Let's talk about December 26th at Rupp Arena
- Thread starter Rhavicc
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Super Bowl.
If you're quoting me, don't forget the rest of the post.
"Elite program", my a$$...
Did you type this with a straight face? You're comparing current student athletes and graduate transfers to a guy with a "foundation account" setup by his handler - that much is not disputable. I hardly see that as apples to apples. Skal will likely be elligible, because Sandy Bell has never ran into a compliance issue that she couldn't handle, aside from Enes Kanter who had his name on checks written from a professional basketball team. And even then, Sandy still almost got Kanter eligible. Very impressive on her part. She deserves a statue on UK's campus.
Nobody cares right now about a maid season basketball game 7 months away. Especially not enough to read your novel. Go away.
Im not ready to call Jaylen Johnson a stud yet. Guys like Harrell and Rozier showed alot more in there freshman year to gauge them being break out players a year later. Im going with Onuaku And Mango starting at the 4 and 5. Before I declare a winning in this game Im going to have to see how they do in November until the week before. If the cards are a great shooting team with bigs that defend and rebound could make for a great season.
"Tall and skilled" = Skal Labissierre. Abused Thon Maker repeatedly at the Nike Hoops Summit. Scores in a variety of ways. Another shot blocker in a UK uniform. Poythress has shown inside/outside ability in the past as well. He's been living in the gym to come back strong from his ACL injury. This is also a great opportunity for Willis this year. An athletic guy that needs to show defensive improvement, but at 6'9, can hit shots from deep.
And Damion Lee abused D1 competition for 3 years at Drexel. I don't see anyone crowning him yet at UofL, because he's never played a game for UofL, much like Skal has never played a game for UK.
Poythress is 22-73 from 3-point range for his career, which works out to 30.1%.
I hope Pitino Lite plays him at the '3' and encourages him to shoot.
"Elite program", my a$$...
You speculate Skal into the 2nd coming of Anthony Davis but act like Damion Lee is an average player. If you're speculating, I'd say 3 years against D1 comp is more valuable than a high school all star game.
Top 5 scorer in the NCAA vs. super hype recruit
Why am I not surprised you only follow the super hype recruits?
Who is uk playing in the College Baseball playoffs? ......Oh! Never mind I forgot the blues ones are just a one trick pony sports program. LOL
AAU coach: Skal Labissiere's guardian asked how to profit from prospect
Gary Parrish
College Basketball Insider
Skal Labissiere has played for two high schools and three summer programs. (Kelly Kline / Under Armour)
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Keith Easterwood has coached an AAU team with future NBA players to a national title, hustled prospects for former summer-basketball king Sonny Vaccaro, and met so many sketchy characters in three decades of operating on the periphery of the sport that Gerald Hamilton barely made an impression on him when they met about 10 years ago.
"Gerald never talked about trying to help kids back then," Easterwood said. "He only talked about bringing basketball players to the United States from Haiti or somewhere else."
Truth be told, Easterwood used to meet guys like this often, if only because his hometown of Memphis is littered with such people, the kind Easterwood routinely refers to as "hobos, heroes and street-corner clowns." Hamilton was, in Easterwood's mind, merely the latest. So they met but never got to know each other because, honestly, it's not like Hamilton had any players anyway, point being he wasn't, at the time, really worth getting to know.
Then, about two years ago, Easterwood got a random phone call.
"It was Gerald Hamilton," Easterwood told CBSSports.com. "He wanted to talk, and one of the things he asked me was, 'How can I make money off of a basketball player?'"
***
The national signing period for basketball prospects runs through Nov. 19, and on Thursday five-star prospect Skal Labissiere, ranked No. 7 in the Class of 2015 by 247Sports, is expected to announce his college decision from a list of schools featuring Baylor, Georgetown, Kentucky, Memphis, North Carolina and Tennessee. No matter which program the 6-foot-11 Haitian refugee selects, sources have told CBSSports.com the NCAA plans to spend a lot of time investigating the details surrounding his recruitment, mostly because of the way Labissiere's legal guardian -- the previously mentioned Gerald Hamilton -- has handled things since Easterwood said Hamilton asked for advice on how to profit off of a player he knew would eventually be in high demand.
The red flags are numerous.
Since blossoming into what some have called a can't-miss NBA prospect, Labissiere has attended two different high schools and played for three different summer programs, all while Hamilton worked behind the scenes to secure funds for a 501 (c) (3) foundation called Reach Your Dream. Multiple coaches who have recruited Labissiere told CBSSports.com Hamilton either directly indicated or strongly suggested pursuing Labissiere would mostly be a waste of time if they couldn't offer assistance in helping fund his foundation. One coach from a prominent staff said: "We couldn't even get in the door." Another added: "We recognized what it was about early on and decided not to get involved."
