Bruce Pearl, Tennessee Face Investigation, Sources Say

Bruce Pearl and the Tennessee basketball program have been asked about possible violations in the Volunteer program by the NCAA, according to multiple sources.

The AP, citing an anonymous source, reported that the NCAA has talked to Pearl and assistant about possible excessive contact with recruits. The source told the AP that the league had also spoken to associate head coach Tony Jones, who is Pearl’s top assistant and heavily involved in recruiting. ESPN sources also confirmed the story and indicated that the investigation may include use of unauthorized phones.

Tennessee has not yet received a formal letter of inquiry from the NCAA and would not comment on the investigation.

The Volunteer football program self-reported six secondary violations under Lane Kiffin, though ESPN reports the NCAA has expanded its investigation into the football team beyond the inquiry into the use of hostesses at high school football games.

The Volunteers went 26-9 last season and advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament, the school’s best-ever finish.

 

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John R. Wooden Drive Coming to Purdue

Filed under: Purdue

John Wooden was near and dear to the hearts of many across the nation, and that fact became even clearer when he died earlier this year. It’s not just people of UCLA who feel a special kinship with the Wizard of Westwood, it’s also those from his hometown of Martinsville, Ind., and his alma mater, Purdue University.

Wooden played basketball for the Boilermakers all the way back in the early 1930s. He was named the national player of the year as a senior and become the first player in college basketball history to be a three-time consensus All-American.

Thus, Purdue will unveil a new street sign Saturday before the football team plays host to Western Illinois. A portion of road in close proximity to many of Purdue’s athletic facilities (including Mackey Arena) will be renamed John R. Wooden Drive.

“While I know he was a Bruin, Coach Wooden never shed his Purdue ties,” Purdue athletics director Morgan Burke said in a press release from the school. “It is appropriate that North University Drive passes Lambert Fieldhouse, named after Coach Wooden’s coach at Purdue, ‘Piggy’ Lambert; Mackey Arena, which was dedicated against Coach Wooden’s UCLA team in 1967; and the Brees Center, which symbolizes teaching and learning and were keys to Coach Wooden’s life.”

 

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Dayton Will Host NCAA Tournament’s ‘First Four’ Games

Filed under: NCAA Tournament

The opening round of the NCAA tournament isn’t going anywhere. The University of Dayton will host each of the NCAA tournament’s “first four” games in the expanded 68-team bracket.

Dayton has hosted the NCAA’s opening-round play-in game, since the inception of the 65-team field in 2001.

The games will be played Tuesday and Wednesday night following Selection Sunday.

“Dayton … consistently attracted extraordinary crowds,” Gene Smith, the chair of the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee, said in a statement released by the NCAA. “The enthusiasm the (Dayton) staff and the local fans demonstrated for hosting that game did not go unnoticed, so it makes sense to us to conduct the inaugural First Four in Dayton.”

Two of the four games will match the lowest seeded teams in the tournament, with the winners advancing onto the 16-seed line. The other two games will match the last four of the 37 at-large teams.

The “first four” games represent the first multi-team expansion of the NCAA tournament since the event moved to the field of 64 in 1985, and the first expansion since the tournament added a 65th team in 2001.

The NCAA announced its decision to expand to 68 teams in April after toying with a much larger expansion to as many as 96 teams. The league then announced its “first four” format in mid-July, but left the question of where and when the new opening-round games would take place.

Smith cited the history of success in Dayton as a major factor in keeping the tournament’s first night in Dayton.

“We explored different options, including playing the first-round games at multiple sites as well as the possibility of playing all games on one day, but we came to the conclusion that Dayton is the best location to host all four games for the 2011 tournament,” he said. “Moving forward, we will conduct a thorough evaluation, as we do with all rounds of the championship, with the student-athlete experience being our top priority.”

All four games will be televised on Turner’s truTV cable channel, the result of the NCAA’s new 14-year, $10.8 billion television package with CBS Sports and Turner Broadcasting.

– Ray Holloman

 

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Summer Session: Pac-10 Slogan, ‘It Has to Be Better’

Filed under: Arizona, Arizona State, California, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington, Washington State, Pac-10, Oregon State

It Has to Be Better. That probably isn’t the slogan that Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott would want to attach to the men’s basketball season, but it’s the prevailing sentiment as the conference’s 10 teams begin organized workouts on Sept. 15.

A conference with history and pride and tradition barely got two teams in to the NCAA field last spring, and the prospects for drastic improvement just aren’t that good.

Washington, which reached the Sweet 16 last March, is the only team in the conference that has been ranked by the preseason magazines and that qualifies the Huskies as overwhelming favorites.

UCLA, which finished below .500 for the first time since 2004, and Arizona are expected to be better, expected to return to their rightful places in the field of 68 come March.

But beyond that, there’s only a lot question marks.

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Rumeal Robinson Found Guilty on 11 Financial Fraud Charges

Filed under: Michigan, Police Blotter

Des Moines, Iowa (AP) — Rumeal Robinson, who led Michigan to the NCAA championship in 1989, has been found guilty on 11 federal financial fraud charges.

