Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Tressel knew of gear scheme last April - Tressel report appears damaging - Pat Knight fired at Texas Tech



Pat Knight fired at Texas Tech
LUBBOCK, Texas -- Pat Knight sat in the Texas Tech locker room and lauded his bosses for the way they let him go after three disappointing seasons.
It was, after all, different from the way his famous father was ousted at Indiana more than a decade ago.
"It's not an ugly situation," Knight said. "I mean, we left on good terms. I'm glad it ended like that, especially after being part of the deal at Indiana. That was tough. But this is different. It's business."
In the three full seasons that Pat Knight was in Lubbock, the Red Raiders won a total of 12 games. By comparison, Kansas won at least 14 conference games in each of the last three seasons.
Texas Tech fired Knight on Monday, ending a disappointing tenure for a coach who failed to lead the Red Raiders to the NCAA tournament after taking over for his father in February 2008. He will coach the Red Raiders at this week's Big 12 tournament and then step down.
Knight said he was glad his dismissal came before the tournament because of all the potentially negative media chatter about a pending firing.
"It's not just negative toward us. It's negative to the university," Knight said. "It's not good, even for the guy that's following ... that's why I just told them, when they told me, 'You're not going to get another year,' let's just get it out there now. It worked out for the best."
Knight is 50-60 in his first Division I coaching job and his third full year as head coach. He had only one winning season (19-16 in 2009-10) at Texas Tech.
Sitting in the coaches' portion of the Tech locker room, Knight told The Associated Press the situation felt "surreal."
"I would have loved to have another year to prove myself because of recruits we have coming in but I understand it's all based on this year and stuff," he said. "You just got to move on."
Knight seemed to know he might be dismissed in comments about the Red Raiders program following a 71-68 home loss to Colorado on Feb. 23.
"We've lost seven games in the last minute," he said then. "I've proven I can coach. I run a clean program, I don't cheat, my players graduate and we have discipline. So if you don't want me here there's going to be someone else that wants me."
Knight met with Texas Tech president Guy Bailey early Monday and the announcement came a short time later. Bailey said it was time for a change.
"I appreciate everything Pat has done for our university, not only as a head coach, but also throughout his career as an assistant," Bailey said in a prepared statement. "I wish him success and the best moving forward."
Knight played under his father at Indiana University from 1991-1995 and later worked as a scout for the Phoenix Suns. He was an assistant for the CBA's Connecticut Pride and was a coach in both the International Basketball Association and the U.S. Basketball League.
Pat Knight was also at Indiana and at Akron University before joining his father as an assistant at Texas Tech in 2001.
Pat Knight seemed to have an idea he wouldn't be coaching Texas Tech beyond this season. The Red Raiders did not reach the NCAA tournament in his three seasons as coach.
The elder Knight took the Red Raiders to the NCAA tournament, but the success didn't come as easily for his son.
Knight's team won just three Big 12 regular season games in 2008-09 -- one was against No. 9 Kansas -- and he openly criticized officiating twice in a three-week span. The Big 12 slapped him with a public reprimand and a one-game suspension.
In 2009, Texas Tech took 10 wins into its Big 12 opener. But one of the five losses included a 111-66 rout at Stanford, the third-worst beating in school history.
Last season, the Red Raiders won just four regular-season conference games but got to the quarterfinals of the NIT, losing at Mississippi 90-87 in double overtime. At the beginning of the season, with six seniors on his squad, Knight said he didn't deserve a contract extension if he did not get the team to the NCAA tournament.
Going into the league tournament, Texas Tech is 13-18 overall and 5-11 in the Big 12. Associate head coach Chris Beard said he hasn't had much time to reflect on the firing.
"Right now, we really are just concerned about the players' well being, concerned about our families, make sure everybody's on the same page," he said on the Big 12 coaches' call. "That's all you can do. We're still the coaches here. We've got some guys we owe that to."
