Post by MinerMan2010 on May 3, 2010 12:34:17 GMT -5
The prior week the LA Times had run a story about the NCAA looking into whether Kevin Love talking to John Wooden on his official visit was allowed, they said in the story that it was in fact allowed the NCAA had already ruled. Several UCLA fans emailed the author, Bill Plaschke asking why write a story that you already knew wasn't a violation, I was one of them. on Monday I got a reply from Plaschke and in my reply I mentioned, btw now you're free to look into how Mayo afforded thsoe courtside Lakers tickets. He replied yes you're not the only UCLA fan who has brought that up we've assigned the story to an investigative reporter. That reporter contacted me and several others to confirm the date and time of the game, got tape of it from TNT and confirmed Mayo was courtside.
He then called Tim Floyd for comment and Floyd said he had no idea where the tickets came from. During the investigation I pointed out to the reporter that he'd gone to a Clips game courtside in November and had even been interviewed on air(we'd discussed it on a UCLA board at the time). Same thing he got the correct dates, got the footage from the Clips. And he contacted Floyd again to ask about the Clips game and Floyd replied "that did not happen." When he told Floyd he had video of it if Floyd wanted to see it himself, Floyd said he'd get back to him. Floyd said Mayo came to me about Anthony offering him tickets, I will get back to you about the rest. The next day again Floyd changed his story and said compliance had approved the Clips tickets months ago, James Dunleavy a walkon got them from his dad, the Clips coach, and was allowed to take one teammate a month to a home game, that had been Mayo's turn. Nevermind he told him the day before it never happened, now it was approved by Compliance. Week later he insisted there never had been a compliance meeting. Floyd lied to the LA Times reporter Ben Bolch repeatedly during that story, he also lied to the NCAA which is why Mayo's 6 game suspension was never enforced, they allowed Mayo to repay the money and not miss a game, because Floyd convinced them it was not Mayo's fault they had told him it was allowable when it wasn't. After that story broke Floyd held a personal grudge against Bolch the rest of the season. Several times yelling at him during post game interviews "I don't have to tell you anything." You can find all the stories by searching the LA Times site, it's quite obvious day by day how Floyd's story changes as he realizes Mayo might be suspended. The reporter made it very clear in the story that he didn't believe what Floyd was saying because his earlier comments were so different than the later ones which protected Mayo.
The first McD's AA Floyd signed at UNO, the only one, was Melvin Simon, to get him he hired his highschool coach.
While at Iowa State, as I've said repeatedly already, he made such a habit of running players off that he routinely had recruiting classes of 6-8 kids year after year. The NCAA doesn't like schools running kids off they don't think it's ethical, so they created the 5-8 rule that other coaches dubbed the "Tim Floyd" rule. Floyd was in the NBA by the time the rule was enacted. Other coaches hated Floyd because the rule was ridiculous, if you lost a player or 2 early to the NBA sometimes you couldn't replace them because of that rule. The NCAA eventually created the APR to replace that rule so that if you run kids off it would impact you academically, but all that does is measure schools ability to keep someone eligible. Guess who the first Pac 10 school was to lose scholarships over APR, USC under Tim Floyd.
Floyd also hired a coach at Iowa State who was at the time barred from recruiting by the NCAA because of his role in violations at his previous school. The NCAA had a show cause ruling on the coach that Floyd had to show why he wanted to hire that coach. The coach had been caught masterminding a scheme to send unqualified recruits to a JUCO, steer them into classes where they would be given good grades to get academically eligible. During the investigation that coach threw a junior assistant under the bus saying he masterminded the whole thing. Several of the players involved in the case admitted they hadn't done the work at the Juco but insisted it was the SENIOR assistant coaches idea, the junior assistant was just the errand boy if you will. the NCAA eventually cleared the guy to resume recruiting and he worked for Floyd at Iowa State and later in the NBA.
Floyd is like Tarkanian, he loves to recruit kids nobody else will take. Did it at UNO, did it repeatedly at ISU. After he left ISU they were stuck with his buddy Eustachy who completely embarassed the program before getting canned. They publicly commented about how they would not allow the program to continue to recruit the type of student athletes it had been doing for the last several years, kids like Jamaal Tinsley who was recruited by Floyd but played for Eustachy, didn't graduate HS. Floyd persuaded him to enroll in a JC and get qualified. Later his transcript came into question after he'd left Iowa State for the NBA. Tinsley of course has had a noted NBA career mostly for being difficult to coach and using drugs and for multiple arrests and involvements in off court incidents. Floyd touts him as an example of a kid he helped but ISU considered Tinsley the type of student athlete they didn't want anymore. They didn't want to live off Juco's and transfers as they had under Floyd, they wanted to build a cohesive program. Ironically Eustachy's replacement Wayne Morgan had his own problems and lasted only 3 years.
