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Various tidbits from RDOTH (very long and good stuff!!)

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DTAhawg

Letterman
Jun 14, 2002
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As I said I would do the other night, I'm not gonig to do an overall recap of the weekend as a lot of it has already been repeated. Instead, however, I want to post various tidbits I have from the weekend that may not have been known elsewhere.


* The NCAA Coaches were required to buy one 'packet' of information at a price of $250. Any additional packages were $150 for assistants or whomever. There were probably 75 head coaches there, so you do the math. Each packet contained team rosters, two coaches passes, brackets, directions to sites, city maps, etc. Things like that that are very useful to the coaches. The price was set by the Tournament Director.

Well, as you can imagine a few coaches balked at the price but they knew they had to pay it. Coach Bruce Pearl of Tennessee absolutely refused to pay it and asked for the Tournament Director. So he talks with Bill and he ended up not having to pay. Well, Pearl comes back over to the Registration table just to make sure the ladies there knew he got it for free and that he was in. There were numerous other occasions that Pearl was a complete a$$ and he 'perhaps' committed a minor NCAA violation on Sunday. I can't and won't comment further but it's being investigated to see if it was a violation.

On Friday and Staurday morning, there were two Iowa State coaches that checked in and were very kind, etc. Well, Saturday afternoon I think it was (might have been Sunday), a guy walks in wearing a black Nike shirt (keep in mind ALL coaches had on some sort of shirt identifying their college. It's free publicity, after all). He didn't have a pass and the ladies at the table asked if they could help him and he said, "Oh, I've been here all weekend. I've just forgotten my pass at the hotel." "Are you a college coach?" "Yes." "What school do you represent?" "Uhhh, Iowa State."

So this raised eyebrows but they still weren't sure if he was legit or not. He was asked for ID or any kind of business card or anything to prove who he was. He had nothing on him but had it out in the car. He said he was at another site watching a game just before he came to Bud Walton. The ladies asked him where. He glanced down at the brackets on the table in front of him and just picked a game and said he was there. He said one team won by like 18 points but one of the ladies had just hung up the phone with a contact there saying it was a close game with 3 or 4 minutes left. Raised the other eyebrow.

Anyway, he says he'll go out to his car to get some identification. He walks out and then immediately in walks in the two Iowa State coaches. One of the ladies asked how many they had from Iowa State this weekend and they said two. She explained to him what had just happened and he informed her that the entire staff there was let go 3 weeks ago and they just passed the guy outside as they were walking in. Hmm, interesting.

So, now, the 'alledged' Iowa State coach comes back in and pulls out this accordian-style business card holder just slam full of cards. He was asked if he was a CURRENT Iowa State coach. He said, "Yes." She replied, "Well, I have it on good authority you were fired 3 weeks ago." You talk about a deer in a headlights look. Wow. Well, then he came clean and admitted he was let go. It was then explained to him he had to be a current coach to gain entry.

I didn't observe any of this as it was relayed to me after the fact. It was rather entertaining, no doubt.


* John Calipari of Memphis, when he came in with his assistant and was informed he had to buy a packet at a cost of $250, he just motioned for his assistant to pay it and was quite rude about it. So yeah, he was a major a$$....as expected, of course.


* In chatting with a former Hog on Friday evening for a fairly extended period of time, he informed me that for recruiting trips, the current player is given $60 to entertain the recruit. This is an NCAA rule and they can't be given more than $60. Think about it. That's a nice dinner out...and THAT'S IT. So needless to say, the player ends up paying for a lot of it himself. I asked him what a typical visit consists of. He informed me that he asks the recruit up front what he expects from the trip and then he goes from there trying to provide him with that.

The recruit is rarely ever going to admit up front that they drink or anything because there is no trust there and they don't want the coach to find out, of course. The main goal this former Hog told me is to keep him around the team as much as possible. Well, the team members who are positive, that is. The ones who are negative, you keep the recruit away from them.

One statement he made really stood out to me. He said, "Players are the ones who sell the University to the recruit, not the coaches." Sure, the coaches get them interested and convince them to make an official visit, but once they get here, the host is responsible for selling the program essentially.

This former Hog said Steven Hill WILL be in the NBA one day. No doubt about it. He said Darian Townes is the biggest baby and pu$$y he's ever seen and he'll say it to his face and has. This cracked me up.

He told me he is still in contact with Coach Richardson and they talk often. I said I would LOVE to go out to his farm and spend a few hours with him and just chat about life and get to know Coach Richardson on a personal level and in an informal setting, etc. He looked at me and said he would call him and see if he can pull it out and he added my number into his phone. He said he's pretty sure Coach wouldn't mind this at all as he's still a very good guy and he'll answer anything asked as he doesn't mind expressing his opinion. (So nothing has changed, huh? ha). So I'm BIG TIME looking forward to this.


* When myself and others from here met with Pookie Modica last Tuesday, he said he had a meeting in Dallas this past weekend and then I had to remind him that he was getting his Hawks jersey retired on Saturday. He said, "That's THIS weekend?" He had just forgotten when it was. Evidently I guess he had to go that meeting since he couldn't make it on Saturday. I suspect, and this is purely speculation, it was something to do with him going to the next level.


