SouthSideRyan

More on Bruce Pearl-Deon Thomas: It is beyond the scope of this column to provide total detail of the whole sorry episode, but a few facts need to be mentioned. At first, Illinois behaved like the dutiful son by hiring NCAA lawyer Mike Slive to defend them. It had become the NCAA’s pattern to use Slive to go into an accused school, find evidence to incriminate that school, and then negotiate with their representatives on how they could penalize themselves (usually including the firing of the coaches involved). The idea was that the NCAA would become much more punative and accuse the offending school of “lack of institutional control” if it showed an unwillingness to submit to self-imposed sanctions. It was Slive’s job to save them from this terrible fate. And when Slive, now commissioner of the SEC, read the transcript of the Thomas tape, he was convinced of Illinois’ guilt and recommended severe penalties. He became even more certain of the veracity of Iowa’s claims when coach Digger Phelps and star center LaPhonso Ellis of Notre Dame accused Illinois of illegalities in Ellis’ recruitment. But as Illinois Chancellor Morton Weir and Athletic Director John Mackovic continued to study the case, doubt crept into their minds. Here is some of what they discovered: 1. While the transcript appeared to incriminate Thomas, there was evidence of gaps in the tape, indicating the possibility of deletions or creative splicing. 2. The tape recording itself was vague. It showed an obvious attempt by Pearl to lead Thomas to agree with a predetermined conclusion, and Thomas’ assertion that he was just agreeing with Pearl as if it were a joke could not be disproved. Certainly, Thomas never volunteered nor directly stated that he was offered or given anything on the tape. 3. An investigation of LaPhonso Ellis’ claims proved to be totally incorrect. Even a member of his own family said the claims were untrue. Eventually, Ellis publicly admitted to lying about the episode. One must wonder why he made the claims in the first place and whether his coach or anyone else made Ellis lie. Was there a conspiracy to incriminate Illinois for some self-serving reason? Did Bobby Knight’s earlier “whisper campaign” against Illinois influence Digger Phelps’ attitude toward Illinois, or did Phelps wish to damage Illinois for some personal reason? 4. Iowa paid for a friend of Deon Thomas to visit the Iowa campus for the purpose of getting him to help recruit Thomas to Iowa. Was this student, Reynoldo Kyles, thus a representative of Iowa’s athletic interest and therefore ineligible to be involved in recruiting? 5. Deon Thomas’ grandmother said it was Iowa who offered her a new residence if Deon would attend Iowa, and that Illinois made no illegal offers. By the way, at no time did the NCAA follow up on recommendations to investigate either Iowa or Notre Dame for possible violations. These and other contradictory findings caused Weir and Mackovic to fire Mike Slive and hire their own lawyers instead. They knew they were on shaky ground with the NCAA, so they ran the risk of penalties approaching a “Death Penalty” if they could not prove Illinois’ innocence to the NCAA’s satisfation. Given the lessons learned by Illinois from earlier run-ins with the NCAA and their diligent efforts to comply with NCAA guidelines, including the hiring of people of integrity like Weir and Mackovic, Illinois would never have gone to the extreme of firing Slive unless they were 100% sure of their findings.

If Negedu is 1(or 2) and done, I have no clue why he'd go to IU, unless he doesn't think he'd get playing time as a freshman at the other options.(which would surprise me) As far as Pearl goes, Sigh. The Pearl / Thomas incident During the 1988-1989 basketball season, Pearl, then an assistant coach at the University of Iowa, was at the center of a recruiting scandal involving the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Both Illinois and Iowa were recruiting Deon Thomas, a top high school player from Chicago. Pearl lost this recruiting battle when Thomas committed to Illinois. Thereafter, Pearl relentlessly called the high school student over and over, and surreptitiously recorded a phone conversation with Thomas. Pearl attempted to get Thomas to admit that he had been offered an SUV and cash by Illinois assistant coach Jimmy Collins. Pearl then turned over the tapes to the NCAA, accompanied by a memo describing the events.[1] When the NCAA investigated the alleged violations, they found Illinois guilty of no violations related to the Pearl/Thomas incident, according to the Chicago Sun Times. However, Illinois was punished for vague violations of a policy known as "institutional control." Chuck Smart, the NCAA director of enforcement, could not explain the strange ruling. Smart said "We believe the Committee (of Infractions) did not say the allegations were false, but they did not find that they were true." Thomas's attorney responded: "When you bring an allegation and don't have the burden of proof, they have two words for that. It means, 'not guilty.' And when people on the enforcement staff shoot their mouths off and talk about the allegations still being true, it incenses me." The Bruce Pearl-Deon Thomas incident cost millions of dollars to play out. Illinois spent a small fortune defending itself and the basketball program suffered greatly because of the sanctions imposed. Iowa certainly did not benefit from the negative publicity and Pearl skirted the brink of professional suicide. An investigation conducted by now-SEC-commissioner Mike Slive and the university Chancellor demonstrated that Bruce Pearl might be the only one guilty of wrongdoing in this situation. Slive discovered gaps in the tape recording, which indicated deletions and/or creative splicing of the audio. Even with Pearl's editing, the tape "showed an obvious attempt by Pearl to lead Thomas to agree with a predetermined conclusion... Thomas never volunteered nor stated that he was offered or given anything on tape." (Chicago Herald & Register) Furthermore, the grandmother of young Mr. Thomas alleged that Bruce Pearl offered her a new residence if Deon would attend Iowa, and that Illinois made no illegal offers.