A jury returned its verdict against Robinson on Wednesday, finding him guilty of bank bribery, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and making a false statement to a financial institution.

The U.S. attorney’s office says Robinson schemed between 2004 and 2005 to borrow more than $700,000 from Community State Bank in Ankeny with the help a loan officer at the bank. Prosecutors say Robinson claimed to borrow the money for a business but actually bought a condominium, cars, furniture and invested in an energy company.

Robinson, who grew up in Cambridge, Mass., faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine on each count. After playing for Michigan, Robinson spent six seasons in the NBA.

Robinson made two free throws to clinch the NCAA championship for the Wolverines in the title game against Seton Hall.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

 

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Report: Turkish Team Claims It Gave Money, Benefits to Top Kentucky Recruit

Filed under: Kentucky

Enes Kanter, Kentucky’s top recruit from Turkey, allegedly received more than $100,000 in cash and benefits from his professional team there, which could jeopardize his chance to play for the university, according to a New York Times report.

The Times spoke with the general manger of Fenerbahce Ulker, Nedim Karakas, who admitted that the club had been giving banking and housing records to the NCAA that showed Kanter did receive incentives. Among the alleged benefits were housing and food for his family, pocket money, an initial payment of $19,800 and a salary to Kanter of more than $6,500 a month in his last season.

“I am sorry for telling this for Enes, but we cannot lie if someone asks the whole story, we cannot hide,” Karakas told the Times. He also added that the amount given to Kanter and his family in four years was somewhere between $100,000 and $150,000.

If Karakas is telling the truth, there is a good chance Kanter would be ineligible to play for the Wildcats.

 

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Connecticut Files Response With NCAA

Filed under: Connecticut

STORRS, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut filed its response Tuesday to allegations of major recruiting violations in its men’s basketball program, but won’t make that response public this week.

Tuesday was the deadline for the Huskies to respond to the eight infractions cited by the NCAA in May.

UConn spokesman Kyle Muncy said the response fills up several three-ring binders. He said some information given to the NCAA must be redacted before the report is made public in order to comply with state and federal privacy laws.

He would not say if the school had self-imposed sanctions or plans to fight any of the NCAA findings.

The Associated Press filed a Freedom of Information request Tuesday seeking the summary pages of the report. Under state law, the school has 10 days to respond.

“There will not be a piecemeal release of this report,” Muncy said.

He said the university plans to post the response on its website once it has been vetted by school compliance officials, and then hold an availability to discuss the details.

The school’s compliance office had not yet received a copy of the report Tuesday afternoon. Because of the size of the report and the observance of this week’s Jewish holidays, that job is not expected to be completed until next week at the earliest, officials said.

 

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Kevin Anderson Named Athletic Director at Maryland

Filed under: Maryland, ACC

Kevin Anderson will be Maryland’s new athletic director, the school announced Saturday, ending a search that began when former AD Debbie Yow left Maryland to take the same position at N.C. State in July.

Anderson, who will be formally introduced Tuesday, arrives from Army, where he served as AD since 2004.

University of Maryland president-designate Dr. Wallace Loh and acting president Nariman Farvardin chose Anderson from a list of three finalists, which included Buffalo AD Warde Manuel, and Connecticut AD Jeff Hathaway. Hathaway, who was the recommended by Yow after her departure, was once considered the early favorite for the job.

However, Anderson emerged as the school’s choice to run the Terrapins’ 27 sports teams.

“Kevin has built a solid program of competitive and academic success at the U.S. Military Academy, supporting the student-athlete and demonstrating that academics and athletics can go hand in hand,” Loh said in the press release.

 

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Kyle Singler Undergoes Knee Surgery

Filed under: Duke

Kyle Singler, Duke’s leading returning scorer and the reigning Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, underwent arthroscopic knee surgery at the school’s medical center Friday, the school announced.

The senior is expected to make a full recovery in time for the team’s first practice Oct. 15.

“Kyle had some discomfort in his knee following a very busy summer so we elected to go in and clean it up prior to the start of the season,” Duke associate head coach Steve Wojciechowski said. “By all accounts, today’s surgery was a success.”

Singler, who averaged 17.7 points and 7.0 rebounds a game last season, will likely enter the year as the favorite for ACC player of the year honors as well as national player of the year honors.

Duke, which won its fourth national championship in April, will likely begin the season as the nation’s top-ranked team. The Blue Devils open practice Oct. 15 and start the regular season against Princeton Nov. 14 in the opening round of the CBE Classic.

 

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Quinn Cook Didn’t Tear ACL, Likely to Return in Five Weeks

Quinn Cook, one of the nation’s top point guard recruits, got much better news than anticipated after surgery on his right knee Friday.

Cook only partially tore the meniscus cartilage in his knee, rather than the ACL as originally feared, and will miss five weeks at the most, a source told FanHouse Friday. Cook was injured in the final minutes of last Sunday’s Boost Mobile Elite 24 all-star game at Venice Beach in California. Results of an MRI done Monday, according to reports, indicated torn knee ligaments.

 

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