At USC he had 21 year old freshman Taj Gibson who as a senior attended Stoneridge Prep where the principal announced the entire basketball team was guilty of academic fraud, they weren't doing work. The coach responded by taking the whole team with him to nearby Cavalry, a school that didn't have a Highschool let alone a basketball team it was K-6. The principal there allowed the team as a way to raise funds. They played in one tournament and then the principal disbanded the entire team. He did so because he'd interviewed the players and several of them had told him coach Ron Slater had promised if they followed him to Cavalry, they would not have to do any schoolwork, just like had been the case at Stoneridge. The principal challenged the team to do their work. Taj Gibson and Johnathan Gibson were the only 2 that stayed and graduated. Both kids then took months to qualify for college because the Clearinghouse rejected much of their coursework from Stoneridge and they had to make it up with online work(BYU). Gibson was that old already because he'd been homeschooled by his parents only to discover that work was rejected because the classes he took weren't certified. So he wound up at Stoneridge. Gibson actually had a nice 3 year career at USC but turned pro because he realized things had gone to hell and he might as well leave.
The year after Taj was a freshman Davon Jefferson was a 21 year old freshman. Kicked out of Patterson school, he tried to go to Stoneridge but they wouldn't take him(still reeling from the prior years problem they had an all new team). So he enrolled in vocational school and online courses (BYU) and eventually qualified. He left after one season and even USC fans admit the kid was well known to show up for class they'd take attendance, and then he'd sneak out the door. To his credit Floyd did suspend him several times for that but he was too good to not play. Several players complained to Floyd about the double standard that year for Jefferson and his buddy Mayo. During that preseason at a pickup game Mayo broke teammate Daniel Hackett's jaw. Multiple eye witnesses told reporters it was a punch, but USC quickly gathered the team together and insisted it was an accidental elbow. Floyd was recruiting at the time and didn't see it but he repeatedly berated reporters who dared to ask if USC was being honest. Kevin Love a freshman at UCLA then and an AAU teammate of Hackett's said he knew it was a punch. Hackett admitted last year it wasn't an accident he told a reporter some day we'll sit and have lunch and I'll tell you what really happened Next year it was 20 year old freshman Leonard Washington's turn he used a second chance school in Compton, and online courses(BYU) to qualify. He was from Louisiana and he too was going to go to Stoneridge until the NCAA changed the rule on how many core classes you could replace in one year at Prepschool. He was also the kid who punched Blake Griffin in the nuts on national tv and then on the bench could be seen telling Floyd "I didn't do it". When Floyd saw the video he responded by saying he was suspending Washington for the next game. The day before the next game, Pepperdine, he said LW would miss the first half only. Washington started the game and played 27 minutes as USC clearly needed him to beat a 1-8 team whose only win was Cal State Monterey Bay. I'm sure Washington learned his lesson by not being suspended, which is why finally after his soph year he was kicked off the team by Kevin O'Neill. ANd of course Floyd is trying to get him now at UTEP.
Why did so many USC kids have links to Stoneridge? When Floyd took over he hired Gib Arnold as an assistant. Gib arnold's former assistant in Juco was hired as the head coach at... Stoneridge. Boubacar Sy was the guy funneling players to USC. When Sy left for another job Stoneridge hired a former coaching assistant from USC to replace him. 2 years ago a kid named Eric Heslin transferred from Cupertino HS in NorCal to Stoneridge for his senior year to get more exposure to scouts. He left months later saying he'd called his dad in the middle of the night and told him I need to leave, this isn't a real school. We don't go to classes, we don't have books, the tests are all take home guys don't do their own work. He told his dad he was afraid no college would touch him because they wouldn't believe his transcripts. So he went back to Cupertino where he was forced to spend several months making up all the work from Stoneridge because Cupertino HS refused to accept ANY of it. He was eventually able to get reinstated in time for the playoffs and he did graduate from CHS, he called Stoneridge an absolute nightmare. They responded by changing their name to Summitt Prep, the name change lasted a few months they are now back to Stoneridge again, new coach and the principal promised a new focus on academics not athletics.
