And I don’t even mean the solution. The plague runs too wide to wipe out with one paper towel, but maybe it soaks up some of the spillage.
Actually, that’s a terrible analogy because we want to prevent spills, right? So maybe this is the top on the cup that prevents the spills. Or something.
Let’s just stop with the clever intro and get to it. Bob Huggins and 350 other Division I coaches have an issue of some degree of severity with players never playing for or transferring from their programs. We took our shots Saturday trying to get the why and the how out of Huggins, and there was only so much he was willing to say and only so much he could say.
Perhaps he could have absorbed some fault instead of redirecting much of it, but the truth is there are occasions where and when his hands are tied. And there are constraints applied by NCAA rules and calendars, as well as priorities associated with his job, that only let him or his assistants get to know a player and everyone and everything that comes with him so well.
That said, Huggins can do better. He said that Saturday. The other 350 coaches can do better. They’ll never completely solve this and they’ll never put a permanent end to the surprises and to the outside influences.
But what if they could better avoid the surprises and the effects of those influential on the outside? What if there were a way to get to know these prospective student-athletes better within NCAA guidelines and without taking time away from the job of, you know, coaching a college basketball team? That’d be an agreeable arrangement, and it’s not unreasonable to think there’d be a way to have someone look for and present red flags. So what’s another $40,000 to the payroll and another body to the athletic department to have someone who can get to know players and their background and their baggage while coaches cannot?
What if teams devoted someone full-time to exploring the backgrounds of players, their families, their friends, their entourages, their enablers, their high schools, their academics, their reputations, their legal standing or any one of the many things that happen to these schools?
Let’s flash back to that 2013-13 equity report. In the four annual reports before that, men’s basketball averaged $230,102 spent on recruiting expenses. Again, a large and nationally competitive chunk of money, but look around and wonder if it was well-spent.
In those same four years, WVU averaged $196,884 spent on what it calls “Support Staff/Administrative Salaries, Benefits and Bonuses Paid,” and offices everywhere are swelling with people hired and given odd titles and specific responsibilities. Surely someone positioned to investigate prospective student-athletes would fall into the support staff and could probably run a google search to see if someone faces charges for failing to appear in court.
