Odds On Diallo



  • @joeloveshawks

    I wasn’t one of those questioning signing Diallo. I have no idea what Self and staff knows or did know. Pretty hard to start slamming his judgment without knowing that.

    My point is that we did potentially lose out quite a bit if he doesn’t gain eligibility. And maybe he doesn’t but can stay a year and get qualified for next year. Imagine if that is the case, and he has a year to work on his game? My thoughts were on that with Chukwu. I didn’t care if his numbers were small at Providence. He didn’t have a lot of PT, needed polishing, and a structure around him to take advantage of his size. I’m sure we would have given him that, and I’m pretty sure we would have signed him if we had the scholarship, and not having Diallo is just one more hole for next year (even though most think he is a OAD).



  • Anybody think it’s weird we haven’t heard anything about coleby-sp? Last I knew he had his passport stolen.



  • Let’s not jump to conclusions yet…

    The NCAA has yet to rule on Eubanks and even if they rule him eligible, he was not admitted to Alabama; these two situations are unrelated. He could have been accepted to Alabama and not bee cleared by the NCAA (like McLemore) or he could have been cleared by the NCAA and not accepted to Alabama. Both situation are possible, which begs the question…how bad were his grades that the was not accepted to Alabama? His HS hoping would indicate that academics were not that important to him

    Diallo, on the other hand, has already been accepted by KU and has taken Summer classes and is enrolled for the Fall Semester. This would appear to indicate that his grades were good enough to be admitted to KU…maybe not NCAA good, but apparently a hell of a lot better than Eubanks. As I posted earlier, there is only so much you can make up attending prep school for an extra year…apparently Eubanks was way, way behind.



  • And let’s note this too … Self didn’t take Eubanks. While some us were trying to compare Vick, Eubanks, and Mack and suggest who was the better player, Self took Vick. We don’t know exactly how everything went down. But Vick committed in May to KU, and Eubanks then to Alabama in June. We do know Self didn’t sign Eubanks. Maybe Self knew the issues on Eubanks? Regardless, Self gets credit for not having this fiasco (Eubanks) upsetting our late summer discussions.



  • Thanks, everyone… for helping lift my spirits on Diallo. I will try to be cautiously optimistic!

    I have to think that Self learned a lot during our troubles with other players who had issues and he has this worked out as well as he can.



  • @drgnslayr Man, I dont know. I was certain he would be cleared up until today. Now? Im not so sure. We may not see him on the court this season. Id say the chances now are less than 50%.

    Quite a slip from being absolutely positive on it huh?



  • @Lulufulu

    It may be that he goes to classes for a year, while sharpening his game. Look what it did for BMac! Are we sorry we signed BMac? I don’t think so.

    Sometimes we need to give Self credit for knowing something. He probably knew Cheick was a 50/50 on eligibility this year. So maybe he had a long talk with Cheick about it and Cheick verbally committed to staying a second year and not jumping to the draft without playing a year at Kansas. Any kid with half a mind would make that commitment. He wouldn’t be a lottery pick without playing a season and showing if he really has NBA potential.

    My guess is that Self got that verbal out of Cheick, and he appears to show some intelligence… enough for Self to trust he will do the right thing and stay another year.

    Self can’t make all this public. Especially since Cheick’s current eligibility is under review.

    The Riverboat Gambler is sitting on Aces and keeping quiet about it.



  • @drgnslayr After agonizing over past recruiting dilemmas, BIll Self surely did not step blindly into the Diallo eligibility issue. Pessimist that I normally am, I predict that this signing will eventually work out gloriously for the Jayhawk program. This kid is a jewel, well worth waiting on, if that should become the case. If he is forced to sit out a semester or even a full year I’m figuring that Cheick will be humble and thankful enough to Jayhawk support that he will pay dividends, in time. Of course, huge offers of money could interfere with his commitment; but he is still so raw in refined skills that it would serve him well to spend time in Lawrence. Even among lottery picks, there is a substantial financial and security difference between entering the League as a top 5 selection rather than a 12 or 13. If he is forced to go the McLemore route, just imagine how far his game would develop, 2 years into the program.



  • Over on KUSports there is an article about Self’s optimism for the upcoming season and he doesn’t expect a Cheick answer for another month. How in the heck do things like this take a month?



  • @wissoxfan83

    It s not that complicated and let me list a few scenarios:

    Student attended all 4 years the same HS at an accredited HS District such as Olathe, or Blue Valley or Lawrence. The student is cleared fairly quickly.

    Student attended more than one accredited HS District such as Othate, or Blue Valley or Lawrence. If it was due to family relocation , the student is cleared fairly quickly.

    Student attended all 4 years the same HS at HS District with no accreditation or on probation such as the Kansas City, Missouri School District. The NCAA will have to determine if the classes the student took are valid and it will take longer for the student to be cleared.

