposing them far less frequently, but it's just one more way that the system (NCAA and the schools) prioritize $$$ and winning over the actual players.

I love every single word in this post! My Louisville nephew just wrote that now he fully understands the agony we endured last year. He is just sick about this. They had the two grad transfers, were playing great, could have played for the ACC championship, perhaps gone far in the NCAA (none of which we were going to do last year) and now it's pffffffft!