Who said cheaters never win?
I doubt Bill Self’s parents ever gave him that advice. If they did, he didn’t listen.
Self’s more of the Al Davis “just win baby” school of thought.
Good thing, too, I guess.
Think of the tens of millions the modestly embattled/celebrated KU basketball coach might never have banked had he opted to play it straight down the middle.
Instead of consorting with the money-under-the-table types he’s waxed so innocently about all these years. Now it’s clear that his program was not as squeaky clean as the Jayhawk faithful boasted.
And now, with the darkest cloud of Self’s storied coaching career hovering overhead, comes this year’s team’s pre season No. 1 ranking.
Talk about timing.
Even Lawrence Journal World sports homer Tom Keegan can’t resist calling Self out in the wake of the ranking.
“Under normal circumstances, that would trigger peacock struts from Mass Street to campus to the West side of town,” Keegan writes. “It might spark conversations here and there as to whether this adds pressure to the season, but those would be drowned out by festive, relentless boasting.
“Instead, the air feels more like that reserved for the days following KU’s final loss in the NCAA tournament. The embarrassing revelations during the federal trial regarding corruption in college basketball have cast a palpable pall over Lawrence.”
Keegan’s bottom line:
“In the court of public opinion, no jury with a formal ruling was needed. Even if it never is proven and even if the NCAA doesn’t come down hard on Kansas for anything, the majority of those paying attention can’t help but reach the conclusion that Adidas and Kansas acted in concert to steer Billy Preston and Silvio De Sousa to Allen Fieldhouse. That, of course, leads to reasonable speculation that those are merely the most recent players and far from the only ones to travel that gilded path to Kansas.”
Despite Keegan’s pronouncement, there’s precious little evidence that KU fans and Lawrenceites are bummed, embarrassed or downcast, let alone ashamed.
Far from it.
“Nobody ever thought Self didn’t know what was going on, it’s whether he had plausible deniability,” says Crossroads promoter Brett Mosiman a staunch KU supporter. “And what is the crime they’re accusing KU of here? I mean, you know North Carolina‘s doing it. You know Kentucky’s doing it. If Bill Self goes down you can say goodbye to the NCAA.
“If Bill Self’s guilty – and you know he probably is – then everybody’s dirty in the Top 25. It may be true that K-State and Iowa State may not be cheating because nobody wants to go there. But I guarantee you if KU and Bill Self go down they will take a lot of other schools with them.
“I think it’s a dirty, dirty, dirty business and it’s been going on for – what? – 35 years? How does Kentucky get seven blue ribbon recruits every year? Is it because they’re paying them? Of course they are! Do you think for one second that Alabama and Ohio State don’t pay their players?”
Speaking of K-State supporters, ” I’m not ready to cross the line and say Self is guilty,” says Topeka businessman Craig Woodbury. “He may have to throw somebody on his staff overboard, but I don’t know. But they’ve got to be steering basketball players their way and it’s got to be a money thing.”
As for KU and/or its fans giving up on Self in the name of honesty and fair play, no way!
“No loyalty is quite so blind as that of a college sports fan,”Keegan muses. “And I don’t see Kansas even pondering cutting ties with Self, the university’s biggest rock star…to do so would be to guarantee declining revenues. In what business is that acceptable? Follow the money.”
Again, who said cheaters never win?
By my measure, Self’s pulled it off many times over via his multi million dollars paychecks and teams and – a few years back – with his wife.
Hey, why mess with a winning formula?
Yawn. Money exchanging hands in big-time college athletics? Say it ain’t so. D-1 athletics, like politics, is a dirty, dirty business. There were truckloads of cash pouring into UCLA back in the day when Lew Alcindor and John Wooden were the show. Everybody knew it then and everybody knows it now. Wooden is still held up as the Godfather of college basketball. There’s no asterisk next to his name in the record books or the Hall of Fame.
OK, Jim…
But then why even have rules if they are made to be broken and only losers like K-State and Iowa State need to observe them?