    Student attended one or more HS and one or more are in the list of district “under observation” by the NCAA then and it will take a lot longer for the student to be cleared since transcripts for several schools need to be reviewed to ensure the student met graduation requirements, NCAA core class and GPA requirements.

    Student attended one or more HS and one or more are in the list of district “under observation” by the NCAA or are not in this country, then and it will take considerably longer for the student to be cleared since transcripts for several schools…and overseas schools… need to be reviewed to ensure the student met graduation requirements, NCAA core class and GPA requirements.

    As I have posted before, any one that has to deal with getting "official"documentation from other countries knows that can take several months even for the simplest document.

    I am still of the opinion that the foreign transcripts is what is delaying Diallo’s clearance. Just my opinion based on what I have read but I could be wrong…:(



  • @wissoxfan83 I’ll go take a peek at it. Didnt he say basically the same thing though, regarding all the other times we’ve had to wait for the NCAA to get off its ass and do something?



  • I don’t quite understand how or why Self and KU would waste anytime on a player that is even remotely doubtful. KU doesn’t simply blindly accept these students. Either there is something wrong with the qualifying process and department or this is a D1 NCAA ruse to disrupt the KU program. Remember, we do face the NCAA’s beloved UK early in the season and we are in fact some what favored with our experience.

    Also, if we have a program clearing house at KU, which I’m pretty sure we do, then we also have our own NCAA officer that we run these issues through at the time of signing or even prior to signing. There’s got to be a way for Self to work with the KU clearinghouse officials and the NCAA officer to determine whether these kids are eligible. In other words, this is bullsh*t at it’s finest and the NCAA loves playing this hide and go seek game, I’M SICK OF IT. Unless the kid has a horrible record or a bad transcript, qualify him. Self’s hands are tied and he has to play the game. My guess is, Self signs these kids based on prelim information and the NCAA simply uses KU as an example to other programs.

    I will say it again, again, and again…UK can’t possibly be qualifying their recruits. How in the hell does KU get so many questionable recruits that are unqualified and UK steam rolls the clearinghouse with recruit after recruit? Remember, UK does have a connection with the NCAA too. I’M SICK OF IT. They have all but ruined the game of basketball.

    Damn it…Why doesn’t someone do an independent investigation of the freakin’ NCAA and find how crooked their so called officers are that work these investigations. I guarantee you Calipari has someone working the system to get his kids qualified. No way in hell he has a near perfect qualifying recruiting process. The only recruit that failed to qualify at UK was Kanter. His qualifying issue was so blatant and if you talked to UK fans to this day, they will tell you that he was qualified. Even Calipari had him on the bench and defied the NCAA ruling. I tell you that is the worst recruiting program in the NCAA.



  • @truehawk93 KU recruited Diallo because he is one of, if the best bigs in the 2015 class and an instant impact player. Kentucky is not immune from eligibility issues either as Enes Kanter was never cleared to play for Kentucky and Skal Labissiere hasn’t been cleared yet for them this year.



  • @truehawk93

    We don’t play Kentucky until late January just for clarification.

    We are at the mercy of the NCAA with this situation, and usually that means an innocent kid is going to be punished.



  • @BeddieKU23 Well if we have to watch KU vs Kentucky without Diallo, then I hope Skal isn’t cleared either.



  • @truehawk93 Id love nothing more than to see Kentucky hoops go down in flames. I dont recall them having any issues with their “platoon” of OAD’s getting qualified last season. I also call B.S.



  • @truehawk93 You said, “I don’t quite understand how or why Self and KU would waste anytime on a player that is even remotely doubtful.”

    I generally agree. But on Diallo, remember the timing. Was there any other player that could have helped us in 2015-16 that we passed on instead of Diallo? We took Diallo at the last minute, basically, with nothing else on the table.

    @jaybate-1.0 did a nice job tackling this topic in a separate thread.

    Personally, I don’t care for the uncertainty. But as long as a kid like Diallo doesn’t cost us another good player, why not take the chance? There is something to be said for the distraction, and if he suddenly becomes eligible in December, the potential for disrupting chemistry.

    Personally, I just wish we had pinned down a non-OAD like Tyler Davis in the early signing period instead. But Self doesn’t care much about my wishes.



  • @HighEliteMajor

    Well we could look at in a number of ways with regards to Diallo costing us a player that could help us this year. The Davis situation seemed to be where KU liked him, Davis wanted to come here but we hadn’t put all our effort into signing him at the expense of Diallo/Bragg & others.

    A situation where Davis was behind in the “pecking order” maybe?

    Davis ended up signing with the school that made him the priority/ close to home & joining a great class for Texas A&M. I don’t know all the specifics with him but from what I gathered we only wanted Davis if he waited for us to know what the others were doing.

