Saturday, December 01, 2001
SULLIVAN: UC-Temple flap
Hard, cold facts, but still cold fax
By Tim Sullivan
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Negative recruiting is as old as recruiting itself. It goes back to the Garden of Eden, when the serpent declared Paradise a dump, and it continues unabated and, mostly, unabashed.
If you can't say something great about the product you're selling — and even if you can — it's always been standard practice to rip your rivals.
Andy Kennedy's error was to use his pen to communicate his poison.
The University of Cincinnati's new assistant basketball coach evidently has neglected to learn the most fundamental rule of college hoops: Never leave a paper trail. Last month, in an effort to woo Philadelphia prep star Keith Butler, Kennedy used office letterhead and inscribed his initials to the kind of disparaging propaganda best promulgated by word of mouth.
Big mistake. Kennedy's efforts to trash Temple were consistent with recruiting practices all over the country, wherever high school athletes are in demand and college coaches are in need. But putting it all in writing robbed Kennedy of a coach's favorite companion: plausible deniability.
Everything Kennedy wrote was based in fact. Temple coach John Chaney is, indeed, 69 years old and his matchup zone has been unconducive to developing professional players.
UC in bad light
Yet in putting so fine a point on Temple's drawbacks (as well as those of Illinois, Miami and North Carolina), Kennedy has committed a costly turnover. He has supplied those schools competing against UC with explosive material for their own recruiting sabotage. He has provided written proof of the Bearcats' ethical laxity.
Chaney said Friday: “Never in my life have I had a document in my hands ... I've heard of guys verbally downing another program. But I've never seen a document where other people wrote things down.”
The NCAA's ethics policy is sufficiently broad and vague to include negative recruiting as an actionable offense, but Chaney now says he has no desire to pursue the matter. Absent a complaint, or a pattern of abuses, the issue is unlikely to interest the infractions committee.
The most serious scrutiny probably will occur at the conference level.
“The league's got some work to do on this,” said Brian Teter, assistant commissioner of Conference USA. “If this is something that violates the code of conduct, there will be steps taken to reprimand or deal with this. Obviously, this is going to be an issue.”
UC silence puzzling
Many conferences have adopted legislation specifically prohibiting negative recruiting. Repeat offenders in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference are subject to a one-year suspension of recruiting priviliges. Yet because the vast majority of negative recruiting is done verbally, proof can be difficult to pin down. That's what makes Kennedy's communique so unusual.
“I would think that would be rare,” said Charles Bloom, associate commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, “and probably not very smart.”
Neither does it seem smart that Huggins and UC athletic director Bob Goin decline to condemn or condone Kennedy's deed. It suggests either a shortage of standards or that negative recruiting is so common that it's no concern.
Either way, that's not appealing.
Contact Tim Sullivan at 768-8456; fax: 768-8550; e-mail: tsullivan@enquirer.com.
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SULLIVAN: UC-Temple flap
