We don't have enough jobs for their daddies. This is disgusting
http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/9344918/A-March-Madness-scandal-the-NCAA-sanctions?MSNHPHMAA March Madness scandal the NCAA sanctionsby Mark Kriegel
Mark Kriegel is the national columnist for FOXSports.com. He is the author of two New York Times best sellers, Namath: A Biography and Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich, which Sports Illustrated called "the best sports biography of the year."
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Updated: March 17, 2009, 11:57 AM EST 74 comments In the midst of USC's thrilling, if unexpected run to the NCAA tournament, I directed my gaze toward the bench, acknowledging the men who made it happen.
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Not just the coach, Tim Floyd — whose reputation as a fine defensive strategist is well-earned — but the members of his supporting staff. They include strength and conditioning coach, Rudy Hackett, whose point guard son, Daniel, played all 120 minutes in the conference tournament, and Dwayne Polee Sr., who accepted a position as "Director of Basketball Operations" shortly after his phenom progeny gave Floyd a verbal commitment to attend the university.
So now that you've filled out your brackets, let's talk some real March Madness. The NCAA won't let a coach buy a kid an illicit hamburger, but it's OK to give his daddy a job.
This isn't merely unseemly. At best, it gives the appearance of a conflict. At worst — and a big leap of faith isn't required here — it's a form of payment, a way of compensating a player's family for services rendered. And the blame belongs not with Floyd or USC or Kansas or Memphis or any of the teams who have engaged in this long-standing practice, but with the NCAA, an organization that administers a billion-dollar basketball tournament while maintaining only the artifice of amateurism.
The package deal is nothing new in basketball recruiting, nor is the father-son twist. But it's astounding to think that even after all these years, the NCAA has done nothing to address the issue. Sorry, but a recently convened "focus group" doesn't count.
Almost a year has passed since Mario Chalmers hit a 3-pointer to send the championship game into overtime. It remains one of the most spectacular shots in college basketball history. But lost in the glory of that moment was a more problematic question: would Kansas have won the championship if it weren't for the Jayhawks' Director of Basketball Operations, Ronnie Chalmers?
The elder Chalmers — an accomplished high school coach in Alaska — took the job in the summer of 2005 after his son matriculated. Coach Bill Self said his decision to hire the elder Chalmers — who would resign soon after Mario was drafted by the Miami Heat — was based on his "excellent basketball portfolio."
"But I know people won't believe that," he told ESPN last month.
Sound familiar? Kansas' last father-son signing was consummated in October, 1983, when Danny Manning announced that he'd be going to college in Lawrence. Just two days earlier, Larry Brown had hired his father, Ed, a truck driver.
Brown issued the predictably emphatic denial when asked if it was a package deal.
"But I know people won't read it that way," said Brown, who'd go on to win a championship with the Mannings.
To listen to the coaches, every one of these father-son deals has a common element. The fathers are all merit hires.
Milt Wagner was a merit hire when John Calipari (who served on Brown's staff at Kansas), made him the Director of Basketball Operations at Memphis. Wagner, a legendary player in Camden, N.J., didn't have a college degree. But he did have a kid named Dajuan, who was projected as a lottery pick.
Dwayne Polee Sr., whose career might qualify him as the Milt Wagner of L.A., was an assistant for one season at Los Angeles Southwest Community College before making the jump to the Pac-10. "I think he's more qualified than 90 percent of the assistants that come into college basketball," Floyd told the Los Angeles Times, mentioning Polee's "playing experience" and his "contacts in our area."
His big contact, of course, was his son. Dwayne Jr. is a currently a 16-year-old YouTube dunking sensation. But he was only 14 — hadn't even played in a high school game — when he announced his intention to play for USC.
As for Daniel Hackett's father, Rudy — a former all-American who played in Italy — Floyd recently estimated that he was "more qualified than 95 percent of the assistant coaches in the United States of America."
It's worth mentioning that USC doesn't have to use a scholarship on Hackett or, when the time comes, on Polee; as students of staff they are entitled to free tuition. I called Southern Cal for comment, but couldn't get an answer as to whether Hackett, whose position would seem to require some training in physiology, or Polee, a former social worker, had college or graduate degrees. Instead, I was referred to a story in the Orange County Register. The headline, part of it anyway, read: "Floyd says he hired the father of the Trojans guard on a recommendation from Pat Barrett."
That would be Pat Barrett, an AAU coach bankrolled by NBA agents seeking access to his players, according to a recent Yahoo! story.
Perhaps Floyd's assistants need no postgraduate training. It's extraordinary, the expertise one suddenly acquires when one's kid is a blue chip recruit. Take Daniel Orton, a prized big man out of Oklahoma. Our Jeff Goodman reported that Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie paid Orton's father three times last summer to speak at his camp (two more times than both Oklahoma State and Baylor). Lo and behold, his son ends up signing with the Wildcats.
Now I wonder if there's an assistant's job waiting for the elder Orton.
Then again, if Gillispie is fired, why settle? Why not hold out for the title of head coach? It's not like it hasn't been done before.
The mother of all father-son deals was Press and Pete Maravich. I've come to know and cherish them posthumously, though that falls short of a justification for their arrangement. Press was more than qualified for the coach's job, with or without his son, but I think they'd have lived better, saner lives if Pete had gone to West Virginia as he originally wanted. Instead, Press bought him a car (considered a gift from his father, not his coach), and they went on to make basketball history.
That was 1966. And I wonder about those apostles of amateurism at the NCAA. What have they been doing all these years?
Can't be working on that Reggie Bush case.
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