What may be most interesting about today’s ESPN.com report is not that any UA players could be ineligible Monday against Florida Atlantic (UA says they’ll be fine).
It’s that the NCAA has been continuing to look pretty deeply into possible UA ties with the Arizona Cactus Classic , which could result in trouble down the road.
The UA first self-reported, in what it called a secondary violation, the letter Lute Olson signed seeking financial support for the Cactus Classic, an annual traveling-team event that annually attracts hundreds of elite-level high school players. That surfaced in September via our public-records request.
Today, ESPN.com’s report added that on April 15, Olson introduced Cactus Classic and goazcats.com chief Jim Storey at a Rebounders Club event, then departed while Storey gave a presentation about financial assistance. Storey has said he seeks local sponsorship rather than shoe companies so as not to scare off any teams that are affiliated with competing shoe companies.
Today, several UA players told us that they have discussed the situation with NCAA investigators and themselves about the incidentals they received. They said the NCAA appeared to be asking only them, the ones who wound up at Arizona, instead of the other players who participated in the Cactus Classic and are playing collegiately elsewhere.
Under NCAA rules, a school or athletic representative cannot offer, provide or arrange financial assistance — directly or indirectly — to pay for a recruit’s expenses for any period prior to their university enrollment.
If the NCAA determines that was the case — that a few or even hundreds of elite players were brought to campus impermissibly for the Cactus Classic — the violation could become more than secondary.
As far as I’m concerned I believe all of the so-called elite camps around the country should be shut down.
They are nothing more than recruiting tools designed to blatantly circumvent the legitimate recruiting process.
— adman 11/14/2008 08:58 PM #
Lute had a stroke. Arizona should be off the hook…
— guert 11/14/2008 09:20 PM #
#2- Please believe me when I say The NCAA can care less about Lute’s Stroke. It will not be a factor since they expect Athletic Directors to keep a close eye on the coaches under them. Livengood has never done this with Lute- Lute has had free reign which is why we may learn of more lapses in judgment due to his stroke of which Livengood is totally unaware. The NCAA does not punish individual coaches- they punish the University. The AD should know what’s going on in the program which Livengood clearly did not. A competant AD could have drawn some clues from Lute’s erratic and changing behavior over the past few years- the Rosborough firing, Oneill fiasco, press conference, personal life etc.-and sat down with the coach inquestion to find out just what the hell was going on. But Livengood is not a competant AD. If the program is penalized it will not be Lute and his stroke at fault it will be Jimmy boy.
— Ron W 11/15/2008 09:59 AM #
The UA is screwed on this one, because as #4 has brilliantly pointed out, AD Livengood was again asleep at the wheel. Anyone notice that Livengood simply reacts to things instead of being proactive? We have a moron running the UA athletic program into the ground, he should have been fired years ago when he hired John Mackovic, I’m not sure how he still has a job, but I guess at the UA, anything is possible. Makes me wonder how many academic programs are run the way the UA athletic program is run…
Get rid of Livengood and get a competent AD now!
— Steal Your Face 11/15/2008 03:56 PM #
“The UA first self-reported, in what it called a secondary violation, the letter Lute Olson signed”…
Bruce, why don’t you say that the letter had Lute’s electronic signature and that Lute said HE DID NOT WRITE OR SEND THAT LETTER. Very ingenuous reporting, not even mentioning that the letter is in dispute. You are reporting it as fact that Lute personally signed the letter. Amazing. Sounds like you’re still on a vendetta trying to get the public to look at Lute in the most unflattering way possible.
— Taco Bill 11/16/2008 08:26 AM #
Taco Bill — Olson has since called the letter “my error” in an interview with ESPN (it’s in the story linked above).
— Bruce Pascoe 11/16/2008 12:19 PM #
why wont you leave any comments which talk about the negative influence goazcats has had on the program?
— jdub 11/16/2008 05:24 PM #
Once again, the negative influence of the Goaz website/cactus classic has finally caused serious problems for the program. This is an important issue and one that should be discussed. Instead you keep deleting any posts which discuss this important subject.
— jdub 11/16/2008 07:40 PM #
Jdub — I don’t have the ability to delete posts and the StarNet staff only deletes those that are offensive under our standards.
As far as I know, no goazcats posts have been deleted.
— Bruce Pascoe 11/17/2008 11:57 PM #
The ESPN article is very troubling, but it is as clear as mud.
Talking about an NCAA violation, Olson said, “I think that was my fault,”
Then later in the article, “Olson denied knowing the letter was being sent out. Arizona said athletic department personnel thought the letter was supposed to go out”.
What does Livengood or other athletic dept personnel say? This sounds very bad, but we should get the whole story first.
— Taco Bill 11/18/2008 07:24 AM #
Isn’t it obvious that Livengood should go before another program goes down. We need a leader who knows what is going on.
— chowe 11/18/2008 11:10 AM #
Taco — Livengood won’t comment other than the statement he initially issued about this. He said then that he was led to believe Olson supported it. Olson denied that, then later admitted it was his fault.
There is a definite disconnect here…
— Bruce Pascoe 11/18/2008 12:48 PM #