You think K-State and Iowa State “follow the rules”? Does the name Michael Beasley ring a bell? 10 minutes of research would show the violations that the entire athletic department at Iowa State had just a few years back. Did Self get his hand caught in the cookie jar? Yeah. Do they ALL do it? Yeah. Nobody died here. This is the muck and filth of major college sports.
Come on, Jim. You can’ t join a group of cars doing 90 on the highway, then use the excuse that everyone else was speeding too when you get pulled over and ticketed. When you break the rules and get caught, you take your medicine. Self/KU got caught, and they should be blasted accordingly. By the public, press, and most importantly, the NCAA.
I’m with Guy….but KU fans could care less. For them, cheating is a guilty pleasure
Yes, HC. All KU fans are EXACTLY the same. Nailed it. Not sure if you meant they COULD care less or COULDN’T, but it certainly is interesting to ponder.
Well, maybe not all KU fans, big Jim, but I’ve been immersed in KU sports culture a long, long time and spent the past six years living behind enemy lines in LA and while there will always be exceptions to the rule, I can’t think of a single time anybody said something like, “I think it’s awful what KU is doing to field a championship calibre basketball team every year.”
You?
College basketball recruiting is a total cesspool, and has been for a long time. If the NCAA wants to even ATTEMPT at upholding its total sham of an existence, it will HAMMER Bill Self and KU. The whole premise of the FBI arrests and trial were that these shoe companies (Adidas) and their representatives (James Gatto) were defrauding the schools by funneling money to the players either directly or through intermediaries, thereby making them ineligible by NCAA rules. The problem with that is, if you can prove that the school or it’s employees (read: Bill Self) were involved or knew about it and did nothing, then the FBI’s case falls apart. You can’t defraud someone when they are part of the whole scheme. Bottom line: If James Gatto is found guilty, then KU can rest easy. (Although with a nice black eye) If he’s found NOT GUILTY, they are screwed because that means the jury believes that Bill Self/Kurtis Townsend was in on the whole scheme. And since this is a public trial with sworn testimony & hard evidence, the NCAA could use that to hammer Kansas. You see this is different than your standard NCAA investigation. The NCAA has no power of subpoena. There’s no real penalty for lying to the NCAA. Not so in a Federal investigation & trial. Now will the NCAA suspend Bill Self and give him about a 10 year show cause penalty? I highly doubt it. The NCAA will continue it’s preferential treatment of blue blood schools like KU, UNC, Kentucky, etc.
You’ve always had a hard-on for Bill, Hearne. Did he turn you down or something?
How did you know, Man Who Knew Too Much…
I was so much better than some of the dudes he picked for scholarships ahead of me.
Nah, just a hypocrisy thing. And probably spending too much time in Lawrence listening to blowhards and superficial sports types act as though there’s only one thing in the world that truly matters (can you guess what that might be?).
Hey, I agree with HC. Self always gets a pass. And I’m a KU Alum. Getting a pass happens to every top coach in a college town. Always been that way. Will it stop. I don’t think so. Why?
The old saying “Money talks, BS walks.” It is always about the money in the NCAA football and basketball.
As a (unofficial) sports loser, nice to have someone agree with me once every blue moon or so
MLB corrupt, NFL corrupt, NBA corrupt, NCAA corrupt – what isn’t corrupt sports anymore? Aside massive over-expansion teams/players resulting an compromised, watered down product, integrity (what remained of it) today is passe.
Speaking of fat cats deux KU/Paunch-o Self: to the winners go the $poil$, ill-gotten vainglory and overindulgence the banquet circuit. It reminds me somewhat (though smaller scale) the 1960’s Chiefs under Hunt/Stram: sans Hunt’s $ and ability outbid the NFL for the best talent, would KC have ever won anything? As it happened, they couldn’t win shy backing in as a one-year only wild card aberration, despite a talent level theirs that for years many claimed was the best in all of pro football.
Referred ‘the team of the 70’s’ following one fluke moment the sun January 1970, this franchise has never again sniffed relevancy since. The common draft, pro merger and self-satisfaction their downfall. KU similar KC, take away their advantage$ and watch how suddenly greatness management, team and coach becomes anything but. Ah, but the college counterpart not having faced the analogous, has not been so obliged… yet.
