Hewitt on Latest Scandal: Not All Coaches Guilty by Implication

Thank goodness for Georgia Tech basketball coach Paul Hewitt, a historically gifted recruiter who has been allergic to scandal. He represents a segment of his profession that could squeeze inside a foul lane.

Duplicity and college basketball are now one. I mean, if you name a program that has acquired a bigger-than-life player in recent years (Memphis and Southern Cal come to mind), it's like this: The odds are greater than Dick Vitale screaming into a microphone that such a program is destined for the NCAA slammer.

Hewitt disagrees. For one, he is high profile as president of the Black Coaches and Administrators and as a veteran of the Atlantic Coast Conference. So if he decided to shove a few of his peers under the bus, others would roll the wheels back and forth across his tongue.

Still, he believes what he says regarding, not only this new SAT flap involving former Memphis star Derrick Rose and possible NCAA violations, but other silliness in his sport that keeps dribbling into view.

You have the O.J. Mayo mess at Southern Cal, where Trojans coach Tim Floyd allegedly was his star player's ATM machine. You have Kelvin Sampson's addiction to cell phones at Oklahoma and later at Indiana. You have that mysteriously high jump between test scores for Brandon Jennings during his attempt to attend Arizona. (That was before he ran a fast break from high school to the European League.) You have the allegations of UConn folks using illegal means to acquire a player who was so troubled that he attended five high schools in four states.

You also have Hewitt trying to put things into perspective.

"There are going to be more and more cases where we find out that a player was involved in something that broke an NCAA rule and that the person behind that probably doesn't work for that institution -- and probably has no interest in that young man getting an education, but yet the blame will be thrown at the feet of the coach," said Hewitt, over the phone Thursday from Indianapolis, where the BCA is holding its annual convention and expo. "There's going to be people out there robbing the banks. But there's also going to be people out there driving by and having somebody jump in their car and say, 'Go,' and it's going to be like, 'What's going on?,' and they all get arrested.

"If three out of 10 coaches are caught up in something, I'm going to suggest to you that one and a half of those are innocent bystanders who were just hit by crossfire and another one and a half intentionally went out and did things wrong."

Who's who? That's the problem.

Given the huge bucks involved when a team keeps advancing in March Madness, more than a few coaches are into cheating or looking the other way. It's called trying to keep from getting fired. Plus, their fans are modern-day Joe Hardys. Remember? Hardy was the primary guy in the play "Damn Yankees" who was so obsessed with short-term pleasure that he sold his soul to the devil, just for a chance to help his Washington Senators whip the Yankees in the World Series.

Hewitt isn't a Joe Hardy. Hewitt is just a solid combination of coach and person who once took one of his nine Georgia Tech teams to the Final Four title game. He also has recruited a slew of blue chippers, ranging from Chris Bosh to Jarrett Jack to Javaris Crittenton to Thaddeus Young to Derrick Favors.

Not a hint of scandal.

"I'm not sitting here telling you that I know that every player I brought to Georgia Tech was 'clean,' and I wouldn't dare tell you that," Hewitt said. "I'd be naive or lying, because I can't tell you that there isn't a kid out there who was identified at a very early age, and some guy grabbed him, and all of a sudden for the last three or four years, he was providing him with sneakers, and a burger from time to time, and money to attend his prom, or a plane ticket to go to an AAU tournament.

"No, I can't tell you that. Not in the climate that's out here now, and we [in the NCAA] don't do anything to combat that sort of thing."

What should the NCAA do?

Hewitt took a breath. Then he didn't take another one for a while, as he added with conviction, "The NCAA should sit down with the NBA Players Association and tell them, 'Hey, look. We have a problem with your agents contacting these kids at an early age. We have a problem with illegal recruiters and runners on campuses and things like that. We have no control of those people. You do.'

"Not only that, the people who govern our game have to do a better job of getting the truth out to the media, and they have to take an active role in helping us avoid these situations. We also have to win the hearts and souls of these kids. I tell my kids all the time, 'Don't ever let somebody do for you what you should be doing for yourself, because you'll always end up on the short end.' "

So will your school -- and your coach.

And, ultimately, your sport.

Terence Moore is a national columnist and commentator for FanHouse. He is a frequent panelist on "Rome Is Burning," an ESPN show hosted by Jim Rome, that is seen Monday through Friday at 4:30 PM ET. Moore spent more than three decades working for major newspapers, including 26 years as an award-winning sports columnist for the San Francisco Examiner and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He resides in Atlanta.