KC Star Column from this morning

[CentFLBilliken]

Pretty harsh anti-Quin atricle....

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/6526645.htm

[Taj79]

As most have seen or know, the NCAA placed the Univeristy of Maryland football program on one-year's probation for illegal recruiting tactics. Our old AD, Debbie Yow, looked good on the local Baltimroe Sun Sports page, smiling widely over the annoucnement. Why would won smile over porbation? Because it could have been much worse.

In short, a UMd assistant coach was sticking money into the shoes of a top ten recruit here in Maryland, enticing him to select the UMd over Notre Dame. Kid went to a DeSmet-type school here in Baltimore, a sports factory known as The Gilman School. It also had another highly ranked national recruit so a lot of folks were seeing this as a package deal. I believe both ended up at Notre Dame.

The difference, to me, is that Maryland condcuted a very rigorous internal investigation. They concluded it by firing the assistant coach and dropping all contact with the prospective student. In my opinion that saved Maryland's *ss big time.

Mizzou has done nothing .... as some pointed out, they suspended the kid for one game and whether real or perceived, quickly put him back into the lineup after losing that one game by 30 points. The coaching and athletic departments have skated by in my opinion, making no decisive anythings .... decisions or whatever. While the UMd issue appears to be a one-and-done (and who can really say) all this small fires continue to smoke it up in Columbia. Frankly, I don't believe it looks for for old Mizzou.

Right, wrong or indifferent doesn't matter to me. I would like to see a Mizzou/SLU relationship develop on the court ad infinitum. But this whole situation appears to be in a fester mode as opposed to a resolution mode.

[Quality Is Job 1]

What is the timeline for Maryland's investigation, Taj? How long after the initial reports did Maryland take to investigate? How much time elapsed before the conclusion and the corrective actions? Also, did Maryland have other, less prominent secondary violations as Missouri does?

Missouri does have a series of secondary violations, but they're at the very beginning of their investigation. It's unfair that you're saying they've done nothing decisive. Give them time to verify or refute the allegations first, then see what they do.

[kshoe]

The deposition was taken in March for Christ sake. If Quin wanted a clean program he should have walked up to the compliance officer 10 minutes after the deposition and said "the DA just asked me if I knew anything about Lane Odom paying Rickey cash. Can you look into this. And oh, by the way I was asked about some clothes I gave Rickey."

The truth is, Mizzou, from Alden on down was hoping this whole thing would go away. Thats why its such b.s. when Mizzou claims they "self-report" the violations. They haven't self-reported anything until after the Post dispatch discovers it. That isn't self-reporting.

[slu72]

Good comment K-shoe. If Mighty Q has nothing to hide, he should welcome a full blown investigation. But,unless someone comes forward and coroborates Ms. Bunge's allegations, Mizzery will escape unscathed, no matter what they find out about RC's extravagant spending or lack of academic work. Does anyone else find it interesting that RC is staying mum about the whole deal. One would think that since he was kicked to the curb by Alden, he might be a little resentful of Mizzery and come forward. Of course that assumes he did accept money and did have tutors doing his homework, which we know just can't be the case.

[Taj79]

I'm not ignoring you, thicks ... I went out-of-town for a few days and just got back. I'll look into it more and see what I find ....

However, this new (two or three years) football coach, Ralph Friedgen is a no-nonsense kid of guy. Yeah, he gets up and sings the alma mater in the end zone after a win and is real close with the students but that's when everything is as it should be. And I'm not talking only wins ... but the inner workings as well. This guy is a UMd grad and is working his condierable butt off to bring some promience back to College Park in the fall as well as the winter. This hire smacks of Spoon all over again for the amazing Ms. Yow.

I'll see what's up but dropping a recruit and firing the offender are huge steps in my opinion. Did they save UMd? Can't say but I do believe most of the general population around here believe it did. It was a "lose" situation that UMd turned into a "win" believe it or not. Yow is great. Fridge is great. UMd is great. Nothing smoldering here as appears in Columbia. It was so taken care of, I don't know if I can find anything that I missed being gone four days. Wouldn't Mizzou love to have that happen to them ... issue dealt with and gone.

[aj_arete]

with a foreign professional basketball contract with his numerous contacts overseas, I see no reason why Ricky couldn't speak to authorities after that fact. I'm sure Ricky would be granted immunity in return for testimony detrimental to the Mizzou basketball program. Ricky would not hurt himself for blowing the whistle on Mizzou. OK, that's the cynical side of me. I do hope Mizzou can somehow escape severe NCAA sanctions.

As for the KC Star article, I'm glad that AD Alden isn't blindly supporting Quin. The fact that Quin misled him by not coming clean about his court deposition is very telling about Quin's character. If I'm Mr. Alden, there's no way I'm sticking my neck out for Quin after all of the resources he's been given in terms of salary, facility upgrades, and conference affiliations.

[kshoe]

can taketh away. If Quin has enough power to get a convicted felon that shoots to much and isn't very tall a European contract then surely he could get the same team to drop that contract if Rickey talked. I don't know if Quin is that powerful yet, but it was your suggestion.