Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 17, 1990 TAG: 9005170046
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bill Brill
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But 10 days after the Final Four, "Chris called me up, crying, and said that he had to turn pro," Brown said Tuesday while attending Knight Commission meetings in Washington, D.C.
Later, Brown heard from Jackson's mother, who said she was unhappy with the financial arrangements with the player's agent.
"She said this so-called agent was taking advantage of her," said Brown, who had Jackson's mother send him the contract. "What she sent me was a yellow legal pad with a list of things that the agent said the mother owed him."
What happened, Brown said scornfully, is the agent had been loaning the mother money all year for a variety of things, and now he was calling in the debt.
The arrangement the agent had with Jackson's mother isn't legal by NCAA standards, and Jackson would have been ruled ineligible had it become known.
"They're the worst people we deal with," Brown said of agents. "They're parasites trying to get involved with our program."
Other Brownouts:
"When I got to LSU, our academic counselor knew less than Charles Manson."
"When Sports Illustrated listed Stanley Roberts as a member of the All-Proposition 48 team, it was like they put a red `S' [for stupid] on his chest. It destroyed Stanley."
"I've been offered $250,000 by a shoe company. Personally, I feel bad about the money. Who's guiding the shoe companies that they don't take over recruiting for us?"
Southern Cal coach George Raveling lost out on prep superstar Ed O'Bannon to national champion Nevada Las-Vegas, although O'Bannon's parents refused to sign the national letter-of-intent.
However, Raveling said he still might wind up with 6-foot-8 forward if UNLV goes on probation.
"That was the strangest scenario I've ever seen in recruiting," Raveling said. "The mother definitely wanted Southern Cal and the academics. The father was half academics and half basketball. The kid definitely was all basketball."
Unless UNLV goes on probation, the Rebels will be overwhelming favorites to win the NCAA title again. They welcome back four starters, including All-America forward Larry Johnson. Center George Ackles, redshirted because of poor grades, can replace the fifth starter, David Butler.
Besides O'Bannon, UNLV has signed 7-foot center Elmore Spencer, who started his career at Georgia, and 6-6 Darrin Hancock, the player of the year in Georgia.
"They were unbelievably talented," said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, whose team lost in the NCAA final by a record 30 points. "They made us look like boys. And next year they'll have more talent."
Coach K begins conducting tryouts this week in Colorado Springs for the Goodwill Games and the World Championships. But in 1992, the U.S. Olympic team will be made up entirely of NBA stars.
"We've found a lot of people don't want to come," Krzyzewski said of the tryouts.
Left unresolved is how the United States will field a team in '92 for the regional games in Brazil, necessary to qualify a team for the Olympics. Those games will be held during the NBA season, which means the pros won't be available.
Indiana coach Bobby Knight has a simple scholarship idea that he has been pushing for 15 years.
"Tie it in with graduation rates," he said. "Every time one of your players graduates, you can replace him."
Knight also believes that mandated graduation rates, which the colleges must provide next year, will be inaccurate.
"They shouldn't be based on guys who stay for four years. All those people graduate. In 19 years, I've only had three players who didn't."
But Knight, who has had his share of attrition, said he believes that all recruits must be tracked, and if they graduated someplace else, fine. But if they never get a degree, they still should be counted in the survey.
by CNB