    We might have signed Diallo late but we had been recruiting him for such a long time. Was Our Savior under NCAA scrutiny at that point? Did we knowingly recruit him for years knowing the school he attended was possibly in trouble or that the classes these kids were taking was under review? I think we started recruiting him around spring of 2014 maybe the year before. Did we get to the point where it was the point of no return I don’t know. I’m sure we did the risk/reward on him & obviously the reward vs whatever risk was involved was worth taking.

    What we do know is that none of us including KU have any idea which way this is going to end up. When you put our past history lumped together with what’s happening with Diallo & his teammates it doesn’t sound promising. Dillard was already cleared, Eubanks is still awaiting word but can’t attend Alabama & doesn’t sound likely to be cleared. Yakwe his other teammate just re-classified to 2015 class with St Johns. I’m sure he eligibility will be in question. No word on if Wilson has been cleared at Pitt as of yet. It could drag into October which would be about right for the NCAA messing with kids.



  • @Lulufulu

    If they can prove Hamilton took money to show off Skal then I believe they will also have to prove he was aware of it and received benefits as well.

    Links below are older but show what he’s dealing with.

    http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/11/12/saga-of-skal-labissiere-takes-another-turn-as-report-claims-guardian-was-trying-to-profit-on-him/

    http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/04/18/five-star-kentucky-commit-skal-labissiere-believes-the-ncaa-will-clear-him-to-play/

    They just signed Humphries which would lead me to believe that UK is silently worried about him not being cleared in time for the season.



  • What happened to his ACT test? There are a lot of home school kids in the US today that are doing fine going on to college but they do have to take some type of high school equivalency test. I’m not sure I understand why this is an issue. Unless he has failed his ACT test or equivalency test. Maybe he is being tested and tutored some for retaking these tests.



  • @BeddieKU23 Ohhhh reaaaallly??? I did not know that. Very interesting indeed.



  • @KU-Flyer To qualify he has to have a minimum ACT score, a minimum GPA and core courses. A higher GPA can compensate for a lower ACT.

    He has a time limit for doing all that, and time is up. To have more time, he would have had to reclassify to 2016.

    If he meets some of the requirements but not all, he is a “partial qualifier” like Jamari and McLemore.

    Partial qualifiers go through another hoop after the NCAA: a Big 12 committee that says yea or nay. To Jamari and McLemore they said nay.

    I suspect we are going to see a partial qualifier, but maybe closer to full than those two so with a better chance of getting by. I imagine if he isn’t cleared he will lose a year, not a semester.



  • Let’s no be so quick to blame the NCAA and indicate it is messing with innocent kids.

    The clearance process is well understood by those in the business and it is up to the student to make sure that he submits a complete package with no inconsistencies or red flags. Over 40,000 freshmen athletes are cleared every year with no problems but we seem to concentrate on the few, high profile that do not.

    Think of it this way. Let’s imagine you want to buy a home and you go to the bank to get a loan:

    You bring your tax returns for the last 5 years, a copy of you bank records and credit cards and a copy of you credit report ad a statement of all other income you earn. The bank will quickly verify the information and if correct, you will get a loan fairly quickly.

    You bring only part of the documentation and have to got back to get the rest which might take some time. If every thing checks out, you will eventually get your loan.

    You bring part of the documents and have to keep going back to submit the rest and when the bank checks you credit report it is not as good as you indicated it was and there are outstanding debts, then the bank will tell you to fix these issues first before they consider you application. Chances are it will take a while to get approved…if you are approved at all, and if you don’t…whose fault is it? The bank? I think not.

    You bring the documentation and some of you banking references are from overseas banks and it takes a long time to get the information verified. If every thing checks, you will eventually get your loan. but it will likely take a much longer time to verify all the information, not really the bank’s fault.

    The NCAA is just doing what it is supposed to do, verify that every body is playing on level field. As I indicated, lots of student athletes are cleared with no problem because they submit a complete package with no red flags and in a timely manner.

    Every HS has an adviser that can guide the student through the process, and every student athlete that claims he does not know the process really should not be attending college in the first place. Look at it this way…when you applied to attend college whose responsibility was to makes sure a complete application and HS transcripts were submitted? It was yours and yours alone and if you did not submit a complete application and transcripts in time and you were not admitted, whose fault was it?

    From the movie… A few Good Men…

    Col. Jessep: You want answers?

    Kaffee: I think I’m entitled to.

    Col. Jessep: You want answers?

    Kaffee: I want the truth!

    Col. Jessep: You can’t handle the truth!

    Col. Jessep: Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to.

    The truth is that we want the NCAA on that wall…we need the NCAA on that wall. If you think things are bad with the NCAA, think how much worse it would be without it.

    There are no innocent kids here. With very few exceptions, every top prospect is aware before he starts HS what is expected of him academically in order to play at the next level, those who chose to ignore the rules…or think the rules do not apply to them… have no one to blame but themselves.