Sources told CBSSports.com that college coaches -- none of whom have been permitted by Hamilton to contact Labissiere directly -- have expressed similar things to the NCAA, and that the NCAA is actively trying to find out how Hamilton is funding something he's calling Reach Your Dream Prep, which is a basketball team built around Labissiere, who needed a place to play his senior season after being ruled ineligible by the TSSAA once Hamilton inexplicably orchestrated a transfer from Evangelical Christian School (in Memphis) to Lausanne Collegiate School (in Memphis) and effectively ended any chance Labissiere had at winning a state championship and/or becoming a McDonald's All-American.
Exactly why Hamilton moved Labissiere from ECS to Lausanne is as unclear as why he had Labissiere play for different summer programs each July. But one source summarized the questionable moves this way: "Gerald's been shopping Skal since after his first year at ECS."
Hamilton did not return a message seeking comment Wednesday, and he has consistently declined to discuss Labissiere's recruitment with CBSSports.com. But Hamilton did speak with The Commercial Appeal earlier this month after the newspaper interviewed another Haitian who was brought to the United States with Labissiere, a refugee named Samuel Jean-Gilles. Though Hamilton told The Commercial Appeal his foundation has helped many young people, only Labissiere and Jean-Gilles have ever been identified, and two sources close to Hamilton told CBSSports.com there are no other examples.
"I don't know why Gerald lies about that," one source said.
Jean-Gilles lived with Hamilton and attended ECS for a while, just like Labissiere. But, according to The Commercial Appeal, Hamilton moved Jean-Gilles to Boston within weeks of asking the basketball coach and football coach at ECS if Jean-Gilles had the potential to be a Division I athlete. When both coaches told Hamilton they didn't think that was a likely outcome, Hamilton put Jean-Gilles on a 29-hour bus ride that left in the middle of the night.
Hamilton told The Commercial Appeal it's because Jean-Gilles was a "bad influence."
But literally nobody outside of Hamilton's family agrees with that assessment.
Everybody else describes Jean-Gilles as a quality young man.
"They [were] guardians for me and they don't want me anymore," Jean-Gilles told the paper. "So I guess he did what he had to do. ... If I was 6-feet-9, yes, it would have been different. I would have been [a Division I athlete], and he most definitely wouldn't [have sent] me to Boston. People know what he's trying to do. ... If this is really how he's trying to make money by using people, if that's really how he's doing it, I just feel bad for him."
Labissiere told CBSSports.com in July that skipping college and playing a year overseas before entering the 2016 NBA Draft is a viable option, and sources told CBSSports.com it will remain so regardless of what Labissiere announces Thursday. To that point, sources told CBSSports.com Hamilton has already tried to gauge what kind of market might exist for Labissiere by talking to people who work for at least three different sports agencies, and the prevailing thought is that Hamilton might rather steer Labissiere overseas than deal with what could be a difficult task of getting Labissiere through the NCAA's eligibility center.
"I doubt the kid ever plays one minute in college," said a coach from one of the staffs still recruiting Labissiere. "The whole thing is a mess. I just feel sorry for the kid."
Gary Parrish is a senior college basketball columnist for CBSSports.com and college basketball insider for the CBS Sports Network. The Mississippi native also hosts an award-winning radio show in Memphis. He lives in that area with his wife, two sons and two dogs.I agree 100%.. Both teams will be completely different than last year.. It's always fun to speculate as fans and of course taunt your rivals! As long as it's not mean spirited.. Both teams have some nice pieces from last year and both have added players to fill needs. Both teams have elite coaches and both teams will be ready to compete.
For me I'm gonna enjoy the summer. lol
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I agree 100%.. Both teams will be completely different than last year.. It's always fun to speculate as fans and of course taunt your rivals! As long as it's not mean spirited.. Both teams have some nice pieces from last year and both have added players to fill needs. Both teams have elite coaches and both teams will be ready to compete.
For me I'm gonna enjoy the summer. lol
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snikker I got names for Pitino but they are not for public consumption.if you get my drift..
snikker I got names for Pitino but they are not for public consumption.if you get my drift..
You choose wisely in not using those here. Keep doing that.
And?
Kentucky has a record of FR coming in and being able to play right away. At times even abusing D1 competition. So why would UK fans not have high expectations for Skal? Mulder, now that is somebody UK fans need to take a wait and see approach on.
uk also has a few over hyped freshman that came in and didn't live up to expectations, the twins being the latest example!
LMAO at this one. Apparently Sandy's word is better than her fax machine.
I expect a close game. Too far off and too many variables to hazard a take on the game. I'll have to see how both teams develop during OOC play.
Welcome back, Thunder! Glad to see your hiatus is over. It's been far too long.
Top 5 recruit vs. Top 5 scorer in the NCAA. See my point here? You can have your expectations for Skal, but you'd have to be hiding under a rock to dismiss one of the best proven scorers in the country.
Of course there's a difference, but does that mean he should be dismissed as an impact player?
Not sure anyone here is predicting stardom for Mulder at this point. He's a nice addition, but I'm note sure how big his role will be in the offense other than to be efficient on threes. I'm not sure anyone is 'dismissing' Damion Lee here either...he has experience, which is something RP likes, so he'll probably get more of a green light to shoot than the other newcomers.
