Just my luck USC is playing and Stanford the weekend that I am in San Francisco....and they are playing in L.A.

Anyway, I haven't had a chance to read much on this game...

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FIGHT ON!

I wanted to write about this before signing day but I got side tracked.

Being in the NYC area, I have read here and there about the Ryan Boatright. You remember when Boatright committed to USC when he was 13 years old?

Then Boatright committed to UConn.

Then there were some allegations about improper benefits during his recruitment.......

Anyway, the case was resolved recently with the NCAA reinstating Boatright...but with an unusual twist.

The NCAA decided to publicly lay its "case" against Boatright right out for the public for all to see and that elicited a stinging rebuke from Boatright's Mothers attorney.

"I am astounded that the NCAA released confidential information about Ryan's case," Tompsett said. "Ryan and his mother Tanesha cooperated fully with the NCAA with the clear understanding that the information they provided would be kept confidential and would not be released to the public. The NCAA has violated the Boatrights' privacy by releasing their personal information. Moreover, the NCAA's statement contains false and misleading information."

"For example," Tompsett continued, " the statement implies that the benefits in question were provided to influence Ryan's decision either to attend UConn or chose an agent, if and when he goes pro. That is false and the NCAA knows it."

That, in turn, brought this response from the New York Times...

n its release, the N.C.A.A. neither names the third parties nor explains what they stood to gain. But one of them is already known: Reggie Rose, Ryan’s former A.A.U. coach and the brother of Derrick Rose, the Chicago Bulls star. According to the N.C.A.A., Rose paid for Tanesha to accompany her son on four recruiting trips. He made some payments on her 2008 Impala. And Rose took Ryan on a two-day trip to California where he got to scrimmage with some top-notch players.

Why did he do this? Clearly, he wasn’t trying to steer Ryan to a particular school. And he certainly wasn’t fronting for an agent; as good as he is, Ryan is not a sure-fire pro.

In fact, he did it because he and Tanesha have a longstanding friendship. He became a mentor to Ryan, something teenagers of single moms desperately need. Indeed, he took Ryan to California because Ryan’s household was under an unusual amount of stress at the time. How is this wrong? Indeed, what exactly is the N.C.A.A. violation here? The N.C.A.A. never says.

I haven't really followed the case but the one thing that stood out to me was this...

The NCAA has penchant for telling schools not comment on investigations, yet the NCAA had absolutely no problem putting its case out there for all to see when the reinstated Boatright. That seems shabby to me and smacks of revenge.

They really couldn't nail the kid so they try to make Boatright and his mom look bad in the process.

And the NCAA wonders why they are constantly under fire.

NCAA mouth piece Ronnie Ramos took to Twitter earlier this evening to sat that the NYT righter got his facts wrong. That is not surprising, that is the standard NCAA response, shoot the messenger. But even if Ramos is right that the facts are wrong, that still doesn't explain the NCAA throwing the details out there to make the kid and his mother look bad.

Shameless...

UPDATE:

The NYT's Joe Nocera picks apart the NCAA's press release here.

Pretty heady stuff, but it is not like we haven't seen this before...The NCAA has a penchant for using convicted felons as their primary source of info even if hey have a few "holes" in their stories....Then again other times they don't interview some of the prime suspects like what happened in the Ohio State Case.

Bumped - P

For the first time in the programs history USC sweep the #6 Stanford Cardinal in mens tennis, Stanford being a top ranked team and playing at home is a big win for the #1 ranked trojans. Really I thought this match would have been a 4-3 or 5-2 score but 7-0 and in the bay area it was unlikely, since we have lost a lot of matches up there that we should have won. After taking the doubles sophomore Ray Sarmiento took the #2 singles spot with a decisive 6-3, 6-1 win over Matt Kandath. Emilo Gomez then came in with a 6-2, 6-2 win over John Morrissey at #4 singles with freshman Yannick Hanfmann clinching the match with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Robert Stineman at #5 singles. Next up is Cal Berkley tomorrow.

Yes it was a double sweep for Trojan Tennis today as the women beat #41 St. Marys 7-0 at Marks Stadium today in LA. This was a total wipeout with St. Marys only getting one set in 9 matches against USC which was lead by Zoe Scandalis at #1 singles with a 6-1,6-0 win and followed by Valeria Pulido also winning 6-1, 6-0, after they won their doubles 8-0. LA native Sabrina Santamaria clinched the match with a 6-2, 6-2 win at #3 singles, nice job by the freshman. If your in the LA area the women take on Pepperdine at 12:00 saturday on the USC campus.

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the Huskies are in first place...USC is at the back of the pack.

Should be interesting to see how USC fares in the Pacific Northwest.

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FIGHT ON!