    So, let’s not be so quick to blame the NCAA who is just doing its job, let’s place blame where it belongs, the student athlete who was responsible for providing the information necessary to get cleared by the NCAA and obviously did not. Are they exceptions? Sure. Does the NCAA occasionally makes a mistake? Of course. When you consider the sheer number of application the NCAA processes every year without any issues, I would say they are doing a pretty decent job.

    I understand the prevailing opinion is to blame the NCAA; I don’t share that opinion and it is just that, my opinion, and I am sure others disagree.



  • @JayHawkFanToo I agree with you on the NCAA, and I’m glad to loan you the “on that wall” analogy that I have used with coach Self. I don’t charge a fee.

    I do understand this is “just your opinion”, so I’m not sure that makes it ok for discussion or not.

    But I’ll test the waters here. You say there are “no innocent kids here.”

    I completely disagree. How is a kid supposed to know that coursework he dutifully completes at a school his parent, parents, or guardian has placed him is deficient in accordance with NCAA standards?

    How might he know, for example, that the textbook and materials in his English class are out of date? Or that the school doesn’t make sure the class meets for the requisite number of hours? Or other items like that.

    I agree we should not blame the NCAA. But I do think in certain situations, you have an NCAA doing their job, an innocent kid who did his coursework, and a parent/parents/guardian who are culpable.



  • @HighEliteMajor

    I do understand this is “just your opinion”, so I’m not sure that makes it ok for discussion or not.

    All it means is that is ts my opinion and NOT a fact. It is what I think/believe to be true to the best of the information available to me and some will agree and some will disagree with it…that’s all.

    But I’ll test the waters here. You say there are “no innocent kids here.” I completely disagree. How is a kid supposed to know that coursework he dutifully completes at a school his parent, parents, or guardian has placed him is deficient in accordance with NCAA standards? How might he know, for example, that the textbook and materials in his English class are out of date? Or that the school doesn’t make sure the class meets for the requisite number of hours? Or other items like that.

    You posted a link to the NCAA that lists the approved classes for every HS in the country, including school such as the one Diallo attended. All a kid or his parents or his adviser or guardian has to do, is look at that site and they will know if the classes are approved and which are not…really simple,

    I am not sure if you remember HS and college? Most kids know what teacher/class is easy or difficult, what teacher grades on a curve or gives the same test year after year. All these top prospects are pretty savvy when it comes to schools, they all compete in the AAU circuit throughout high school or even earlier and know the reputation of every school and “basketball factory” and “diploma mill” out there and which classes are valid and which are not. They all know each other well and know what is going on at the various schools.

    Like I said, in this day and age for a student athlete or family or guardian to claim they did not know is disingenuous since the information is readily available and they can see year after year what happens to the Mudiays and Eubanks that try to skate by only to be denied access to the next level. It is not the the responsibility of the NCAA to make sure the kids complete the requirements to be cleared, there is tons of information available not only at the NCAA site but everywhere. We live in a era in which the buck is passed so often that some people feel they are not responsible for anything. There has to be personal responsibility and accountability assigned to the student and the people advising them.

    Like I said before and with all the information and anecdotal evidence out there, for top prospects and/or families/guardians to claim they did not know what was required to qualify is the equivalent of a smoker claiming he did not know that cigarettes cause cancer. Both assertion are utterly ridiculous.

    Having said that, I agree that not every athletically gifted kid needs to be going to college if he is not capable of meeting the basic admission requirements that every other candidate must meet. I believe that the baseball model work best, if a kid is good enough to go pro after high school, then let him do just that. If he is not good enough, then he should stay in college for 3 years so at least he has most of his degree completed in case sport don’t work out.



  • @JayHawkFanToo sucks having to grade on a “curb”!



  • @REHawk

    “This kid is a jewel, well worth waiting on…”

    For sure… just like BMac was worth the wait!



  • @JayHawkFanToo

    1. The “opinion” thing is because you have freaked out when you get challenged on something you claim to be just your opinion. And like this post, you post a bunch of stuff that sure sounds like you’re saying it is being stated or argued as fact. It’s as black and white as I’ve seen in a post for a while. But I do agree in large part, except in one area.

    2. You put this in bold, “There has to be personal responsibility and accountability assigned to the student and the people advising them.” You do realize that in your initial post, you didn’t say anything about “the people advising them”, right? You just said there were no innocent kids. That was the premise of my reply – that there could be innocent kids. That you said very definitively … just your opinion and all … that there are “no innocent kids.” Now you say, "Like I said, in this day and age for a student athlete or family or guardian to claim they did not know is disingenuous … " You didn’t say that. I raised the issue of their parents/guardians being the ones at fault after your statement that there were “no innocent kids” and now you have moderated your position. That is good to see, and it’s interesting to see that you act as if that’s what you were saying all along.

    3. As to kids/parents/guardians knowing what is required for coursework. I do agree with you there. That is something that is readily available.