The Red Raiders, seeded 11th in the tournament in Kansas City, Mo., play No. 6 seed Missouri on Wednesday night.
Beard said Knight's possible firing was never discussed with the players.
"I can honestly tell you there hasn't been a lot of sitting around wondering what's going to happen," Beard said. "Pat has been a great leader since he took over, and especially this year during a tough season. He's been a real backbone through this. It's been business as usual up until 9:25 this morning."
Bob Knight declined to comment, ESPN spokeswoman Keri Potts wrote in an e-mail. In his comments Feb. 23, the younger Knight said he's never shied away from his famous pedigree.
"I'd have been smart if I'd just played baseball and never got into coaching," he said. "The two things I'm most proud of that I've done: I went to Indiana and played at Indiana, for my dad. And I took over for him here. So people can write and say whatever they want about me but the one thing they can't say is that I ever took the safe or easy way out."
Knight, who watched the attendance at home games wane in his tenure, said he leaves Texas Tech on an upbeat note.
"The people who did show up were great, so you can't look at the negative," he said. "I loved my 10 years here. It was great, a great chapter in my life. But I look forward to the next chapter basketball-wise. That's why I'm not down."







Tressel report appears damaging
Stewart Mandel www.si.com
Revered Ohio State coach Woody Hayes' career abruptly ended with a punch. Is the Jim Tressel era about to end with a lie?
Probably not. Not yet, anyway. But the mere possibility that the Buckeyes' stately sweater wearer may have perpetrated unethical conduct in an NCAA investigation is as stunning a turn to his career -- one that may ultimately prove as damaging.
The latest Yahoo! Sports investigative bombshell Monday night claimed Ohio State's coach was made aware of his players selling memorabilia to a Columbus tattoo parlor owner eight months before the school claimed it learned about the transactions from law enforcement officials. Yahoo's report appears to be based on one anonymous source, but is stated as fact, which leads us to believe the school itself was already aware of Tressel's transgression and is in the midst of processing it. Now, it's a matter of finding out just how egregious it may be.
Failing to disclose a possible rules violation is itself an NCAA violation. A cornerstone of the NCAA's case against USC last year was that assistant coach Todd McNair knew of Reggie Bush's illicit financial arrangement but failed to disclose it. Obviously, the crime in play here (players selling a few thousand dollars worth of rings and trinkets) was less serious that that at USC (where Bush and his family allegedly pocketed six-figure benefits) and thus had not yet warranted a full-scale NCAA infractions case.
But the severity of Tressel's infraction rises exponentially if it's found he lied to NCAA investigators. And it wouldn't take much further investigation to figure that out. At some point during those 10 days in December that led to the suspensions of Terrelle Pryor and Co., presumably one of the NCAA's staffers interviewed Tressel. If at any point he or she asked the coach whether he'd heard previous rumblings about the notorious Edward Rife, and if Tressel replied, "No" -- well, that's unethical conduct. The NCAA frowns on it. Ask Dez Bryant or Bruce Pearl.
Mind you, we're only about three yards into one of Tressel's patented 17-play field goal drives in terms of learning his ultimate fate. First Ohio State would have to self-report the information to the NCAA. Its enforcement staff would have to launch an investigation. Several months later, that group would make its findings. It could be a year or more before the seeds of this Yahoo! report ever wound up making their way into an Infractions Committee decision.
But surely Ohio State will do something before that. Sometime soon, it will reveal what it knows about Tressel, especially if it merits pre-emptive punishment. Maybe he'll join his quarterback on the suspended list for the first few games next year. But it's hard to imagine administrators will send him packing without a full-blown investigation. You don't part ways with your seven-time Big Ten champion coach until you've exhausted every other possible measure. Especially when that coach is Tressel.
