Philosophical Question: Whose violations were worse, Rick Pitino or Clem Haskins?

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WriterGoph

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I'm sure this is going to stir up some serious debate here...

With the news that it appears Rick Pitino was directly involved in getting the $100,000 to 5-star recruit Brian Bowen, whose transgression do you take more issue with?

Rick paying a player six figures to commit to his program or Clem getting some of his players' papers written to keep them eligible?

I vote Rick, since it's bordering or may be an actual crime
 


For me it's gotta be Rick and it ain't real close. Throw in the other scandals around him and I think it's fair to say most coaches would have been out of a job long before this most recent scandal even happened.
 

Rick by far. What Clem did (or more accurately covered up) was bad, but we know at many of these schools the star athletes don't have to cheat, or show up, they are just given a passing grade.
 

If a coach goes to this level to land a big-time recruit, you can bet he will be up to no good to make sure said player is able to play at all cost.
 


WriterGoph said:
I'm sure this is going to stir up some serious debate here...

With the news that it appears Rick Pitino was directly involved in getting the $100,000 to 5-star recruit Brian Bowen, whose transgression do you take more issue with?

Rick paying a player six figures to commit to his program or Clem getting some of his players' papers written to keep them eligible?

I vote Rick, since it's bordering or may be an actual crime
Click to expand...

The $100k for a recruit was only his 2nd worst transgression IMO.
 

With all due respect to the original poster, I'm not sure we want to have a discussion/argument about who cheated the worst. Even if Pitino's violations are more serious, that does not negate or minimize what Clem did - or what Clem allowed to happen under his watch.

the thing is - I suspect that violations like Pitino's are probably more common. you always hear talk/speculation about players receiving under-the-table payments/inducements. The academic violations seem to be more rare, so when they do crop up, they draw more attention. Now, I suspect there are schools playing fast and loose with some academic issues, but they seem to do a good job of keeping it quiet.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
With all due respect to the original poster, I'm not sure we want to have a discussion/argument about who cheated the worst. Even if Pitino's violations are more serious, that does not negate or minimize what Clem did - or what Clem allowed to happen under his watch.

the thing is - I suspect that violations like Pitino's are probably more common. you always hear talk/speculation about players receiving under-the-table payments/inducements. The academic violations seem to be more rare, so when they do crop up, they draw more attention. Now, I suspect there are schools playing fast and loose with some academic issues, but they seem to do a good job of keeping it quiet.
Click to expand...

Not trying to negate what Clem did at all. But I've heard some ridiculous stances on here from posters trying to completely disregard our 96-97 Final Four team like it didn't happen because of the academic dishonesty. So I thought it interesting to get some perspective with this new scandal unfolding.

Let me ask, do we think Louisville fans don't acknowledge that 2013 national title because their recruits were enticed with strippers/hookers?
 

I'd argue Clem because at least Slick Rick won a title. Clem only made a final four. If you're going to cheat, you might as well win it all...
 



short ornery norwegian said:
With all due respect to the original poster, I'm not sure we want to have a discussion/argument about who cheated the worst. Even if Pitino's violations are more serious, that does not negate or minimize what Clem did - or what Clem allowed to happen under his watch.

the thing is - I suspect that violations like Pitino's are probably more common. you always hear talk/speculation about players receiving under-the-table payments/inducements. The academic violations seem to be more rare, so when they do crop up, they draw more attention. Now, I suspect there are schools playing fast and loose with some academic issues, but they seem to do a good job of keeping it quiet.
Click to expand...

Academic integrity is a slippery slope. Ever since I saw the 60 Minutes piece on UNLV when Tarkanian was there, I've been convinced that the vast majority of schools are keeping kids eligible by hook or my crook. In that article, a player is shown getting "tutoring," which was pretty much the tutor doing his work for him. And that was something that the school was willing to have shown on national TV! What's going on in secret? That said, since then, Bobby Jackson has proven that he's smart enough to have done his schoolwork himself, so the cheating was nothing more than laziness by him and the program.
 


If I have to choose between Rick and Clem as to which incident was worse, I pick.....

The University of North Carolina! And it isn't even close! 20+ years of fictional classes to keep kids eligible! At least our guys handed in papers (written by Jan) to stay eligible. That shows some effort.

But creating classes that don't actually exist! That is a University wide problem!

Rick and Clem are just a couple bad apples in an otherwise "legal" system.
 

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