He'd be a good fit for the Rangers, but they may not be interested considering they aren't in contention. After the Cobs trade Lee and move Soriano to first, they could sign Hatteberg to play left. :yahoo:

They're out of options, so they get a free pass. But he just signed Edmonds. And I don't mind Johnson on the roster for LHP, but it seems stupid for me to say that Pie got booted for not producing when we have gotten no production whatsoever from center field against RHP. that's my problem as well. Pie should have gotten a month straight starting to see if he can produce. Giving him 5 games doesn't give him time to adjust to the faster pitching. The Hill thing as infruiated me from the moment he was pulled. Yes he was walking people but his ERA was still 4.11. He can walk all the people he wants as long as he strikes the next guy out and doesn't allow a run. He has been our most consistent pitcher the last two years and he's yanked 2 weeks into the season when his ERA is still somewhat good??? That makes absolutely no sense. Not that big of a deal, but no, Zambrano has been been our most consistent pitcher. Honestly, I think Rich Hill has been ridiculously inconsistent. He either looks unhittable and the next big thing. Or he just gets rocked, and gives up home run after home run. Either way, he should be in the rotation, and Marquis shouldn't. Rich Hill has 1 more mutli-HR allowed game than Zambrano since the beginning of last year. (All came last season.)

Amidst this pointless pissing match, some minor news came out. Jeremiah Rivers transfers from Georgeotown to IU. Kind of a meh commitment. He's another body, and provides a little class balance.(His scholly will open for class of '11) He averaged 2.5 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 18.6 minutes/game last year at Georgetown as a sophomore. IU fans on Peegs are claiming he's a lock-down defender. Anything to that? I would imagine there is considering his offensive #s. What would worry me were I an IU fan would be that this puts them at 12 scholarships for '09. Until I heard any word from the NCAA regarding punishment for Sampson, I would've held that 12th scholarship out for Negedu. Now Negedu is still making an official visit, so this makes me think either Crawford is on his way out, IU has a good idea that no scholarship reduction will be handed down(though what about ARP?), they know Negedu is 1 and done, or one of the '09s will be encouraged to go elsewhere.(The problem with that is the guy they could most afford to lose is Hulls is the local Indiana boy which I can't imagine would be good for recruiting in the future.) Any IU fan insights?

I'd be fine listening to Pat & Ron in those circumstances.

May Geovany Soto have mercy on your soul While by no means old, Geo is 4 years older than Bruce.

Thank you for Mark Sweeney Joe Torre.

Terrifying.

Ask him about Glenn Burke too.

Ask Tommy Lasorda about his son, and see what a cheery hilarious old man he is.

Annoying. And he's a miserable human being. Eff him.

Do you guys realize that Tommy Lasorda was pretty much the greatest manager, nay human being in baseball history?? If not, are you watching the ESPN feed instead?

but we'd have to trade zambrano to make room for him If we explain to him that Soriano needs to pitch to preserve his legs, he should be okay with being traded.

