A little more background on Bruce Pearl

[Sheltiedave]

I started this thread to give a fuller picture of Pearl and his work, associates, and stratagems he used at Iowa serving as Davis’ lead recruiting coach.

It takes a lot to get Dave Dorr, the deceased Post sports editor, worked up, but he called Pearl’s hatchet job on Deon Thomas one of the most unethical things he ever witnessed, and Dorr didn’t care much for Illinois. This also was the reasoning behind Dicky Vitale spilling the beans on national tv, when he fingered Pearl as the impetus behind the NCAA investigating Illinois.

This thread will not be a good read for those who know that Henson and Collins cheated their asses off, so kindly avoid any information that runs counter to your beliefs. This thread is for those who wonder why the majority of B10 fans over 45 detest Pearl.

Here is a brief summary of the Thomas affair, fleshing out some of the aspects of his recruitment and the follow up investigation.

https://www.news-gazette.com/sports/illini-sports/tate-facts-and-fiction/article_e64f835a-5abb-5e01-8da8-0b066d64e1f3.html

[thetorch]

Lots of prominent names in that story who have moved on to much bigger things, probably because they cheated.

[kmbilliken]

The most believable statement in the article is nobody knows what really happened. 

[Sheltiedave]

Phone records aren’t believable?

[kmbilliken]

13 minutes ago, Sheltiedave said:

Phone records aren’t believable?

They only show calls were made, not what was said. 

[Sheltiedave]

So if the NCAA allowed one phone contact a week, but in the week Thomas committed to Illinois, and Pearl contacted Thomas 17 times, that may not have been a recruiting violation because we do not know what was said?

 

[Sheltiedave]

Within this post Is Pearl’s “report” to Davis regarding Thomas’ failed recruiting.

https://illiniboard.com/2014/03/18/lest-anyone-forget/

[Sheltiedave]

And, amazingly , Pearl committed the identical recruiting violation at UW-M that he did at Tennessee.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.twincities.com/2010/10/04/bruce-pearl-ncaa-violation-reported-by-uwm-in-2004/amp/

[brianstl]

The only thing normal people on this board care about when it comes to Pearl is beating his team tomorrow. Nobody cares about what happened between him and program that hasn’t been to the NCAA tournament since Jordan Goodwin was in eighth grade.

[Sheltiedave]

I know that is true for 80% here, Brian.

Thats why I suggested the people who aren’t interested, or don’t care, just pass by this thread. However, some people do actually like knowing about a little history. Shoot, we still talk about the 1971 MVC season here, a team that ended their season before you were born.

There will be a few things that pertain to modern recruiting, and current NCAA enforcement activities, as well. All is not lost and wasted time.

[billiken_roy]

Brian i disagree.   we should all care about who the cheaters are and the history.   these scum like sutton, calipari, pearl ruin the game for the programs like the billikens that do not cheat.   

[Old guy]

A question I have had in my mind throughout this discussion is this: If there are coaches, as Roy says Sutton, Calipari, and Pearl, that are not above the idea of bending rules, calling recruits when no calls are allowed, providing payments to families, etc... Do you really believe these coaches are above paying refs to throw a tight game their way?

Is there a reason referees should be considered immune to the idea of bringing home extra cash? Why should there not be referees that are also corrupted and take cash or favors for bad calls? After all, a certain percentage of our whole society is corrupted and takes payments or favors to do specific things. Why not referees?

[Sheltiedave]

I earlier alluded to Pearl’s relationship with Rich Hilliard, who at the time of Pearl’s tenure at Iowa, was a principal NCAA b-ball compliance investigator.

”Hilliard had been a student announcer at Boston College while Pearl was the student manager of the BC basketball team, and they became lasting friends.”

Before the NCAA opened their investigation into Thomas’ recruiting, Pearl initiated 49 calls to Hilliard, including calls to both his work number and his home line. As KM noted, we know nothing about the 49 conversations that Pearl initiated. Maybe they were swapping recipes...or figuring out how to frame Thomas and Illinois.

Please remember that Pearl wrote an approximate 20 page report detailing his recruiting of Thomas, and also detailed Illinois’ recruiting efforts.

Many of the seven(7) recruiting violations the NCAA cited in the opening of the investigation were pulled from Pearl’s report/Iowa’s interviews.

I’ll have a little more about Rich Hilliard in another post.

[Sheltiedave]

Old guy, while there is a small level of concern about influencing referees, the much larger concern is undue influence the major programs have to insulate themselves from NCAA investigations.

Compare Mizzou’s penalties from a single tutor, self declared and with appropriate internal corrective   Actions and internal penalties, vs an entire studies program, university professor, tutors, sham academic progress, at North Carolina. The Carolina sham was so bad that Felton, their guard on the NCAA champ team, spilled the beans because he realized after his playing days ended that he actually needed to use his college education to make it - and a fair portion of it was a sham.

The Kansas, Kentucky, NCs, the royal blue bloods are sacrosanct and un- or under-penalized, while every year the NCAA tees up a weak sister P5 or mid major program and neuters them.

Mizzou prettyboy Quinn Snyder could be the poster boy for this position. While he was the lead recruiting coach at Duke, he wAs squeaky clean. After he was tagged for flying the two Detroit recruits in a private jet to Mizzou with their moms, the NCAA tagged him with a violation. His defense was that the action was SOP at Duke. Fail.

[MusicCityBilliken]

I don't recall any instances of refs being influenced in college basketball, some rare instances in the NBA.

