When whistle blowers go bad-The Bruce Pearl Story

[wh]

espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/15159/when-whistleblowers-go-bad-a-depressing-tale

Sounds like his career is in serious jeopardy. Ironic and sad.

[motowntitan]

Sadly, this is neither ironic or sad. Consider it Kharma!

[valpogal]

Nice to finally see a coach having to pay a price for cheating. We generally see the "bad" coach bought out of a contract, moving on to another job, while the program and the players are left behind kicking in the dust.

[stlvufan]

It's karma in the "good ole boys" network that has no room for whistleblowers, that's for sure. In the real world, the "karmic" aspect is far less obvious. It's other bad things, but "karma" is not the first thought that comes to my mind.

On first thought, I'd completely go along with "ironic and sad".

[motowntitan]

Sept 14, 2010 12:36:55 GMT -5 stlvufan said:

It's karma in the "good ole boys" network that has no room for whistleblowers, that's for sure. In the real world, the "karmic" aspect is far less obvious. It's other bad things, but "karma" is not the first thought that comes to my mind.

On first thought, I'd completely go along with "ironic and sad".

stlvufan,

I think you need to know all of the facts before thinking that Bruce Pearl was some kind of great "whistleblower" for the game.

Here are the facts:

1) He accused Jimmy Collins, then at Illinois, of tampering (i.e offering illegal benefits)with a recruit that Pearl was also recruiting for Iowa.

2) He tape recorded a conversation with the recruit in which the recruit mentions the alleged "benefits".

3) He turned the tape over to the NCAA.

4) OOPS___ The tape had one or more time periods where there were blanks (ie. recrorded over) in between the conversations with the player.

Now, here is why the NCAA could NOT punish Illini- the rumor was that the now Nixonized tape included either:

A) Pearl coaching the recruit on what to say.
B) Pearl counter offering what the Illini had offered.

Now tell me - Do you think he was some honest to goody guy with hopes of keeping the NCAA clean?

[wh]

Sept 14, 2010 17:59:46 GMT -5 motowntitan said:

Sept 14, 2010 12:36:55 GMT -5 stlvufan said:

It's karma in the "good ole boys" network that has no room for whistleblowers, that's for sure. In the real world, the "karmic" aspect is far less obvious. It's other bad things, but "karma" is not the first thought that comes to my mind.

On first thought, I'd completely go along with "ironic and sad".

stlvufan,

I think you need to know all of the facts before thinking that Bruce Pearl was some kind of great "whistleblower" for the game.

Here are the facts:

1) He accused Jimmy Collins, then at Illinois, of tampering (i.e offering illegal benefits)with a recruit that Pearl was also recruiting for Iowa.

2) He tape recorded a conversation with the recruit in which the recruit mentions the alleged "benefits".

3) He turned the tape over to the NCAA.

4) OOPS___ The tape had one or more time periods where there were blanks (ie. recrorded over) in between the conversations with the player.

Now, here is why the NCAA could NOT punish Illini- the rumor was that the now Nixonized tape included either:

A) Pearl coaching the recruit on what to say.
B) Pearl counter offering what the Illini had offered.

Now tell me - Do you think he was some honest to goody guy with hopes of keeping the NCAA clean?

That is how the ESPN story portrays the situation - ironic and sad. Not having been in the HL when Pearl was part of the league, most Valpo fans would have no reason to think otherwise. I just remember being impressed from afar with the Milwaukee teams he had, pulling for them in their NCAA tourney run, and thinking he must be a heck of a coach. I am now learning from different HL message boards that a lot of fans are not surprised by this and suspected things even when he was Milwaukee's coach. I guess we'll never know for sure.

[dylanrocks]

Folks, as devout a follower of the Milwaukee program as I am, I have no way of knowing what did or didn't go on behind the scenes.

What I will say is that it's much easier to cheat at places like Tennessee, North Carolina and Kentucky where the cheating is institutional than it is at a place like Milwaukee. Also, the vast majority of the foundational players on those breakthrough teams -- Dylan Page, Clay Tucker, Ronnie Jones, Jason Frederick, Adrian Tigert, Chris Hill and Joah Tucker -- all were courted or successfully recruited by Bo Ryan or his predecessor, Ric Cobb, who was a terrific recruiter but a lousy coach. All of them were successful students.

Simply put, Pearl likely wasn't here long enough (four years) to commit the kind of "false representations" to which his ambition would have led. No one here, though, is saying that he's a paragon of virtue or some kind of sacrificial lamb.

[fwalum]

Sept 11, 2010 17:07:16 GMT -5 valpogal said:

Nice to finally see a coach having to pay a price for cheating. We generally see the "bad" coach bought out of a contract, moving on to another job, while the program and the players are left behind kicking in the dust.

Agree 100%! Institutions and student athletes typically pay much more then the coaches involved in these indiscretions. I am sick of watching coaches have success, get the big contract by jumping to another school and then a year or two later we discover that the success was partially aided by some recruiting violation that the "school" committed. Meanwhile the former coach is enjoying life relatively unscathed. The name of a certain Kentucky coach comes to mind as an example.

[motowntitan]

Wh and Dylan- for the record- my post only concerns his time at Iowa.

I know Perry Watson had a bad rap amongst the local coaches for his alleged involvement with the Fab Five at UM. He was questions and found to not be at any fault (one of the free tickets was even proven to have his signature falsified). However, the link was bad enough by word of mouth.

[motowntitan]

WH- that's my point- even ESPN did not report on the full state of affairs from the 1st time he allegedly became the "whistleblower"- Hence why my first post in this thread stated neither ironic or sad.

[stlvufan]

Sept 14, 2010 17:59:46 GMT -5 motowntitan said:

Sept 14, 2010 12:36:55 GMT -5 stlvufan said:

It's karma in the "good ole boys" network that has no room for whistleblowers, that's for sure. In the real world, the "karmic" aspect is far less obvious. It's other bad things, but "karma" is not the first thought that comes to my mind.

On first thought, I'd completely go along with "ironic and sad".

stlvufan,

I think you need to know all of the facts before thinking that Bruce Pearl was some kind of great "whistleblower" for the game.

Here are the facts:

1) He accused Jimmy Collins, then at Illinois, of tampering (i.e offering illegal benefits)with a recruit that Pearl was also recruiting for Iowa.

2) He tape recorded a conversation with the recruit in which the recruit mentions the alleged "benefits".

3) He turned the tape over to the NCAA.

4) OOPS___ The tape had one or more time periods where there were blanks (ie. recrorded over) in between the conversations with the player.

Now, here is why the NCAA could NOT punish Illini- the rumor was that the now Nixonized tape included either:

A) Pearl coaching the recruit on what to say.
B) Pearl counter offering what the Illini had offered.

Now tell me - Do you think he was some honest to goody guy with hopes of keeping the NCAA clean?

News flash: most whistle-blowers have dirty hands themselves. I had no way of knowing all the intimate details (nor do I care to), but you are hardly the first person to give me the impression that Pearl was a bit slimy in the affair himself.

I stand by what I said.

Was what he reported judged to be correct about the Illini recruit, regardless of his own ulterior motives? Was his whistle-blowing essentially correct? Then he performed a duty of his profession. Did he also do wrong as did so, and does he deserve some payback for that? Very possibly. But that is separate from the essential act, which may well have been the right thing to do.