The Wiseman situation at Memphis

AUDub

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Give me ambiguity or give me something else.
So here's what's going on. Wiseman is freshman at Memphis playing under 1st year head coach Penny Hardaway. Last night, the NCAA ruled him ineligible. Penny, back when he was a AAU coach, paid to move Wiseman and his family to the Memphis area 2 years ago.

The NCAA last night decided Hardaway was a booster at that time and subsequently ruled Wiseman ineligible. A judge, in turn, issued a temporary restraining order, clearing him to play shortly thereafter, which he did.

IMO, Penny is a very shady recruiter (Rick Barnes is said to have a particular dislike for him and his tactics) and Memphis is playing a very dangerous game here. Thoughts?
 

AlexanderFan

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So here's what's going on. Wiseman is freshman at Memphis playing under 1st year head coach Penny Hardaway. Last night, the NCAA ruled him ineligible. Penny, back when he was a AAU coach, paid to move Wiseman and his family to the Memphis area 2 years ago.

The NCAA last night decided Hardaway was a booster at that time and subsequently ruled Wiseman ineligible. A judge, in turn, issued a temporary restraining order, clearing him to play shortly thereafter, which he did.

IMO, Penny is a very shady recruiter (Rick Barnes is said to have a particular dislike for him and his tactics) and Memphis is playing a very dangerous game here. Thoughts?
That’s the sole reason he was hired was his relationship with these guys. I hope the NCAA hammers Memphis for getting the judge involved.


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BAMAVILLE

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Yeah ... um ... this is either going to go REALLY bad for Memphis or they are going to come away like fat rats. Either way, the NCAA needs to have a win on this one in order to uphold their "integrity". If CPH paid to move them there ... and the family never paid him back, then the kid shouldn't play. Those are the rules.
 

day-day

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The story is that the NCAA reviewed and ruled Wiseman eligible in May (ish). After looking deeper, NCAA says Hardaway had donated money ($1,000,000 maybe) to the University of Memphis sometime prior. This made Hardaway a booster when he gave $11,500 to Wiseman's family for expenses to move to Memphis to play high school basketball in Memphis while Hardaway was high school coach.

I may have missed a few details ...
 

Crimson1967

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If all this happened when the player was in high school and Penny was a high school coach it wouldn’t seem to be an NCAA issue. Sounds like something for the Tennessee high school group to deal with.


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AUDub

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Give me ambiguity or give me something else.
The story is that the NCAA reviewed and ruled Wiseman eligible in May (ish). After looking deeper, NCAA says Hardaway had donated money ($1,000,000 maybe) to the University of Memphis sometime prior. This made Hardaway a booster when he gave $11,500 to Wiseman's family for expenses to move to Memphis to play high school basketball in Memphis while Hardaway was high school coach.

I may have missed a few details ...
That's about right.

And I get that a lot of people are frustrated with the NCAA here, but IMO they've got this one right. Memphis knew exactly what they were doing when they hired Penny, and the competitive advantage gained is simply too much for me to be comfortable with.
 

OBMS

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If this is all the NCAA has to do considering everything else they have they can be killing time doing----Coach K, Calipari, the shenanigans at LSU, Kansas, UCLA, North Carolina, Arizona, Michigan, etc... ad infinitum -----then they are absolutely done as an enforcement arm. We are back to Tarkanian's statement of 30 years ago----the NCAA is so mad at Duke they are going to put Memphis on probation.

Besides Dub, they simply took a page from Auburn's play book and told the NCAA to take a hike-----"we told you about it, you cleared him, we are playing him". I hope they don't cooperate for a minute, win a National Championship, thumb their noses at the NCAA, and destroy any connection UT has in Memphis and west Tennessee. And shame on anyone whose school employs Bruce Pearl and once employed Chuck Person for talking down about how anyone else recruits in basketball. It's basketball recruiting, for crying out loud----it's a cesspool. Maybe Penny should have just given the money to Wiseman's church---------
 

trenda

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Why do people forget he played at Memphis?


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Playing for the school doesn't make him a booster. There are a LOT of players who never give a dime back to their school.

Memphis' contention - I believe - is three-fold. One, he donated to the university and not to the athletic department. Second, he was not associated with the university as a booster or a coach at the time he gave the money to the Wiseman family. Third, the NCAA Clearinghouse cleared him to play back in the spring. Not saying they are in the right; but I believe this is their defense. The NCAA did something similar to Memphis when Derrick Rose was there. Cleared him to play, then declared him ineligible after the season and made Memphis forfeit their Final Four and Championship Game appearance. For this reason, I can understand UM's frustration and willingness to fight this. If there is ANY appearance of impropriety, you don't clear the player to play. Period. Seems like this would have come up prior to November.

Due to the NCAA's history of shadiness, I tend to hope UM wins this.
 

Rama Jama

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Many Pennies Hardaway has clearly gone after big fish and landed most of them, but anyone with a brain has to question his tactics. He was involved with almost every top ten player in the country at one time. Watford was considering Memphis until a known dirty coach AT LSU finagled his job back(he hired Pearls Attorney btw). It tells you that basketball recruiting is in crisis. You have the schools who at least try to live by the rules, then those who blatantly cheat and dare the NCAA to punish them. It needs to be one or the other. There is no such thing as a level playing field in basketball. any more. The NCAA as we know has lost all credibility as an enforcement entity.
 

CB4

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AUDub

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Give me ambiguity or give me something else.
Besides Dub, they simply took a page from Auburn's play book and told the NCAA to take a hike-----"we told you about it, you cleared him, we are playing him". I hope they don't cooperate for a minute, win a National Championship, thumb their noses at the NCAA, and destroy any connection UT has in Memphis and west Tennessee. And shame on anyone whose school employs Bruce Pearl and once employed Chuck Person for talking down about how anyone else recruits in basketball. It's basketball recruiting, for crying out loud----it's a cesspool. Maybe Penny should have just given the money to Wiseman's church---------
This isn't really analogous of any sort of situation Auburn has ever had. It would be a fair comparison had we thumbed out nose at the NCAA and played Wiley and Purifoy two years ago rather than suspending them and appealing for eligibility.

Not to mention that those weren't recruiting violations.

Moot point now anyway. Memphis has blinked and their lawsuit has been withdrawn. Wiseman will be held out of competition.
 

BAMAVILLE

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:) How does a high school basketball association get more fear our of Memphis than the NCAA? lol priceless
 

BAMAVILLE

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So 12 games. He'll be eligible in January. NCAA might not be done with Memphis though.

One would hope, but they would have to prove that the school conspired to make this happen. Unfortunately that will be a tall task.
 

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