At this point, it's hard to be shocked by anything nefarious in college sports, but few coaches in America have maintained a more pristine image than the so-called Senator. Not that there haven't been threats to his reputation -- Maurice Clarett's sordid allegations of cash and cars, a similar case with one of his star players at Youngstown State, Troy Smith's relationship with a booster right through to Tattoo-gate -- but the author of "Life Promises for Success: Promises from God on Achieving Your Best" survived all of it unscathed. Ohio State fans still hold him up as a genuinely pious figure, while his nonpartisan critics mostly fault him for losing to Florida and LSU.
There's always been a cynical minority, however, that grudgingly held out hope of his eventual undressing. They may be about to get their wish.
Meanwhile, there should now be serious questions about Ohio State's original handling of the situation last December. Beyond the still-mystifying loophole that allowed the Buckeyes Five to play in the Sugar Bowl, it always seemed a bit odd that the notoriously laborious NCAA was able to resolve the case in less than two weeks. Reading between the lines, it was clear AD Gene Smith and Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany did something to expedite the process. They were practically boastful of it. Perhaps they missed an important piece?
Meanwhile, Ohio State's own former players let it spill via Twitter that their friendly relationship with Rife dated back nearly 10 years. Yet the NCAA took Smith at his word that the incidents were "isolated"? They didn't want to maybe look into the school a bit more?
Apparently someone did. And now we wait to learn just what's been uncovered. All that's at stake is the legacy of one of the sport's preeminent coaches.





Tressel knew of gear scheme last April
www.yahoosports.com
Ohio State coach Jim Tressel was informed that several Buckeyes players were selling memorabilia more than eight months before the school claims it was made aware of the scheme, a two-month Yahoo! Sports investigation has found.
Tressel received information that players were selling items to Edward Rife – the owner of Fine Line Ink Tattoos in Columbus – as early as April 2010, according to a source. However, neither Ohio State nor the NCAA investigated the transactions or the players’ relationship with Rife until December 2010, when the school claims it was informed of the situation by the local United States Attorney’s office.
Ohio State director of compliance Doug Archie declined immediate comment when reached Monday by Yahoo! Sports. Tressel and athletic director Gene Smith were unavailable for comment. The NCAA declined comment.
At a Dec. 23 press conference, Jim Tressell said he had only recently found out about players selling memorabilia.
A federal probe into Rife revealed he was in possession of multiple pieces of Buckeyes football memorabilia that previously belonged to five players: quarterback Terrelle Pryor, running back Dan Herron, wideout DeVier Posey, defensive end Solomon Thomas and offensive lineman Mike Adams. Federal officers contacted the school Dec. 7 to determine if the goods were stolen or instead sold by the players for cash, as Rife claimed.
According to a source, a concerned party reached out to Tressel last April, alerting the coach that memorabilia transactions had taken place between Rife and a handful of Buckeyes players, including Pryor. The selling of items violates NCAA eligibility rules. The source said Tressel was troubled by the information, and the coach indicated that he would investigate the matter and take appropriate action.
Whether the coach initiated an investigation of the accusation is unclear, but all five players remained on the field in the coming months, playing out the 2010 regular season.
After Ohio State alerted the NCAA of the memorabilia sales in early December, the NCAA’s student-athlete reinstatement staff ruled the players were banned from the first five regular-season games of 2011. The players also had to repay the improper benefits gained – $2,500 for Pryor, $1,505 for Thomas, $1,250 for Posey, $1,150 for Herron and $1,000 for Adams. Linebacker Jordan Whiting also had to pay $150 to a charity for receiving a discounted tattoo.
But in a controversial part of the decision – which included lobbying by Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, according to Smith – the NCAA’s reinstatement staff ruled in late December that the five players were eligible for the 2011 Sugar Bowl game against Arkansas.
At a Dec. 23 press conference, Smith claimed the school first became aware of the memorabilia sales on Dec. 7. Smith said the athletic department was told the following day and immediately launched an investigation.