    4. I also agree that when kids go to these basketball factories, you kind of know what you are getting.

    5. But as for the kids, it’s not that easy. I think you need to look step further. As my example noted, a class at a school could be deemed inadequate if it has improper materials, for example. Very hard for a kid to be vigilant on that. And, of course, it’s not as simple as taking the classes that have been approved. At Diallo’s school, the investigation just began in the late spring, after Diallo was done with course work. What warning did Diallo have that his coursework might not be up to par? I don’t know. But I certainly can assume that in many of these situations the school drops the ball, not the kids or parent/guardian. In that case, I might say the kid is innocent. Further, it’s hard to place blame on a 16 or 17 year old kid that goes to school where his parents tell him, and takes the classes he’s told to take.

    6. But really, just go to a “regular” high school and this won’t be an issue. As you said, smoke cigarettes and don’t be surprised if you get cancer.

    Ok – now another topic. Does your logic apply to coach Self? He is certainly as smart and well informed on these basketball factories as anyone, right? That’s what I meant by Self either “knew or should have known.” If you can sit here and say it’s as obvious as getting cancer from cigarettes, why isn’t Bill Self culpable?*



  • @BeddieKU23 said:

    They just signed Humphries which would lead me to believe that UK is silently worried about him not being cleared in time for the season.

    They signed Humphries because even if Skal gets cleared, Kentucky would’ve had just 3 front court players with one of those 3 playing out of position (Alex Poythress) and another that has been a colossal bust so far in college (Marcus Lee). Kentucky desperately needed Humphries regardless of what happens with Skal to fill a huge hole in the front court.



  • @Texas-Hawk-10 (using my teasing kid voice) We’re gonna kick their butts, we’re gonna kick their butts, When they come to Allen Field house!



  • @HighEliteMajor

    I have tried to explain to you the difference between fact and opinion before and either you just don’t get it or don’t want to get it… Either way, you can interpret my post(s) in any way you choose…that is your prerogative and more importantly…your opinion, and you are certainly entitled to it.

    While the buck stop with Coach Self, I will guess tat he relies on the advice he receives from AD personnel that are expert on the subject… Every AD at a major program has a compliance specialist that does exactly what we are talking about. Do you really expect Coach Self to become an expert in compliance? I certainly would prefer that he sticks to coaching and leaves the compliance issue to someone else. UK is rumored to have one of the best in the business and this is why they do not have as many issues as other program considering the caliber of players they get. There is no reason why KU cannot have competent personnel that would apprise Coach Self of the status. Is Coach Self directly responsible for not knowing the status? No. Is he ultimately responsible for not knowing the status? Yes.

    Having said that, we still don’t know that Diallo will be not be cleared, so let’s not assign blame quite yet.

    As far as calling them kids, that would also be a misnomer, Diallo will be 19 in a couple of weeks, Bragg will be 20 in December…not exactly kid considering that at 18 you are able to vote and join the Army. When I was 18, perhaps I did not understand the importance of a retirement plan or life insurance but I can assure that I knew damn well what may grades were and whether I would be accepted to college or not.

    According to the The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that affords parents the right to have access to their children’s education records, the right to seek to have the records amended, and the right to have some control over the disclosure of personally identifiable information from the education records. When a student turns 18 years old, or enters a post secondary institution at any age, the rights under FERPA transfer from the parents to the student. Since prep school are considered post secondary, the parents of the student no longer have the right to have access to the school records. There are exception based on tax dependency and allowable educational expenditures, but student over 18 years old that are on a full scholarship likely do not qualify as dependents anyway. Just another twist related to the issue at hand.





  • @JayHawkFanToo good one though!



  • I am as entertained by the pithiness of Nathan Jessup’s quote from A Few Good Men as any, but I try always to use it playfully, for Jessup was the antagonist. All ought to keep in mind Jessup was an awful villain of the movie that created the conditions that got Private Santiago murdered and helped cover up the crime. We are supposed to be glad that in the ideal world of fiction, Jessup probably spends a good long time after the film in Portsmouth Naval Penitentiary cleaning his cell with a tooth brush, or at the very least busted out of the Corp in disgrace.

    Jessup was supposed to represent all of the villainous jerks that wrap themselves in the flag and patriotism, plus hide behind virtues like duty, honor, and country in order to keep from being held responsible for unethical and even criminal abuses of their authority committed by themselves and those encouraged by the climate of the organization they have created on their watch. Jessup was supposed to show us how such weasels will never cease trying to rationalize the wrong they have done; that they will even go to the extent of using our own worst fears of an opponent to try to save their own hides. The Nathan Jessups of the military are despicable soldiers, not just despicable men. We really don’t need their kind up on that wall. We need their kind in military prisons. And they have counterparts in corporate and political life as well that we would all be better off with in Federal penitentiaries.

    When Jessup rails at Lt. Daniel Kaffee that Kaffee cannot handle the truth, we learn that not only can the Lieutenant handle the truth, but that he can wield it as a weapon for the greater good of the military service. He can risk his own career to rid the military of one of the worst kinds of commanding officers that sometimes insinuates itself in the chain of command.