At every stop along the way Floyd has lived off academic hardships, Jucos and transfers. He doesn't build a program he puts together players and then year after year huge roster overhauls happen. I lost track of how many players transferred out of USC during his time there, had to be at least 10. People say well it's harder to recruit at those schools you have to take some chances, but not like Floyd did he actively sought out kids who very clearly weren't cut out to do college work and used underhanded methods to get them qualified. He should have taken the LSU job last year he was born to coach and recruit in the SEC.
He then called Tim Floyd for comment and Floyd said he had no idea where the tickets came from. During the investigation I pointed out to the reporter that he'd gone to a Clips game courtside in November and had even been interviewed on air(we'd discussed it on a UCLA board at the time). Same thing he got the correct dates, got the footage from the Clips. And he contacted Floyd again to ask about the Clips game and Floyd replied "that did not happen." When he told Floyd he had video of it if Floyd wanted to see it himself, Floyd said he'd get back to him. Floyd said Mayo came to me about Anthony offering him tickets, I will get back to you about the rest. The next day again Floyd changed his story and said compliance had approved the Clips tickets months ago, James Dunleavy a walkon got them from his dad, the Clips coach, and was allowed to take one teammate a month to a home game, that had been Mayo's turn. Nevermind he told him the day before it never happened, now it was approved by Compliance. Week later he insisted there never had been a compliance meeting. Floyd lied to the LA Times reporter Ben Bolch repeatedly during that story, he also lied to the NCAA which is why Mayo's 6 game suspension was never enforced, they allowed Mayo to repay the money and not miss a game, because Floyd convinced them it was not Mayo's fault they had told him it was allowable when it wasn't. After that story broke Floyd held a personal grudge against Bolch the rest of the season. Several times yelling at him during post game interviews "I don't have to tell you anything." You can find all the stories by searching the LA Times site, it's quite obvious day by day how Floyd's story changes as he realizes Mayo might be suspended. The reporter made it very clear in the story that he didn't believe what Floyd was saying because his earlier comments were so different than the later ones which protected Mayo.
The first McD's AA Floyd signed at UNO, the only one, was Melvin Simon, to get him he hired his highschool coach.
While at Iowa State, as I've said repeatedly already, he made such a habit of running players off that he routinely had recruiting classes of 6-8 kids year after year. The NCAA doesn't like schools running kids off they don't think it's ethical, so they created the 5-8 rule that other coaches dubbed the "Tim Floyd" rule. Floyd was in the NBA by the time the rule was enacted. Other coaches hated Floyd because the rule was ridiculous, if you lost a player or 2 early to the NBA sometimes you couldn't replace them because of that rule. The NCAA eventually created the APR to replace that rule so that if you run kids off it would impact you academically, but all that does is measure schools ability to keep someone eligible. Guess who the first Pac 10 school was to lose scholarships over APR, USC under Tim Floyd.
Floyd also hired a coach at Iowa State who was at the time barred from recruiting by the NCAA because of his role in violations at his previous school. The NCAA had a show cause ruling on the coach that Floyd had to show why he wanted to hire that coach. The coach had been caught masterminding a scheme to send unqualified recruits to a JUCO, steer them into classes where they would be given good grades to get academically eligible. During the investigation that coach threw a junior assistant under the bus saying he masterminded the whole thing. Several of the players involved in the case admitted they hadn't done the work at the Juco but insisted it was the SENIOR assistant coaches idea, the junior assistant was just the errand boy if you will. the NCAA eventually cleared the guy to resume recruiting and he worked for Floyd at Iowa State and later in the NBA.
Floyd is like Tarkanian, he loves to recruit kids nobody else will take. Did it at UNO, did it repeatedly at ISU. After he left ISU they were stuck with his buddy Eustachy who completely embarassed the program before getting canned. They publicly commented about how they would not allow the program to continue to recruit the type of student athletes it had been doing for the last several years, kids like Jamaal Tinsley who was recruited by Floyd but played for Eustachy, didn't graduate HS. Floyd persuaded him to enroll in a JC and get qualified. Later his transcript came into question after he'd left Iowa State for the NBA. Tinsley of course has had a noted NBA career mostly for being difficult to coach and using drugs and for multiple arrests and involvements in off court incidents. Floyd touts him as an example of a kid he helped but ISU considered Tinsley the type of student athlete they didn't want anymore. They didn't want to live off Juco's and transfers as they had under Floyd, they wanted to build a cohesive program. Ironically Eustachy's replacement Wayne Morgan had his own problems and lasted only 3 years.
