NCAA college basketball’s unethical/negative recruiting practices are nothing new, but bring back memories and could have been the start of today’s scandals

The latest NCAA college basketball scandals brought back some negative and unethical recruiting techniques, practices and procedures by coaches recruiting players could have been the start of today’s scandals.

The memories for me start with having one of my high school players a 6’11” center in the early 90’s who was being recruited by over 30 colleges and by as high as a team ranked in the top 25. Now this was almost over 25 years ago.

Also, had another one recruited in the late 60’s with over 66 schools recruiting him. Many were big time top 50 schools high major. He was a 6’7 point guard an a High School All-American Selection top 100 in several polls. One poll had him in top 40. This was 48 years ago.

However, there were no illegal procedures done in these recruitments, but there were some questionable unethical negtive procedures that were used by many of the coaches recruiting both players even back then when my players were being offered a full scholarship covering tuition, room, board and stipend 24 years apart.

We would not even consider any of the schools that the following negative and unethical methods that were used in recruiting those players.

Such things as dumping on other schools recruiting my players in a negative manner, promise of a starting positions, don’t go to prep school because another school above us in rankings could recruit you, telling him them if you don’t go to our school then don’t go to any schools that are in the same conference that we are in, and having 3rd parties not school connected being involved in encouraging one of these 2 players to go to their alma mater or a certain school.

If these unethical and negative recruiting techniques, practices and procedures were happening here in the greater Bangor, Maine area almost 50 years ago to my players, their parents and me, then it was possible it was happening all over the country considering back then and even today Maine does not have that many big time top level college prospects. We have no more today then we had in the 60’s and 90’s.

In fact, having a third party involved wasn’t/isn’t against the rules, but it certainly is trying to get around the recruiting rule of contacting possible transfer of players before they get their release from their current school and frowned upon by the NCAA and certainly not in the spirit of the NCAA recruiting rules. There is a certain procedure to get a transfer release before a player wishing to possibly transfer can be contacted by another school.

Also, I had the experience of a third party involvement when I was a college basketball player at a low level small college decades ago.

I was asked by a non-school employed third party, if I would be interested in transferring to a higher level College after my freshmen and sophomore years at the lower level college basketball program because of averaging 24.7 points per game as a freshmen and 29.8 points per game as a sophomore while averaging 27.4 ppg, 14 rebounds and 8 assists per game for those two years.

I guess that higher level school thought that I could have helped them.

I declined the 3rd party offer by telling the 3rd party person to go back an ask the school where were they when I graduated from high school as a mediocre high school player?

Needless to say, I stayed at the college I was at because they were the only school that recruited me out of high school. After all there is a word called which I definitely did/do believe in, IT IS CALLED LOYALTY.

I remember in the 1940’s that big time college basketball had it’s first big scandal. The shaving of points by certain college players not to lose games but to keep the score at a certain point spread. Bookies paid some players to shave points that the bookies had placed their bets on the margin of victory or defeat. There was not big time money made back then by the NCAA, schools or coaches either.

It doesn’t surprise me at all today though years later when such scandals arise today when there is so much money being made in the big time college game today by the coaches, the schools and the NCAA and all the players get for making this money for the other 3 parties only receive scholarships that cover tuition. room, board and a small stipend.

We all know that “money is the root of evil” and when the money grows, “just follow the money” if you are interested in finding out if unethical or illegal things are happening.

Evidently the NCAA Powers-to-Be didn’t really want to investigate to see if the large sums of money was causing illegal recruiting by college recruiters.

So if unethical, negative activities were happening years ago when there was no money involved, what do you think was happening almost 50 years later when these illegal and unethical recruiting things were happening with some of the top major, major, mid major and low major D-1 college basketball recruiters of the 351 schools and the 32 conferences that make up the NCAA men’s D-1 basketball division.

Each game a team plays in the 67 NCAA Men’s College D-1’s March Madness games for 68 teams is worth many thousands, thousands, thousands of dollars for each game a team plays.

This is big time money, so you can see where team’s recruiters are tempted and some times fall to that temptation in breaking the rules of recruiting to strengthen their programs like the teams being charged and investigated currently by the FBI in the biggest college basketball money wise and recruiters wise in the game’s history with so much money at stake.

As of today, there are the 6 big time schools involved and had assistant coaches fired or suspended for receiving or offering of bribes for getting players to certain schools or certain agents.

Maybe the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) should stand for “Not Caring About Atrocities” in regards to all these recruiting scandals that have finally been brought to the attention of D-1 college basketball fans by the FBI (Federal Bureau Investigation) which could stand for (Finding Basketball Irregularities) in revealing the NCAA’s college D-1 basketball scandals of money bribing atrocities.

It is very interesting and disturbing that it had to be and was the FBI and not the NCAA that broke this scandal. The NCAA’s reason being that they don’t seem to have enough money for the investigators needed to keep the 351 teams honest. Honest enough so that the teams do not break their own NCAA recruiting rules.

The NCAA has no one to blame but themselves in not policing their 351 teams as the money made by colleges increased year by year.

The briberies committed by those involved are federal offenses and this may just be the tip of this iceberg especially if the FBI chooses to give immunity to the assistant coaches charged for information on their bosses. That is how the FBI usually does is to release the little fish to catch the BIG FISH.