    In the fictional world of the movie “A Few Good Men”, there is no question that the Marine Corp will be better off as a fighting force without Nathan Jessup.

    Regarding the truth, we absolutely can handle the truth and the greatest game ever invented can greatly benefit from the NCAA being held accountable for whatever wrong it might do.

    I want an NCAA that is analogous to Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee, not Colonel Nathan Jessup.

    Though I know that is not fashionable these days.



  • @JayHawkFanToo A few of your topics -

    Yes, I do expect Self to be an expert in compliance. When your career, reputation, and success rely upon the eligibility of your players, you better know – if you don’t, as many don’t, you are placing your fate in the hands of others. I would micromanage that aspect of the job, no doubt. And Self might actually do that anyway.

    I do think you have skirted the issue I raised, which refutes (in part) your point – what do kids/parents do when a class or curriculum is, post-fact, deemed inadequate due to irregularities (outdated course materials, etc.)? But of course, that could apply to a coach, too.

    When a kid is 18, he signs a release for parents, right? This is the same thing you failed to mention when you tried to argue a while back that a coach couldn’t know the academics of a player. I mentioned the ease of a release, and what my son signed during recruiting. Same here. My daughter just signed a release for med records for my wife and I. Easy. Of course, if a kid wants to shut his parents/guardians out, he/she can do that too.

    And I think you know from my prior posts that I won’t blame Self one bit on this. If I were aware of Diallo’s issues that are present now, in May when he signed, I would have signed him too. Timing is everything. November? Not a chance. In May when we are essentially down to the last guy on the market? Easy choice.



  • @HighEliteMajor

    Yes, I do expect Self to be an expert in compliance. When your career, reputation, and success rely upon the eligibility of your players, you better know – if you don’t, as many don’t, you are placing your fate in the hands of others. I would micromanage that aspect of the job, no doubt. And Self might actually do that anyway.

    I take it that you do not work in the private sector, Anyone with any experience in business/management knows that the worst possible form of management is micromanagement. Compliance is a full time job at any elite program Athletic Department. In the very limited time Coach Self has available to do things outside coaching, there is no way he could learn more than a competent Compliance Officer. If his Compliance Officer is not giving him good advice, then he needs to get a new one. To use the talents of a $4M per year coach to do compliance work is utterly ridiculous.

    "The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it". —Theodore Roosevelt

    I do think you have skirted the issue I raised, which refutes (in part) your point – what do kids/parents do when a class or curriculum is, post-fact, deemed inadequate due to irregularities (outdated course materials, etc.)? But of course, that could apply to a coach, too.

    I not only addressed this issue, I quoted you. You posted a link to the NCAA site where every HS is listed and a list of approved and not approved classes at each school is readily available. The NCAA will not disapprove a class that was listed as approved on its site retroactively…that is just a straw man and you know it.

    When a kid is 18, he signs a release for parents, right? This is the same thing you failed to mention when you tried to argue a while back that a coach couldn’t know the academics of a player. I mentioned the ease of a release, and what my son signed during recruiting. Same here. My daughter just signed a release for med records for my wife and I. Easy. Of course, if a kid wants to shut his parents/guardians out, he/she can do that too.

    I did not mention anything about a release which we both know is an option. However, when many of the top ranked players are attending, on a full scholarship, a school hundreds or thousands of miles away from home, how much input do you think parents back home really have?

    I graduated from HS at 17 and from the time I was 14 or 15 I was very aware of what my grades were and what I needed to have to be accepted to college. To imply that a 17-18 year old kid, on his way to earning millions of dollars in a year or two, is not capable at that age to know whats his grades or the requirements are, particularly when he has his future is on the line, is a very prejudicial and unfair characterization. The student athlete is ultimately responsible to make sure he meets the requirements to play at the next level.

    And I think you know from my prior posts that I won’t blame Self one bit on this. If I were aware of Diallo’s issues that are present now, in May when he signed, I would have signed him too. Timing is everything. November? Not a chance. In May when we are essentially down to the last guy on the market? Easy choice.

    Oh yes. Finally we agree on something. Diallo is a special talent and who knows…he might be the next Enes Kanter that goes to the NBA without playing a single college game or he can be the next Ben McLemore that sits one year and explodes on his first and only season at KU. I am hoping that he is more like the next Joel Embiid that excels in his first and only season…minus the injures, of course.



  • I am going to have to agree to disagree with both of you Cheick Diallo is super human on the basketball court!



  • When I went from HS to college I was unprepared for that step. My HS counselor (who I should have sued) told me I was ready for university, so I loaded up on sports study halls in my senior year. Yes, I graduated HS, no I was not prepared for university. When I was accepted in university, the first thing I had to do was take a bunch of no-credit prep courses… stuff I should have taken in HS.