At USC he had 21 year old freshman Taj Gibson who as a senior attended Stoneridge Prep where the principal announced the entire basketball team was guilty of academic fraud, they weren't doing work. The coach responded by taking the whole team with him to nearby Cavalry, a school that didn't have a Highschool let alone a basketball team it was K-6. The principal there allowed the team as a way to raise funds. They played in one tournament and then the principal disbanded the entire team. He did so because he'd interviewed the players and several of them had told him coach Ron Slater had promised if they followed him to Cavalry, they would not have to do any schoolwork, just like had been the case at Stoneridge. The principal challenged the team to do their work. Taj Gibson and Johnathan Gibson were the only 2 that stayed and graduated. Both kids then took months to qualify for college because the Clearinghouse rejected much of their coursework from Stoneridge and they had to make it up with online work(BYU). Gibson was that old already because he'd been homeschooled by his parents only to discover that work was rejected because the classes he took weren't certified. So he wound up at Stoneridge. Gibson actually had a nice 3 year career at USC but turned pro because he realized things had gone to hell and he might as well leave.
The year after Taj was a freshman Davon Jefferson was a 21 year old freshman. Kicked out of Patterson school, he tried to go to Stoneridge but they wouldn't take him(still reeling from the prior years problem they had an all new team). So he enrolled in vocational school and online courses (BYU) and eventually qualified. He left after one season and even USC fans admit the kid was well known to show up for class they'd take attendance, and then he'd sneak out the door. To his credit Floyd did suspend him several times for that but he was too good to not play. Several players complained to Floyd about the double standard that year for Jefferson and his buddy Mayo. During that preseason at a pickup game Mayo broke teammate Daniel Hackett's jaw. Multiple eye witnesses told reporters it was a punch, but USC quickly gathered the team together and insisted it was an accidental elbow. Floyd was recruiting at the time and didn't see it but he repeatedly berated reporters who dared to ask if USC was being honest. Kevin Love a freshman at UCLA then and an AAU teammate of Hackett's said he knew it was a punch. Hackett admitted last year it wasn't an accident he told a reporter some day we'll sit and have lunch and I'll tell you what really happened Next year it was 20 year old freshman Leonard Washington's turn he used a second chance school in Compton, and online courses(BYU) to qualify. He was from Louisiana and he too was going to go to Stoneridge until the NCAA changed the rule on how many core classes you could replace in one year at Prepschool. He was also the kid who punched Blake Griffin in the nuts on national tv and then on the bench could be seen telling Floyd "I didn't do it". When Floyd saw the video he responded by saying he was suspending Washington for the next game. The day before the next game, Pepperdine, he said LW would miss the first half only. Washington started the game and played 27 minutes as USC clearly needed him to beat a 1-8 team whose only win was Cal State Monterey Bay. I'm sure Washington learned his lesson by not being suspended, which is why finally after his soph year he was kicked off the team by Kevin O'Neill. ANd of course Floyd is trying to get him now at UTEP.
Why did so many USC kids have links to Stoneridge? When Floyd took over he hired Gib Arnold as an assistant. Gib arnold's former assistant in Juco was hired as the head coach at... Stoneridge. Boubacar Sy was the guy funneling players to USC. When Sy left for another job Stoneridge hired a former coaching assistant from USC to replace him. 2 years ago a kid named Eric Heslin transferred from Cupertino HS in NorCal to Stoneridge for his senior year to get more exposure to scouts. He left months later saying he'd called his dad in the middle of the night and told him I need to leave, this isn't a real school. We don't go to classes, we don't have books, the tests are all take home guys don't do their own work. He told his dad he was afraid no college would touch him because they wouldn't believe his transcripts. So he went back to Cupertino where he was forced to spend several months making up all the work from Stoneridge because Cupertino HS refused to accept ANY of it. He was eventually able to get reinstated in time for the playoffs and he did graduate from CHS, he called Stoneridge an absolute nightmare. They responded by changing their name to Summitt Prep, the name change lasted a few months they are now back to Stoneridge again, new coach and the principal promised a new focus on academics not athletics.
At every stop along the way Floyd has lived off academic hardships, Jucos and transfers. He doesn't build a program he puts together players and then year after year huge roster overhauls happen. I lost track of how many players transferred out of USC during his time there, had to be at least 10. People say well it's harder to recruit at those schools you have to take some chances, but not like Floyd did he actively sought out kids who very clearly weren't cut out to do college work and used underhanded methods to get them qualified. He should have taken the LSU job last year he was born to coach and recruit in the SEC.
