Completely flabbergasted at how Kansas State is being dragged into the O.J. Mayo mess at Southern Cal. Actually, K-State isn’t, but a few, shall we say, “resourceful” bloggers are trying to establish a connection by clinging to a recent Manhattan Mercury account of assistant coach Brad Underwood’s rather candid address at a Rotary Club meeting.
Somehow, the whole O.J. saga – which only became public, mind you, because of a whistle-blower’s soured relationship with his boss – is Bob Huggins’ fault. Because Huggins, just like virtually everyone else with a rational mind, “knew” Mayo would never “pass” NCAA Clearinghouse guidelines, somehow it’s his fault that he didn’t step forward and alert officials.
Because the NCAA has always played so nice with Huggins.
And because that’s his job.
According to the folks at Conquest Chronicles, an unofficial USC blog, Huggins – again – is the bad guy here. No, the bad guy is Rodney Guillory, basically for getting caught. Truth is, at least by big-time college athletic standards, it’s not cheating if you don’t get caught.
And, as if that weren’t enough, the same blog went after K-State a couple of weeks earlier, wondering why the NCAA isn’t investigating all of the lottery picks, specifically Michael Beasley after the Washington Times revealed – oh, the horror! – that Beasley has four cell phones:
“So please explain me how a college student can afford 4 expensive cell phones? Why no investigative reporting here?”
What does that prove exactly? Is there a rule prohibiting student-athletes from carrying more than one mobile device? Last year, I saw David Hoskins routinely juggling at least two cell phones, maybe even three, and I asked why.
He said he liked to text on one while talking on another. While that doesn’t explain all of Beasley’s phones, I did see him using at least three of his devices on Selection Sunday in the Legends Room at Bramlage Coliseum. As for he’s able to afford these phones, how do you justify such speculation? Under what line of reasoning? That he’s supposed to be a poor college student?
It all reeks of sour grapes, of a desperate school about to get smacked by the NCAA trying to drag another school down into the muck.
Pathetic, really.
11 Comments
You know what the sad thing is? The NCAA will probably end up placing blame on KSU.
Good lord that was a solid post Jeff.
LOL @ J-Mart getting worked up by a rival blog. Maybe you guys could organize some sort of Bangin’ On Blogs smackdown weekend or something. You know, to clear the air.
Give it to us J-Mart, hell hath no fury like a sportswriter scorned.
Interesting. If I remember correctly JMart, you advised us during the summer before he signed that new people were involved with OJ and, as that moved along, you indicated that KState may be stepping back from OJ. That was all unofficial but I’m pretty sure I read it here. Then came the story about Mama Beaz talking to OJ on the phone around signing day and her talking to Huggs and OJ telling her that Huggs didn’t have a scholly for him. It all adds up now. Maybe USC shouldn’t have put their heads in the sand…although Reggie Bush didn’t do them in with that approach.
USC has nothing to worry about. Continue cheating per usual. NCAA is in their back pocket, so there will be no reprecussions. For their own moral justification, there is always scapegoats like Bob Huggins out there. It’s never hard to paint yourself as the victim if that will ease your conscience.
Two words… Family Plan
He probably has a family plan where he is the family. Get 4 lines for 79.99.
Pathetic??
Really…Did you read it carefully?
We would agree that Guillory is the bad guy here, not Huggins or KSU. We have been pretty vocal that SC has no excuses here. Heads should roll at SC over this, as Guillory was known to be a bad apple in how he affected the eligibility of another USC player in 2001. That’s our problem and we expect the school to address it aggressively.
Our beef with Huggins, not KSU, is the sanctimonious tone that he takes in all of this. He’s at WVU and he drops this one leaving KSU to pick up the pieces? As I said in my piece Huggins would have taken Mayo, IF he could have got him and IF there was little to no risk to KSU knowing what he allegedly knows. That’s says a lot about Huggins and it’s a disgrace; he’s part of the problem. We all know the sport is dirty but Huggins is being pretty blatant about what he would have done if he could have done it. His actions would have perpetuated this problem not stopped it. I doubt anyone at KSU would feel the love for Huggins if this happened on his watch at KSU but he was bound and determined to try.
Officials at KSU now claim that no officials at KSU knew about Mayo…I tend believe them. While Underwood’s statement seems to indicate that he knew something. I’m willing to let that one pass, as it seems that he was playing the bravado card in protecting KSU’s interests. That’s cool, this isn’t KSU’s fight nor should KSU be put into a position of having to answer for the comments of a former coach who appears to talking with a hint of sour grapes.
As for Beasely, the comments made on Conquest Chronicles in regards to his alleged multiple cell phones were made by one our readers not the site administrators. Our platform allows individual readers to write their own posts as it allows numerous voices to be heard. We value our reader’s opinions even if we don’t agree with them.
I disputed the calls for Beasely to be investigated in the comment section:
- – - I don’t care…
What happens at other programs. it really has no affect on what goes on at SC. Beasely could have 100 phones and wads of cash coming out his pockets and it wouldn’t matter.
we still have to deal with this worrying about what other players may have done doesn’t change what we have to deal with now. – - -
Whether the accusation is true or not Beasely is not our concern nor should he be.
Hopefully this clarifies our position in what you read. We have no beef with KSU. Our beef is with Huggins who, regardless of his prowess for X’s and O’s, is part of the problem with amateur players taking money. I am no fan of the NCAA but if Huggins would have let them know about Mayo instead of trying to recruit him warts and all Mayo wouldn’t have been anyone’s problem.
Paragon SC
Conquest Chronicles
I know one of his cell phones was strictly for girls that he met.
Never thought I’d back Huggs. The criticism of him not blowing the whistle on OJ is ignorant and unfair. Look at what it got Bruce Pearl.
I have no love for Huggins, but to blame him for not letting the NCAA know about what’s going on and recruiting him is ridiculous! Every coach outside of possibly 5 schools would’ve have tried to recruit Mayo, bad seed and all. The fact that he declared he was going to USC early on is the only thing that kept schools from doing so. And to call the entire sport dirty because one of your own got caught pocketing money is the only thing that sounds like sour grapes to me.
Keep living the dream there Paragon at your ‘holier than thou’ University.
Paragon you’re either really dumb or really blind to think that Tim Floyd didn’t know about Guillory and Mayo’s association with him. It’s his job to know these things. Turning a blind eye and blaming the NCAA Clearinghouse is reckless and amateur.
Huggins did the right thing, he turned his back on Mayo and didn’t reward the player for cheating. To say that he WOULD have done anything else is nothing but conjecture. It was your school that ignored the writing on the wall and choose to offer Mayo the scholarship.
Huggins, it seems to me, isn’t part of the problem of players taking money. He didn’t reward a dirty player with a ’ship. Mayo wasn’t a player for Huggins, he played for Floyd. He was your player, in your program, for your coach.
Hell, I knew about Guillory and his dealings with Mayo long before he signed anywhere and I’m just a fan of a school who was recruiting him. Everyone who cared to know, did know.
College coaches turning a blind eye to the back door dealings and then sweeping the problem onto the NCAA Clearinghouse’s doorstep like Floyd and Self at KU have done recently is nothing more than shifting blame in a shell game.