He would have had a bad week then they would have sent him down to the minors and signed a 38 year old outfielder who just got cut by the worst offense in baseball to take his place. ba-zing. (standard Pie is a much better prospect than Corey ever was) corey was regarded as one of the top 3 prospects in baseball; pie was never really close to that. In a subjective sort of way, that's true. But in terms of actually playing baseball well enough to justify the acclaim, I think Felix is probably a better prospect than Corey ever really was. Isn't that kind of easy to say in retrospect though? I think everyone thought Corey was a great propsect at the time. I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm no prospect expert... but, I think it will be interesting to see if everyone still thinks that about Pie with a little time and distance. It's not retrospect. Stat-wise Pie's #s have been better across the board at younger ages.

Rod Beck can't be too far behind.

Too bad Hendry and Lou weren't there to call them dogbleep players who are mentally fragile. That probably would've helped them out. This is more of Hendry (and Lou's) bristling at ever being questioned on anything as Bruce alluded to elsewhere. At least Lou is a grumpy old man who has won something in his life, I don't get where Hendry gets off thinking he's the almighty word at baseball with his record.

He would have had a bad week then they would have sent him down to the minors and signed a 38 year old outfielder who just got cut by the worst offense in baseball to take his place. ba-zing. (standard Pie is a much better prospect than Corey ever was)

This nails it. The real question is how are the Indians and Tigers so terrible?

But, he did not coach Tennessee, and it is not a top 10 all-time program. When a program rises to the top for a year or two, their fans tend to get pretty cocky about it. Example #1) You Of course, winning a down SEC 1 year with a couple sweet 16 runs doesn't really constitute top either.

Face it... Indiana, even when struggling (which they will do in 08-09) is more relevant everywhere else in the world, outside of Illinois. Indiana is a national program who makes headlines whether winning or losing. Illinois is a team that no one outside of Big 10 country knows or cares about except when winning. Illinois is on par with the South Carolina's and Florida State's of the college basketball world. In 2008, that is irrelevant. I'm sorry if that stirs an Illini fans inferiority complex, but it's true. Indiana relevant because they're a historically great program. Tennessee relevant because they're returning a team that lost in the 2nd round. Illinois irrelevant because they were bad last year, and we aren't talking about history here. Ummmm? EDIT: And I realize this is a really stupid argument to even care about, but I never really got my gloating in about how terrible the SEC was last year. Let me help you out here... Indiana: 25-8, 14-4 in the Big 10 (3rd). Highest profile coaching change in College Basketball. Relevant. Tennessee: 31-5, 14-2 (SEC Regular Season Champs). Ranked #1 during the season, made it to the Sweet 16. Relevant. Illinois: 16-19, 5-13, 9th in the Big 10. Irrelevant. And, yes, your argument is stupid. I guess when your team sucks, all you can do is ride the coattails of the good teams in your conference? Chris Lofton and Tyler Smith did not play for the SEC... they played for Tennessee. I don't know I would say we were relevant last year. Just for the wrong reasons. We were still on ESPN a ton and they did talk about us being down. We also were in the biggest soap opera storyline of the season. Please tell me that you didn't just claim relevance based on Gordon choosing IU over Illinois? YOu were relevant for being on the wrong end of a recruiting battle and for your fans showing a complete and total lack of class because of it?!? Okay. :good: I don't know why I'm bothering, but you're claiming relevance for IU based on being the wrong end of a scumbag coach napalming the program. Either that or you're talking about their history, BUT WE'RE NOT TALKING ABOUT HISTORY HERE, HOW MANY TIMES DO YOU HAVE TO TELL US!!!!

Face it... Indiana, even when struggling (which they will do in 08-09) is more relevant everywhere else in the world, outside of Illinois. Indiana is a national program who makes headlines whether winning or losing. Illinois is a team that no one outside of Big 10 country knows or cares about except when winning. Illinois is on par with the South Carolina's and Florida State's of the college basketball world. In 2008, that is irrelevant. I'm sorry if that stirs an Illini fans inferiority complex, but it's true. Indiana relevant because they're a historically great program. Tennessee relevant because they're returning a team that lost in the 2nd round. Illinois irrelevant because they were bad last year, and we aren't talking about history here. Ummmm? EDIT: And I realize this is a really stupid argument to even care about, but I never really got my gloating in about how terrible the SEC was last year.

I've been trying pretty desperately to trade him the past few weeks.

I hate how every old player just makes crap up. Goose Gossage used to come in in the 6th and finish off the save all the time? No, Fergie, no he didn't.

That's been all of his hits with the Cubs. By all, I mean 3.