From the Tark's blog; Don't try recruiting against UK

If this is true about Kentucky, then the NCAA is probably getting ready to put Eastern Kentucky on probation.

 

Tark (or his ghostwriter) is a pretty damn good blogger, I gotta say.

Really good idea.

 

Yeah, Tark never struck me as a computer person. Then again, dude could always talk.

 

Tark blogging about another school's recruiting shenanigans? Priceless. Don't doubt for a second that it's not true. It's just that there are a billion recruiting stories out there, and the Shark is the central character in a lot of them.

 

Didn't one of UK's most recent players (Rondo, maybe??) start driving a nicer car once he started at the school?

 

They all do, KY. They all do.

 

Yeah, I know. The original quote was UCLA/Cal State Northridge. It has evolved from there.

 

The apartment that Jason Kidd and Lamont Murray shared at Cal cost $1,700 a month in 1993. All of the other students in that same building had 4-5 people per apartment.

At the time, Kidd was driving a loaner Mercedes and Murray was driving a $30,000 SUV.

 

Some kids really have to slum it.

 

See, sports parents are right. Coaches do recruit from newspaper articles.

 

Don't doubt it for a second. Leonard Hamilton was dirty while he was at UK, and he's used his abilities in that area to bite UK in the ass several times.

Darius Rice and Jason Rich were both coming to UK until Hamilton stepped in, recruiting them to Miami and Florida State, respectively. What goes around comes around. But those late-70s, early-80s UK teams were dirty as hell. And the Eddie Sutton years were likely just as dirty.

I think Pitino probably cleaned it up at least to the point where it wasn't blatant, out-in-the-open cheating, but I think everyone skirts the rules and the ethics along the way.

The biggest surprise cheating-wise in UK history was landing Tim Couch (and I'm quite sure he was well compensated for that decision). You know UK had to be doling out big bucks to beat out Tennessee.