Yes, I'd say being a top 5 scorer out of 4,200 scholarship athletes is "nice experience"
Why would it matter what he was ranked out of high school? The man scored 35% of his team's points and did it efficiently.
The resistance to admit he's a great basketball player just amazes me. Is he going to average 20+ at UofL? No, but he's a better incoming player than anyone outside the RSCI top 10.
You talking about this guy?!?
Report: Skal Labissiere's Shady Guardian Asked How To Profit From Him
Barry Petchesky
Barry Petchesky
Six-foot-ten forward Skal Labissiere, one of the top prospects in the nation, is expected to announce tomorrow which college he will attend—Kentucky and Memphis are among the favorites. No one should get too excited. CBS Sports has a story featuring this pronouncement from one coach who's been in on Labissiere's recruitment: "I doubt the kid ever plays one minute in college. The whole thing is a mess. I just feel sorry for the kid."
Even as ugly as the world of prep hoops can be, Labissiere's story is a horror show. The problem is his legal guardian, Gerald Hamilton, whom one local AAU coach describes as one of those "hobos, heroes and street-corner clowns" who predates young talent in the hopes of one striking it rich. Hamilton appears to have found that talent in Labissiere, who Hamilton brought to Memphis from his home in Haiti in the wake of the 2010 earthquake.
Labissiere was ruled ineligible for his upcoming senior season because his transfer from one school to another was deemed by the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association to be solely for athletic reasons. So Hamilton came up with a solution:
Labissiere would play for Reach Your Dream Prep, a school that exists outside the TSSAA's authority altogether. Except Reach Your Dream Prep, founded and run by Hamilton, doesn't appear to be a school at all. It may not even exist. Labissiere isn't even pretending it does, planning to take his classes at the (real) high school he's not eligible to play ball for.
This is an eligibility nightmare for the NCAA and for whichever school successfully recruits Labissiere. It's likely what drove Emmanual Mudiay, who graduated from Deion Sanders's now-closed charter school, to play in Europe China.
According to CBS Sports's Gary Parrish, the NCAA is already investigating how Hamilton is funding Reach Your Dream Prep, which, at the very least, appears to field a basketball team. Parrish's reporting hints at the answer:
Multiple coaches who have recruited Labissiere told CBSSports.com Hamilton either directly indicated or strongly suggested pursuing Labissiere would mostly be a waste of time if they couldn't offer assistance in helping fund his foundation. One coach from a prominent staff said: "We couldn't even get in the door." Another added: "We recognized what it was about early on and decided not to get involved."
It's hard to see any way that Labissiere (ranked fourth nationally by Rivals.com, seventh by 247Sports, and 11th by ESPN) can ever clear the NCAA's eligibility guidelines. And it sounds like he was doomed from the start, when Hamilton plucked him from Haiti at the age of 14. It wasn't long after that that Hamilton made a phone call to an AAU coach.
"It was Gerald Hamilton," Easterwood told CBSSports.com. "He wanted to talk, and one of the things he asked me was, 'How can I make money off of a basketball player?'"
[CBS Sports]
uk holes and their SHADY recruiting it figures you holes would go after a shady recruit no class and no integrity what so ever!!!! But that's been the uk "Tradition" for over 60 years !!
1951 point shaving scandal
Rupp was the head coach at Kentucky during the point shaving scandal of 1951. On October 20, 1951, former Kentucky players Alex Groza, Bill Spivey, Ralph Beard, and Dale Barnstable were arrested for taking bribes from gamblers to shave points during the National Invitation Tournament game against the Loyola Ramblers in the 1948–49 season.[7] This game occurred during the same year that Kentucky won their second straight NCAA title under Rupp.[8] Rupp and the university were criticized by the presiding judge, Saul Streit, for creating an atmosphere for the violations to occur and for "failing in his duty to observe the amateur rules, to build character, and to protect the morals and health of his charges".[9] Rupp denied any knowledge of the point shaving and no evidence was ever brought against him to show he was connected to the incident in any way.[10]
At the conclusion of this scandal, a subsequent NCAA investigation found that Kentucky had committed several rule violations, including giving illegal spending money to players on several occasions, and also allowing some ineligible athletes to compete.[10] As a result, the Southeastern Conference voted to ban Kentucky from competing for a year and the NCAA requested all other basketball-playing members not to schedule Kentucky, with eventually none doing so (this is now known as the "death penalty").[11] In lieu of these actions, Kentucky was forced to cancel the entire 1952–53 basketball season. Years later, Walter Byers, the first executive director of the NCAA, unofficially referred to this punishment as the first de facto NCAA death penalty, despite the current rule first coming into effect in 1985, thus the NCAA having no such enforcement power previous to that.[12][13] Echoing Mr. Byers' view, the NCAA's official stance is very much the same, as they also state in hindsight, "In effect, it was the Association's first "death penalty," though its enforcement was binding only through constitutional language that required members to compete against only those schools that were compliant with NCAA rules. Despite fears that it would resist, Kentucky accepted the penalty and, in turn, gave the NCAA credibility to enforce its rules." [14]
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