The big concern is player point shaving. Almost killed college basketball in the early 1950s. Any recall the scene in  the movie "Goodfellows" when actor Ray Liotta, playing Henry Hill had a deal going with a Boston College player. True story. ESPN did a expose' on it.

Also the old Jerry Tarkanian (the King of Cheats) quote:

"Kentucky sneezes and the NCAA gives Cleveland State 3 years probation"

[dlarry]

What bothers me more than the cheating is that schools keep giving these crooks jobs.

I can almost understand the cheating.

Whats worse to me is that schools give these scumbags third and fourth chances. 
They know they are going to cheat but don’t care.

[Matty Light]

Sheltiedave and billiken_Roy, after reading it over I would have to agree that Bruce Pearl broke several rules in the Deon Thomas recruitment.  And definitely was shady.  I remember the shadiness, but the Iowa public didn't consider cheating to have occurred.  At the time, cheating in recruitment was centered around paying players with boosters, a la Larry Johnson and SMU.  Those phone call limits and no-contact periods weren't really in the public consciousness yet as those concepts came to the forefront when recruitment reform was instituted.

Also, whatever tactics Pearl was using weren't very successful.  The great success Tom Davis had was with players recruited by George Raveling (BJ Armstrong, Roy Marble, Kevin Gamble).  Davis was only successful in recruiting a few big men like Acie Earl, Chris Street,  and Ryan Bowen.  At the end of his tenure as coach, and long after Pearl had left, Davis signed my class of '97 mates, Dean Oliver and Ricky Davis.  That's it.  All five of those guys called Iowa their home (Earl is from Quad Cities, but IL side).  Not exactly big coups.  During his time he let Raef LaFrentz, Kris Heinrich, and Nick Collison sign with Roy Williams at Kansas.  He never had much success recruiting.

And that is why Bruce Pearl is considered a slimeball here, but not a cheater.  Now, his recruiting at programs where he was the Big Boss...that's another story.

Now let's go beat that slimeball, Billikens!

[Sheltiedave]

A lot of people forget the first time Davis and Pearl were Together was at Boston College, where this happened - the worst modern college gambling scheme.

https://www.espn.com/espn/chalk/story/_/id/11633538/betting-chronicling-worst-fix-ever-1978-79-bc-point-shaving-scandal

[billiken_roy]

Matty Pearl is currently in deep in the whole shoegate scandal where the players concerned were getting payoffs.   Rest assured Pearl is a cheater and a slime

 

[Matty Light]

11 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

Matty Pearl is currently in deep in the whole shoegate scandal where the players concerned were getting payoffs.   Rest assured Pearl is a cheater and a slime

 

The NCAA is basically a cabal running their own basketball league with cheap/free labor.  The media companies, universities, shoe companies, and coaches are all stakeholders.  This is big business.  The fact that they gave the death penalty to SMU over Larry Johnson (and Eric Dickerson among others) getting paid shows where their real concerns resided--in players making money in their business model.

The shoe scandal has come to light and implicated many big-time coaches (Calipari, Self, Sean Miller, Pitino, Larranaga, Turgeon, Izzo) and if anything happens it will only because they don't want players making money.  Calipari should have been dismissed with the Derrick Rose scandal, Pitino is finally gone but he had so many 2nd chances.  The Tarheels should have gotten the death penalty for conspiring in academic fraud across multiple sports. Jim Boeheim and Syracuse had their own academic fraud working with the local YMCA.  But nothing will happen to these schools because this is big business and they are part of the cabal.  Only the little guys who are part of the structure but not key stakeholders will be given penalties.  Only to give the appearance that the NCAA has some integrity.

[Clock_Tower]

I believe the NCAA and the blue bloods influence the refs more with general directions — call a tight game or call a loose game which would help a blue blood over a mid major or non blue blood and don’t foul out the stars on the blue blood team due to ratings as opposed to game fixing or point shaving

[Sheltiedave]

Exactly, Clock Tower. We can’t have the blue bloods lose, or the home team lose if it hits the wallet too hard.

The NCAA is first and foremost about preserving the cash cow status quo. 
 

[kmbilliken]

18 hours ago, Sheltiedave said:

So if the NCAA allowed one phone contact a week, but in the week Thomas committed to Illinois, and Pearl contacted Thomas 17 times, that may not have been a recruiting violation because we do not know what was said?

 

If those are the rules Pearl should obey them. If he did that he should have been disciplined. I’m not trying to defend Pearl. I’ve never liked him for the same reasons as most posting here. I just don’t get why the player would admit he was offered a bribe if he wasn’t. I don’t buy the I just wanted to end the call excuse. If you want to end the call, end it. End it politely or just hang up. He didn’t owe Pearl anything. He wasn’t going to Iowa. 

[Old guy]

4 hours ago, tarheelbilliken said:

I don't recall any instances of refs being influenced in college basketball, some rare instances in the NBA.

This may well be correct, but as all of us know, the fact remains that rules in every imaginable area, not only sports, have been broken up and down without any public outcry or penalties. The fact you cannot recall instances of refs being influenced in college basketball DOES NOT MEAN IT DOES NOT HAPPEN.

[Clock_Tower]

59 minutes ago, Sheltiedave said:

Exactly, Clock Tower. We can’t have the blue bloods lose, or the home team lose if it hits the wallet too hard.

The NCAA is first and foremost about preserving the cash cow status quo. 
 

The assignment of certain refs/set of refs vs others also affects the game as certain guys regularly call a game a certain way.  Would love to see some of these mid-major refs call a Duke v NC game and blow the whistle on every hand check, call palming the ball, call traveling, call a foul on every rebound over the back...