Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott kicked off the Media Day with ”Seven teams made the NCAA tournament!”
It’s that time of the year again, time for Media Days! The room was full to capacity, and even Bill Walton came into the room for most of the day. Larry Scott opened the day with is remarks starting off with telling us that Pac-12 Basketball was strong last season. Scott explained what he meant, here are his highlights: “We had three teams with 30-win seasons — three teams in the top 10 — the third overall wins in the tournament –Oregon making the final four last season — great continuity in our coaches.”
Scott continued, “Every single one of them were collegiate basketball players — we have 30 starters returning – a great young talented group — very competitive.” He’s proud and happy that the season ends at the team mobile arena. He was “Delighted to set new attendance records.” It’s one of the hottest tickets in Las Vegas.
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Scott said there is more and more fan interest and they hit a new milestone and are averaging an attendance of 9,000 on average per game. He also reiterated that the TV Ratings are high and that there is no conference that televised more games.
Then the moment we were all waiting for: the FBI Probe.
“Along with the NCAA announcement Protection of our student-athletes – charges are deeply troubling – we have to use this moment to take a closer look at what is going on in collegiate basketball,” said Scott.
Condoleezza Rice will head up this new NCAA commission and will include agents, nine scholastic basketball programs, and the NBA. The commission will make recommendations to the membership, and the Pac-12 will look forward to being actively engaged and improve college basketball.
His PAC-12 task force will take advantage of our expertise in our conference. They will look into shoe and apparel companies and others involved in collegiate basketball, folks associated with the AAU.
Scott is “Highly Concerned” and will form A PAC-12 commission that will do a deep dive into the issues with recruitment and other things that could affect other sports including trends, and there will be four mandates:
1. Help educate university leadership
2. Develop recommendations for PAC-12 Schools
3. Develop specific proposals that will be made to the NCAA for national rules changes
4. Bring forth proposals to address third part influence (growing)
Scott said his developing the roster of his PAC-12 task force and announced the first five:
1. AD Dan Guerrero (UCLA)
2. AD Chris Hill (Utah)
3. Former Football/NFL Charles Davis
4. Highly respected collegiate administrator Tom Jernstedt, who ran the NCAA Tournament and oversaw college basketball for the NCAA for many years
5. Former Stanford coach Mike Montgomery (on NCAA Basketball commission link to national effort with NCAA)
Then the coaches filed in one by one with their players in the back. This year, the Pac-12 opted for the football style interviews where the media crowd the podium or the player’s table and start shooting questions. Here are a few of the coaches comments. Interesting to note that the schools least talked about as far as basketball teams in the NCAA had the most to say.Coach Tad Boyle, Colorado, “Shown some light on the underbelly of our sport – it’s a problem that’s gone on for years and years. I hope everybody gets exposed that deserves to get exposed. There’s a black market that’s been exposed, that market is not going away, we just need to know how to deal with it. The way these kids are being looked at on the black market is that they are $100 million assets.”
Coach Tad Boyle, Colorado, “Shown some light on the underbelly of our sport – it’s a problem that’s gone on for years and years. I hope everybody gets exposed that deserves to get exposed. There’s a black market that’s been exposed, that market is not going away, we just need to know how to deal with it. The way these kids are being looked at on the black market is that they are $100 million assets.”
Coach Larry Krystkowiak, Utah, “So we didn’t lose any sleep. I think everybody makes a decision across the country how you’re going to go about your business, and we felt really secure that we weren’t going to be involved with it. So it really didn’t have — we didn’t even talk about it as a staff.”
Krystkowiak reiterated something a peer told him, “joke; I realized as I walked away that it wasn’t a joke — if you’re not cheating, you’re cheating yourself. And I remember going, Haha, and then I went. Actually, that’s probably true. So, again, the amount of money and the amount of time that it’s gone on, I just think it makes for a big mushroom cloud at some point that’s going to blow.”
Coach Ernie Kent, Washington State, was asked about the coaches that were targeted being black, “It bothers me immensely. THat goes back, I think, when you look at all sports across the board. Oh have to put in a Rooney Rule for football because they’re looked at as good coaches, but they couldn’t coach.”
Kent was pressed further on the issue, “I think it’s very, very important that we help to continue to educate all of you that this is a college basketball issue that we need to get right. It’s not necessarily a bunch of African-American assistant coaches that have access to players and doing all the recruiting that this label gets put on them, very very unfair. Because ultimately they are assistant coaches running these programs.”
Coach Wayne Tinkle, Oregon State, “It’s a tough deal; you don’t ever want to see a cloud like that hang over our sport and our profession. Some of the folks indicted are friends of mine. It is what it is, and we hope that it brings a positive change for my sport and my profession for sure.””
Coach Mike Hopkins, Washington, “It was shocking to see it go down, but it is also a wake-up call — I am not a judge or a jury, but there are no shortcuts. Reform needs to happen. You have to be very careful who you are hiring and make sure you’re communicating and educating all the time.”
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There was one comment that stuck out to everyone the most after Ernie Kent’s comments, and it came for the Utah coach. Perhaps Coach Krystkowiak said it best, “The pot of money is significantly higher. But I think — I don’t know, to use an analogy, but it’s kind of like the gateway drug, right? You’re introduced to alcohol, and you have a little marijuana, and next thing you know you’re doing cocaine, and before you know it you’re on Breaking Bad (laughing).”
“All quotes in this article were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted”