re: 2015-16 Ole Miss Basketball Season Thread | 20-12

I think the vacating wins is probably wishful thinking on your part.

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Shabazz Muhammad was suspended for only three games to start the season in large part because the NCAA had to fold its cards due to self-inflicted incompetence. There was widespread belief, both at the NCAA and college coach levels, that Muhammad was no amateur – that he'd received plenty of goods and services as a teenage phenom – but that case evaporated after reports that an enforcement rep's boyfriend was overheard blabbing about it on an airplane. Confronted with bad publicity, the NCAA basically dropped back and punted, firing the enforcement rep in the process as well. The questions about Muhammad resurfaced last week, when the Los Angeles Times reported on the wheeling, dealing and conniving Muhammad's father, Ron Holmes, had engaged in to make his son a star – up to and including lying about his age. In the story, Holmes was asked about funding for his son's more than 15 college visits. His answer: "When you're good enough, you don't have to pay for your trips." When a one-and-done college recruit has a father with that level of expectation of being taken care of, does this sound like a comfortable situation for UCLA? The Times story also noted, "A Los Angeles basketball trainer paid for a trip to the University of Memphis, records show, and a New York financial advisor donated an undisclosed sum to Dream Vision [the player’s AAU team] in hopes of getting close to Muhammad." AAU teams often are set up as non-profit organizations and take donations from various sources, which can include agents and boosters. The source of the donations does not have to be made public, despite the non-profit status. The donation Dream Vision solicited was sizable, running well into six figures, sources told Yahoo! Sports several months ago. Dream Vision coach Clayton Williams denied to Yahoo! Sports Monday that donations of that size were ever solicited or received. "To say hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, that’s not accurate," Williams said. "We’ve never received sizable donations and haven’t done anything illegal as far as Dream Vision is concerned. "We’re funded by Adidas. There’s no money in it. We’re trying to send kids to college." [More: Pat Forde: Breaking down the Sweet 16] In addition to the AAU situation, UCLA hired an assistant coach friendly with the Muhammad family: Phil Mathews, who the Times reported was far and away UCLA’s highest-paid assistant last year at $205,000. Mathews was joined on UCLA's staff in 2011 by Korey McCray, CEO and coach of the Atlanta Celtics AAU club. His previous full-time college coaching experience, according to his UCLA bio, consisted of a season at Mercer University in 2007-08 and a season at Chipola College in 2004-05. McCray was instrumental in UCLA landing two other members of this year's freshman class, Atlanta-area standouts Jordan Adams and Tony Parker. Refinance Rates Drop to 2.97% APR LendingTree Sponsor ? This season, McCray made at least one recruiting visit to Eastern Kentucky to scout prospective recruits Emanuel Owootoah and Ray Kasongo, both Canadian expatriates playing in small towns in Appalachia. According to Kasongo and his coach at Pikeville High School, Bart Williams, McCray was accompanied on that visit in January by Brandon Bender, Kasongo's "mentor" and a basketball figure who was named in some of the recruiting violations committed by Central Florida. UCF was given a postseason basketball ban for this year as a result of those violations. Part of the school's self-imposed penalties was to permanently disassociate Bender from UCF's athletic programs. Not your ideal recruiting companion. The other prominent member of UCLA's freshman class was Kyle Anderson of New Jersey. The NCAA also investigated his amateur status prior to the season before declaring him eligible in late October. Anderson's recruitment left a lot of bruised feelings among those who were involved in the process. Maybe all the things UCLA has done the past couple of years are the price of recruiting at the top tier in modern basketball. But there was no payoff at the end of this season.

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TL;dr NCAA gave up on Shabazz because they fricked up.

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In a recent online poll of nearly 100 coaches, UCLA's Ben Howland was voted as college basketball's third-biggest cheater

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That didn't stop Howard from committing an NCAA violation regarding permissible contact. In certain months, coaches are allowed to call a recruit or his family only once. In one of these months, and after a UCLA coach had already spoken to Roberto, Howland called Bruce. "I didn't know it was him until I answered the phone because the number had a Santa Barbara area code,"

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That was certainly not the only story Dohrmann told about the Bruins’ partying, but to be frank, the drugs and the alcohol were not the biggest issue UCLA had. College kids are going to drink and they are going to smoke some weed and they may try harder drugs. It’s not ideal, but it happens. And it’s also a symptom of the true problem: that Howland had lost control of his team. As a coach, the minute your team is no longer concerned with the repercussions of their actions, you’ve lost them.

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Sports Illustrated has released a special report by George Dohrmann detailing the fighting, drinking and drug use that has apparently been rampant within the UCLA program since the Bruins appeared in three straight Final Fours between 2006-2008. The story, titled "Not the UCLA Way," paints a portrait of a program in complete chaos being captained by a man - head coach Ben Howland - with no idea how to restore order.

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Along with multiple players investigated for taking cash. Players fighting in practice. He barely showed up to practice. Lack of institutional control was threatened.

I don't really think they'll vacate wins, but I don't think the recruiting is clean either. Is it not a little suspicious to you that Howland walks in and a few months later racks in five stars?

Randy think about who you sound like.

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I don't think any five stars

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Mario Kegler is headed to State

I was more saying that if you want to recruit well in basketball you have to cheat and Howland does not have a history of getting busted for anything major. Pearl was a way bigger ncaa risk.