For a rather wild day, it looked like things were going to get even weirder than they usually do in the college basketball offseason. Even before the summer recruiting began. In the end, it was a lot of noise but no change. Xavier and C.J. Henry are still going to Kansas for the 2009-10 season, not reversing field to go to Kentucky to be with John Calipari.
Xavier Henry is one of the top-5 high school players in the country. He had already switched his commitment from Memphis to Kansas, but since he could not sign a new National Letter of Intent (NLI) he is not actually bound to Kansas until he shows up on the campus and signs the scholarship papers. His older brother, C.J. Henry, is a walk-on with the New York Yankees paying his way following a failed baseball career.
The rumors started swirling over the weekend that Lance Stephenson, the ultra-talented guard out of New York, was visiting and would commit to Cincinnati. Tuesday, the news broke and was confirmed elsewhere that Stephenson is indeed committing to the Bearcats. Whether official word will come before or after his July 15 court date regarding his misdemeanor sexual assault charge is undetermined.
While teams have been scared off from recruiting Stephenson for plenty of reasons (the sexual assault, meddling father, attitude questions, academics, NCAA eligibility relating to an online documentary on Stephenson), Cincy coach Mick Cronin seems willing to take a chance on Stephenson -- assuming the NCAA clears him to play.
Lance Stephenson is one of the top high school players in the country. He was a McDonald's All-American. He is also just about the only major recruit not running screaming from the rubble of USC that is without a college destination.
Memphis officials, Kentucky coach John Calipari and the NCAA had their little four-hour pow-wow Saturday concerning that whole SAT scandal. The verdict? No verdict for six weeks or so, reports the Associated Press. As Clay Travis discussed Friday, Calipari is hiding chilling in China and had to phone in to the assuredly awkward hearing. (Note that he had to phone in. The NCAA demanded he participate, even if he's on the other side of the planet.)
Six weeks (or more) leaves a lot of time for Tigers fans to sweat the impending doom of (gasp!) NCAA sanctions. But even more, it provides the opportunity for more allegations to come out against the program. Since the Derrick Rose story came to light, reports have placed the SAT scores of Robert Dozier in question. Another month-and-a-half leaves plenty of time for more shady recruiting stories to pop out.
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.
It started at Sonny Vaccaro's ABCD Basketball Camp, a camp, yes, but also a meet-and-greet for street agents and young, impressionable kids. Street agents, runners, slimeball AAU coaches all start getting their hands on our kids early, and ...
"The only problem I have is the word 'slime,' '' Vaccaro said. "A lot of what you say is right. But why is that word only connected to AAU? You've got to define what that means and who you're talking about. When you say slime, that envelopes everybody."
Yes, OK. Well, Rodney Guillory met 15-year old basketball phenom O.J Mayo at the camp in 2003.
The long saga of John Wall has reached its end with the stud point guard recruit finally choosing Kentucky. Wall becomes the crown jewel of what is almost certainly the best recruiting class in the country.
Every program in the country wanted Wall. Baylor hired the brother of his AAU coach and adviser trying to get an inside track. Duke came hard at him. No one seemed the least bit deterred in recruiting him by his shaky academics and recent misdemeanor charge.
It just doesn't stop, with these slimeballs. The whole Tim Floyd story just slips and slides right off the page. Floyd, the USC basketball coach, is accused of giving $1,000 to get stud recruit O.J. Mayo a few years ago.
Another coach, another envelope of cash. But did you see the details?
Because we keep getting more examples of dirty coaches, but then we shake our heads and ignore, basically, what went into making that sausage.
It was exactly a year ago that all the evidence and information was made public by O.J. Mayo's former entourage member, Louis Johnson. The story was about how Rodney Guillory was giving the money to Mayo both to be attached to Mayo and as a runner for Bill Duffy Associates.
For a rather wild day, it looked like things were going to get even weirder than they usually do in the college basketball offseason. Even before the summer recruiting began. In the end, it was a lot of noise but no change. Xavier and C.J. Henry are still going to Kansas for the 2009-10 season, not reversing field to go to Kentucky to be with John Calipari.
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Thank goodness for Georgia Tech basketball coach 
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On paper, it looks like the Bulldogs may be loaded up front in 2009. Forward 