    I doubt much has changed since then. I thought I was prepared, and I wasn’t. I wasted half of a college year taking HS classes. My parents asked me if I was ready, and I told them ‘yes’ because I thought I was.

    So much false information travels around in these circles. People need to be held accountable. Currently, they aren’t. We can blame the NCAA for everything, but truth is, they only handle monitoring and enforcement. I don’t know if things have changed since my HS days… but back then, you were considered a counselor if someone called you one. These positions are very important and they should have to be qualified and accredited.

    We are only experiencing what some D1 athletes are troubled with. It is just a peephole into the much larger problem everywhere.



  • @drgnslayr our counselors are highly educated these days. I can only speak for public schools.



  • @drgnslayr

    But things have changed since then. The amount of information readily available on the Internet is light years ahead of what was even 20 years ago. Back then, I had to drive to a college, pick up a (course) catalog and set up an interview with an admission counselor if I had any questions or I could do things via regular mail and it took a long time. If you were lucky and your parent account allowed long distance calls (pricey back then) you could cut some time by using the phone. Now we can access all of this information on line and we can communicate with the school (and NCAA) via e-mail or even texts…all of this from your cell phone!



  • @JayHawkFanToo

    Sounds good to me!

    My smart phone in the 70s was really slow on the internet! 😉



  • @drgnslayr

    A smart phone in the 70’s was a push button unit instead of the rotary dial… 😃



  • @JayHawkFanToo

    Even though I often work in technology, I have always hated smart phones and all phones. There is no place to run and hide. I loved it when all of the carriers had dead cell spaces (and before GSM phones in the USA) so I could always claim I didn’t receive a call.

    My grand dad was a farmer in western Kansas and he called them by their rightful name: nuisance boxes. This goes back to the early brick phones (actually, more the size of cinder blocks). He later defined televisions with the same name.

    Today I barely use any of our data allotment. My wife keeps telling me… “you wouldn’t know what to do if you didn’t have it.” My simple reply: “I would SMILE if I didn’t have one!”

    I had an old clam shell phone until two years ago when we had our first child. Wife made me go for an iPhone. I’ve been sorry ever since. Now everyone sends me texts and expects a response, but I’m slow. Probably faster if I lit a fire and sent smoke signals. Are there laws preventing inner-state smoke signals? 😉

    BTW: I do this site on a desktop computer!



  • @JayHawkFanToo Seriously, where do people like you come from? You’re all talk. I do work in the private sector. I own my own firm. And I do micromanage details. It’s what’s made me successful. When my career relies on my professional work product, I micromanage it. But of course, the idea of micromanagement might be too complicated for you.

    Now, if you’re someone who comes from a background of working on team projects, that would explain your perspective. And it makes sense in that dynamic. But when you’re the leader, the CEO, the one in charge, things change a bit.

    Micromanaging doesn’t mean you don’t take advice, or rely upon others. It means you attend to the important details yourself. And you control the details.

    Bill Self, for sure, is a micromanager. That is obvious. Watch him during the game. Who calls the plays? Who runs the huddles? Heck, he can barely give his players freedom to run things outside of the offense. He’s the king. Have you ever seen one of his practices? I have. He runs everything. This in contrast to some other coaches we see. And it’s not a fault all the time. I am quite sure that Bill Self is well versed in compliance issues.

    How about Bill Snyder? He’s a famous micromanager, even ensuring that butter is heated to the right temperature so it will spread easily at team meals.

    So, when Self’s on his private plane hopping between recruiting destination, he has no time to be abreast of recruiting rules and regs? That is ridiculous. And it is ridiculous to suggest that Bill Self is too busy to deal with this stuff. Yes, I want my basketball coach to know the rules. I agree that you have to rely upon folks to help, of course. And you have to delegate many things. But when it comes to your livelihood, you better be the one that knows what he/she is doing. Because the buck stops with you. Some people have never had to deal with that in their professional life.


    I question whether you are correct on this point – you say that “the NCAA will not disapprove a class that was listed as approved on its site retroactively.” You cited the portal that I had provided a few weeks back.

    How do you know this? At Diallo’s school, wasn’t that all supposedly ok’d and now the NCAA is investigating if there were issues with the coursework? It doesn’t make sense to me the that the NCAA would say “ok” and because the portal said heading in that year the class was ok, it is still ok. It looks like there are many reasons a course can be found to be inadequate.

    And this site is a guide.

    When you go to American Heritage’s portal, it says this, “This program is under an extended evaluation period to determine if it meets the academic requirements for NCAA cleared status. During this evaluation period, the courses listed below may be subject to further review on a case-by-case basis, which will require additional academic documentation.”

    That means that all of the courses they say are ok are under review.