* I knew the Worldwide Renegades 17U team was playing in the quarterfinals and semifinals in Bud Walton and I kept looking around for Andrew Lang since I was told he was there since his son played for this team, but I didn't see him. I asked around and was told he was up in the stands to watch the game, which gave a better view of the game than being on the court did. I just wanted to meet him and thank him for everything did for the Razorbacks. Well, a little while later, I had to run upstairs for something and I saw him near the elevator and he asked how he could get down on the court. I said, "You're Mr. Lang, right?" Yes. "Ok, follow me." So we hop in the elevator and I take him down to courtside. We chatted briefly and, as expected, a very nice guy.


* On Saturday morning when Patrick Beverley and his mother were there visiting with Coach Heath and all, during an hour or so break between games, Beverley and I were shooting (well, ok, technicaly, HE was shooting, I was rebounding) and then I hear Dudley Dawson over by the goal say, "I guess we'll read about this later, huh?" I looked at him and nodded my head. Then it hit me...that sucker must recognize me and he's referring to me posting this on Rivals. So, a few minutes later I asked him what he meant by that and he just looked at me. I said, "So you know who I am, huh?" He said, "Of course...DTA!!!" I just laughed and laughed. Was friggin hilarious. I mean, when Dudley Dawson recognizes you and knows who you are before you formally meet each other, you've OFFICIALLY arrived, right? Of course.


* Right along that same time, I see Otis walking out on the floor so I start walking towards him (and keep in mind I've never met him but I figured he'd recognize me..) and in passing, I said, "Hey Otis, where are the cheesy poofs?" He just mumbled "I dunno" and keeps walking, never breaks stride. I just laughed. He then came over by Dudley and I and I said, "Otis, you don't know who I am, do you?" He said he guesses not. So I tell him who I am and then he instantly opens up and starts talking. So, it's me, Otis, Dudley and some newspaper fella sitting laughing it up as we're watching Brewer, Ervin and Beverley go through the shooting drills Saturday. It was some fun times. I kept looking for Biddy, but never saw him. I saw another couple of guys from Rivals.com though. Good people, no doubt.


* Here are some schools and coaches I personally saw represented there. Mike Anderson from Missouri, Roy Williams from UNC, Bruce Pearl from Tennessee, Illinois head coach (name sescapes me). Those were really the big names. The schools I personally saw represented were Air Force, Univ Central Florida, Alabama, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Texas A&M, Texas(spit), Southern Illinois, Dequesne, Florida, Iowa State (the real ones), Indiana, Baylor and many more smaller D-1 schools. I know for a fact Kentucky's Tubbs was there, also.



* Overall, it was tons of fun and tons of work. Really cool to rub elbows with the likes of Mike Conley (who is SUPER COOL), John Tyson, Coach Ripley, Marc Winston's father (his first name escapes me), Andrew Lang, Gary Ervin, Patrick Beverley, Ronnie Brewer, Carl Baker (this guy is GREAT!!!), etc., etc., etc. LOTS of great volunteers who spent countless hours working for free to get this tournament planned and running as smooth as possible. While it wasn't perfect, it did run fairly smooth from the fans perspective and I look forward to it being even better next year.


* HOWEVER, there are some rather major changes that need to take place. Going from 50 teams to 150+ teams was a major, major jump and while on paper it may have been planned well, well, it didn't get excuted well.

I worked at the table down on the floor receiving scores from all the other sites and updating the pool play standings, the brackets, etc. But there were tons of games that weren't being called in by the site directors or whomever. The Rogers Sophomore Center (the old High School) was locked during a break in action on Saturday so those games had to be moved over to the Springdale Sports Arena. Same went for Sunday, I do believe.

There were many volunteers that no-showed and just an overall lack of communication and organization. Now, I'm not saying it was a clusterfu*%, but it certainly didn't go off without a hitch. I have many ideas on how to improve and I'm certainly going to pass this along to the organizers in hopes of improving it next year. So I'm certainly not just complaining and complaining without any solutions.



Maybe I rambled a lot in this post and maybe posted some irrelevant material, but maybe it's useful to some people. Oh yeah, two more things.


* Ronnie Brewer is AND isn't going to class. He's only, only, only going to class when he has a test. His academic advisor (I think the team one, not a regular one) got a schedule from his professors of when the exams were so he could only attend those days. So, does this mean he's going to the NBA? Um, no. Think about it. If you have professors who let you get by with that, even as a non-athlete, you'd take advantage of it, wouldn't you? Of coruse you would. So don't read anything into it, but I know it was FACT. Nothing less. Also, just as a joke Coach Heath and another unnamed person went by one of Ronnie's classes last week just to see if he was there and he wasn't.


* Lastly, Patrick Beverley will be a HOG, so stop asking the same question over and over on this board. I can't and won't say how I know, but trust me. Sure, he can change his mind as many of us do daily, but when he left here, he was a Razorback to be once he signed the dotted line.


Ok, that's all.
 
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