If Tressel failed to inform Smith or the Ohio State compliance department about the players’ dealings with Rife, he could be charged with multiple NCAA violations including unethical conduct, failure to monitor and a failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance. In general, a coach is required to act on, or pass along reasonable information about possible rule violations for further investigation.Section 4.1(d) of Tressel’s contract with Ohio State stipulates that he “supervise and take appropriate steps to ensure … members of the Team know, recognize and comply with any such laws, University Rules and Governing Athletic Rules and immediately report to the (Athletic) Director and to the (Athletic) Department’s Office of Compliance Services in writing if any person or entity, including without limitation, representatives of Ohio State’s athletic interests, has violated or is likely to violate any such laws, University Rules and Governing Athletic Rules.”
Section 5.1 (m) of his contract also states that failure to promptly report “any violations” could lead to “termination by Ohio State for cause.”
Ohio State itself could be cited with playing ineligible players and forced to vacate its 2010 season, when it won a share of the Big Ten championship and finished 12-1. It could also face further sanctions for major infractions.
Smith was adamant at the Dec. 23 news conference that no one at Ohio State knew of the situation until the U.S. Attorney contacted them in early December.
“The athletic department was informed on Dec. 8,” Smith said.
At the Dec. 23 news conference, Smith made a point of running through the timeline of the case and thanking federal authorities for bringing the information to the university so it could act. He detailed each step of the 10-day investigation and subsequent dealings with the NCAA and Big Ten office, right up to being told of suspensions by the NCAA on the afternoon of Dec. 22.
Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said his department was informed of players selling memorabilia on Dec. 8.
Tressel neither corrected Smith nor publicly expressed any prior knowledge of the case. He intimated he had found out about the memorabilia sales recently saying he needed time to recover from the disappointment. “I’m trying to let the holidays temper me down so I’ll be more jolly on the 26th,” Tressel said.
Tressel expressed disappointment with the players after the suspensions were announced, stating that while Ohio State should’ve done a better job explaining the rules on memorabilia sales, the players’ probably knew they were doing something wrong.
“I think we all have a little sensor within us, ‘Well, I’m not sure if I should be doing this,’” Tressel said. “And then sometimes it gets overridden by what you think your necessity is. …”
“There’s a gut-wrenching feeling when you lose a game and you know you could’ve done better,” he continued later. “And then there’s one that goes beyond when you don’t feel as if you did what you should do as people. So whatever the next step of gut-wrenching is, that’s the way you feel. And we feel a responsibility for our kids on and off the field. Obviously, it’s painful.”
Tressel also suggested that the responsibility of rules compliance ultimately falls on the coaching staff.
“I think ultimately we as coaches feel as if the buck stops here – that we’re the ones that need to make things even more crystal clear than when a compliance officer might spend time with our team or an outside speaker or whatever it happens to be,” he said. “The bottom line is that we feel as if that’s our responsibility, so obviously we don’t feel good about the fact that we fell short.”
According to the Ohio State investigation, the five players sold multiple items to Rife, who displayed some of the memorabilia on his Facebook page. Among the pieces sold were Pryor’s 2009 Fiesta Bowl sportsmanship award, Herron’s jersey, multiple Big Ten championship rings and multiple golden pants pendants awarded to the players for victories over the University of Michigan. Pryor, Posey, Herron, Thomas and Whiting were also cited for receiving discounted tattoos from Rife.
The Columbus Dispatch reported on Jan. 2 that Pryor had been “stopped for traffic violations on three separate occasions while driving cars that were owned by a car salesman or a Columbus used-car lot where the salesman worked.” He’d also been allowed to test drive a car for the weekend to his home in Pennsylvania.
Archie said the school knew of two of the incidents and had deemed nothing improper. He said the school would investigate the third traffic stop in a borrowed car. There has been no update on that internal investigation.
Tressel, 58, has been a head coach for 25 years, the last 10 at Ohio State. His Buckeye teams have won at least a share of the last six Big Ten titles and captured the 2002 BCS national championship.

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