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Ridiculously over-expanded post seasons sports make reaching said not so much an accomplishment, as mere formality. MLB, wild card games, divisional games, league championship games – a marathon beyond the regular season crucible then followed by the anticlimactic finale… a ‘World Series’ (even the name a misnomer.)
Once upon a time, the two best teams based respective leagues sample size 162 games, played one Championship series: 4 games minimum, 7 max for all the marbles. Half a century ago, 10% (2 the 20 teams) MLB made post season… today 30% (10 the 30) of the total jump on the ‘no team ($) left behind’ gravy train (ditto NFL/NBA beginning late 1960’s; the rigging # of a mediocre lot post $eason participant$ today even more pronounced.)
Some dare call this easiest era ever make post season sports ‘progress’… Kerouac calls it a con$piracy, at the expense integrity (many claim modern overabundance of ‘video’ too is progress; how did we live the days before man was replaced machine – 10 angles instead of man’s one, endless technology and overanalysis in lieu the human element?
Nod delivery drivers as average Joe same out for a drive yesteryear, they managed find the destination sans GPS doing all the work for them (mind, eyes, signs and road map, instead.) Hindsight, perhaps the advent instant replay 1960’s a precursor today’s over-dependence on gadgets/gimmicks variously…. in the name of progress, of course.
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Baseball, PEDS/juiced baseballs having made the former national pastime and home runs bogus the better part the last 30 years, comes the NFL manipulating/massaging the rules in favor everything offense, to the point it as baseball relegates meaningless stats. Essentially unearned/handed out on a silver platter today, an video game come to life. Flashback Sly & The Family Stone: ‘everybody is a star’ (no child left behind/it takes a village – and too many teams/players/post seasons, etc.)
Incestuous owners, players, leagues, games, sports… nod Sly ‘when the system tries to bring you down’, just take a knee, change the rules or cheat as necessary get the re$ult you want. Chime in O’Jays to take us out… ‘Money money money money – MONEY!’
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Tsk, tsk…such negativity!
One man’s definition negativity another’s veracity… ‘true’ the facts as I expressed them, HC. ‘Cheating’ an system, the rules, teams/coaches/players is, any rationale/name, still cheating.
Unfair advantages whatever may be, how impressive is it thus beat up your little sister merely because you can? All the wink and a nod ‘if you’re not cheatin’ you’re not tryin’/’everybody is (or was) doing it’ same, so much song and tap dance (Douglas’ ‘Gordon Gekko’ was wrong: greed is NOT good.)
Why Kerouac remains e’er ardent the legit in lieu counterfeit, genuine rather caricature, vintage Pack in place neoteric Pats, example (esteem the venerable, disdain contempo.)
Old coaching adage ‘he’ll beat you with his, then take yours and beat you same’ just so much narrative autoerotism; if you don’t have the horses you don’t win – period… you don’t win despite a team of stallions, and you get ridden out of town and job.
Paul Brown’s reply ‘why has Len Dawson been so successful but you never gave him a chance when you had him at QB in CLEV’ – “because he’s driving a Cadillac”, reference Chiefs talent level. Faint praise or grim realization, a lot of truth in that sentiment.
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(PS) Nod ‘The Most Interesting Blogger In The World’ – Kerouac doesn’t always diss the swiss chiefs/modernity, but when he does, he prefers to do so on KCC…
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A thing worth having is a thing worth cheating for.
Let’s get real – at least for a couple of seconds here – who wouldn’t slip a card or two off the bottom of the deck if you could get a $5 million paycheck and make a lot of other fat cats that you work with and an entire town/region happy?
Self had few qualms about cheating on his wife in a town smaller than my brain where everybody (including his wife and kids) who could breath hard enough to fog up a mirror knew exactly what was going on. And unless I miss my guess, I think if he had to choose between the $5 M a year and his family, the former would win hands down
Sophist So-crates: “He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he ‘would like’ to have.”
Seconding, renowned ear (if not nose and throat) logician USS Enterprise, Science Officer Mr. Spock:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcxWxNO8idc
Chief Medical Officer Leonard McCoy, tricorder in hand, ends all debate, argument:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxfi7XMS8pw
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