    And then the site specifically says, “The list of NCAA courses, and courses contained within, are maintained as a guide for prospective student-athletes seeking NCAA initial-eligibility. **The list of approved courses does not, nor is intended to, signify accreditation, certification, approval or endorsement of any high school or specific courses by the NCAA or NCAA Eligibility Center and is subject to change at any time and without notice.**Core course information included on this Web site is provided for guidance purposes only and should not be solely relied on as an indication of NCAA initial-eligibility. Certification of a prospective student-athlete is case-specific, and the Eligibility Center has the authority to determine in its sole discretion whether the prospective student-athlete has met all criteria.”

    Clearly (except maybe to you) this is obvious. Please, tell me how you don’t concede that you are wrong? Think hard. You said, “You posted a link to the NCAA site where every HS is listed and a list of approved and not approved classes at each school is readily available.”

    You posted this as the gospel. That it was that simple.

    But you didn’t read the fine print.

    Further, the portal of Diallo’s school only lists that the courses are good – “ok” through 2011-12.

    The course work is now under “review”. And it would seem that review could spell possible eligibility problems after the fact, meaning after the time he took classes that appeared ok on this list. And the NCAA does not even represent that this portal approves coursework.

    This is the exact point I made, the one you evaded. You think because a course is listed then it is approved and that decision can’t be changed. That is silly. Again, the portal says through 2011-12. And it says it is a guide and NOT certification of any course. My point was that upon review, a course could be determined inadequate. That’s exactly what the review is about, and why it is concerning.

    To prove my point further, go to the portal. Click on “show all denied courses.” You’ll then hit the drop down that shows the “denied reasons code description.” You’ll see that there are courses now denied because 'the course is taught below the regular academic level." There are other items too, most all of which could have been entered after an academic review.

    The point is that a kid really could be innocent in all of this. I realize you believe you were an extraordinary 17 year old. Some kids may not be to your extraordinary level. But even extraordinary kids can’t place reliance on a portal that is a guide.

    This is why I said a kid could be “innocent.” Would Diallo be “innocent” under that scenario? If he thought everything was good, but then it wasn’t?

    And, again, if your argument here is correct, then you lose the “Bill Self knew or should have known” discussion. Because the info you cite in the would have been definitive.


    On the release, of course, you didn’t mention the release because “we both know (it) is an option.” Sure. Whatever you say. And you argue just to argue now asking how many kids “thousands of miles away from home” get their parents input. Gotcha. I’m sure none. I’m sure they just shut their parents out, and their parents are disinterested. Give me a break.

    It was you just a few weeks ago arguing that privacy laws prevented coaches from getting school info, and then you were enlightened on the release issue. You didn’t even say thank you. Now it’s old hat to you – so much so, that we are to assume that you are considering that when you are ranting about how parents can’t get information on their 18+ year old kid’s schooling. I would dare say that an 18 year old kid denying his parents access to school info is the significant exception, rather than rule. But I’m sure you’ll disagree with that too.



  • @HighEliteMajor @JayHawkFanToo Well I am just happy that you are both more informed than I and I can see both sides of an issue of two knowledgeable people!

    Some may consider this argument not a good thing. But I enjoy reading such in-depth comments by both of you. Keep it up!



  • @HighEliteMajor

    Damn! Way to wield reason!



  • @HighEliteMajor One of the best guides in history for small businesses is the Rule of St. Benedict. He made the Abbot responsible for everything, mentioning specifically details like fitting the habits.

    The NCAA now agrees with St. Benedict and makes the head coach responsible for the actions of his assistants.

    Coach Wooden taught his players how to put on their socks right.

    I met a player from KU’s 1969 Orange Bowl team. He said that season the team worked hard on basic fundamentals. The following year there was less emphasis on the details and they went downhill.

    Micromanagement rules!

    St. Benedict also insisted on the critical importance of recruiting. If you’re going to micromanage something, that’s it.



  • I’ve only been an employee once after finishing college. It was a big corp and was bought out a year later and they laid off everyone in our department. I said it then and I kept to my word… I would never be an employee again. That was back in the '80s.

    I’ve always had to micromanage. There is a line that stays moving and that is the line with the right amount of micromanagement. Too much and employees can’t breath and no longer feel like they have to be responsible. Not enough and you are asking for trouble! My customers expect me to micromanage, because they know the job will get done right the first time.

    I have a manufacturing company and this week I’m spending my time on the plant floor, 100% involved in fixing two of our production machines. If I don’t do it, it won’t be done right. No one cares more about it than me. We have big orders coming soon and that equipment needs to be fixed right. Our operators and plant manager just doesn’t have the creativity to make the right decisions on things like this.



  • Dick Vitale ‏@DickieV · 13h13 hours ago
    Totally amazes me how the NCAA takes forever in determining eligibility for kids like @cheick_diallo13 who speaks 4 languages fluently.



  • CHEICK DIALLOS MOTOR ‏@CheicksMotor · 12h12 hours ago
    @DickieV @cheick_diallo13 FREE CHEICK DIALLO! #CHEICKYOSELF #KUBBALL

    DICK.png


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