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Should Louisville basketball be given the "death penalty?" (1 Viewer)

Yogibear

Footballguy
I saw something on Yahoo recently that the basketball program at the University of Louisville should be given the "death penalty."  Now, this hasn't been in use for basketball.  But it was in place when the SMU football program was given the "death penalty."  In case you don't know what the "death penalty" is, it means that a school's sports program is fully terminated for a determined amount of time.  And based on what's happened with Louisville basketball recently, that makes it a surefire candidate for the "death penalty."  I think the University of Louisville basketball program should be placed on hold for an indefinite period of time.  Maybe that'd help clean up the mess that Rick Pitino left behind.  Does anyone else besides me think that Louisville's basketball program should be given the "death penalty"?

 
I think by the time this investigation is sorted out, many teams will be candidates for the death penalty using your logic. 

Now that Nike has also been subpoenaed for their records, this is just the tip of the iceberg. 

College basketball, and all college sports in general need to address this whole "student/athlete" situation. 

 
I saw something on Yahoo recently that the basketball program at the University of Louisville should be given the "death penalty."  Now, this hasn't been in use for basketball.  But it was in place when the SMU football program was given the "death penalty."  In case you don't know what the "death penalty" is, it means that a school's sports program is fully terminated for a determined amount of time.  And based on what's happened with Louisville basketball recently, that makes it a surefire candidate for the "death penalty."  I think the University of Louisville basketball program should be placed on hold for an indefinite period of time.  Maybe that'd help clean up the mess that Rick Pitino left behind.  Does anyone else besides me think that Louisville's basketball program should be given the "death penalty"?
Let's wait for all the shenanigans to come out.  Might be a lot of teams deserving the death penalty.  Or it might be so bad no one deserves it because they all did the same thing.

 
Maybe I should elaborate a little more on the "death penalty."  Back in the 1980s, the SMU football program was a repeat offender of many violations that in 1987, it was given the "death penalty" and for at least 20 years, there was no football at SMU.  The University of Louisville basketball program has been a repeat offender of several violations, therefore, it should be placed on hold for an indefinite period of time.

 
Maybe I should elaborate a little more on the "death penalty."  Back in the 1980s, the SMU football program was a repeat offender of many violations that in 1987, it was given the "death penalty" and for at least 20 years, there was no football at SMU.  The University of Louisville basketball program has been a repeat offender of several violations, therefore, it should be placed on hold for an indefinite period of time.
Wat?  I suppose you are talking figuratively???  Unsuccessful football <> no football

 
USF (the one in San Francisco not Florida) self-imposed a three year hiatus from basketball in the early 80s following a series of booster-related issues culminating in the Quintin Dailey scandal.  It was a big national program before the death penalty but was downgraded in importance after it returned.  USF is a Jesuit institution so it took the moral high ground. 

Things have changed in 35 years and U of L is obviously a much bigger deal now than the Dons were at the time.  I suspect a NCAA imposed death penalty would end up in the courts and that's not a place where the NCAA has fared well recently.

 
let's stop #####footin and give the death penalty to college sports ("sure they're all blowouts, but my school's one of em!") and, while we're at it, campus colleges altogether.

 
wikkidpissah said:
let's stop #####footin and give the death penalty to college sports ("sure they're all blowouts, but my school's one of em!") 


how folks can throw so much passion and energy behind such rigged and corrupt #### is beyond me ...

(so says the Horse Racing junkie ?, but, at least i go in fully knowing my gig is 5,000 shades filthier than filth, and we accept that as a by-product, and don't cry and spazz when people point it out).

 
Yogibear said:
Maybe I should elaborate a little more on the "death penalty."  Back in the 1980s, the SMU football program was a repeat offender of many violations that in 1987, it was given the "death penalty" and for at least 20 years, there was no football at SMU.  The University of Louisville basketball program has been a repeat offender of several violations, therefore, it should be placed on hold for an indefinite period of time.
I mean I am pretty mad about it but killing all of the players and coaches seems a bit harsh. Maybe like half of them, or just the point guards. Not sure but there's probably a common ground we can reach here.

 
What happens to players? There's a freshman 7 footer named Malik Williams that went to the high school my wife teaches at, that is a freshman signed to play basketball at Louisville. What are his options? Can he transfer to a D1 school and not have to sit a year if he wanted to? 

 
What happens to players? There's a freshman 7 footer named Malik Williams that went to the high school my wife teaches at, that is a freshman signed to play basketball at Louisville. What are his options? Can he transfer to a D1 school and not have to sit a year if he wanted to? 
If the program goes down, it won't happen until next season.  I assume Williams and others would be able to transfer without restrictions.

 
Yogibear said:
Maybe I should elaborate a little more on the "death penalty."  Back in the 1980s, the SMU football program was a repeat offender of many violations that in 1987, it was given the "death penalty" and for at least 20 years, there was no football at SMU.  The University of Louisville basketball program has been a repeat offender of several violations, therefore, it should be placed on hold for an indefinite period of time.
SMU football was not allowed to compete for one season by the NCAA.  They chose to go dark for a second season because they weren't prepared to field a competitive program yet.  

They had a bunch of losing seasons since reinstating the program (scholarship restrictions slowed the regrowth), got left behind during conference consolidations, and will likely not return to the national powerhouse they once were unless college football fundamentally changes.

But to say SMU, or any program, is "placed on hold for an indefinite period of time" is not what happens under the "death penalty" and isn't elaborating on it.  

 
Maryland hoops got one of the stiffest penalties I can recall a major basketball program receiving back in the early 90s: 3 years probation (can't recall the details of the probation as far as scholarships go, but they were playing walk-ons for a good long while), no TV games for a year, and a 2-year ban from the post-season. This was due to the panicked hire of Bob Wade by the administration after Lenny Bias' death and Lefty Driesell's "resignation" over his rampant disregard of anything resembling a rule or such ephemeral concepts as players even pretending to go to class. Lefty knew the rules and broke them anyway; Wade had no clue what the rules were and got caught lying about 80 million times to the NCAA. Some of the stuff he got nailed for was garbage, but the NCAA piled onto an already sinking program and damned near killed it.

I'm not saying the NCAA was wrong (Lefty should have been busted years before because he just didn't give a flying #### - I love him), just that they saw a wounded duck and fired both barrels. Also, it's important to keep in mind that this was right around the time they hammered SMU football and the War On Drugs' cocaine panic. 

At that point in time, I thought "Maryland will be decades coming back from this". This was before the internet and not having any TV games, even if for only a year, was recruiting death. On top of that, they had made an already-bad situation with a rich recruiting base twice as bad. Baltimore HS coaches had already started steering their best players away from Maryland after the Ernie Graham fiasco in the early 80s. Maryland's rush to hire Wade (who ran the best program in the city) after the departures of Lefty/Bias was mostly to try mend this chasm in one fell swoop. Then...... Wade turned out to be way out of his element. He drew good players but got busted, too. That pissed off the Baltimore HS hoops scene even more (Wade was a "victim", though I know some coaches there were secretly happy he got nailed because he was such an #######).

Three things saved Maryland from a loooooong recovery:

1. Timing. They had already hired Gary Williams before the NCAA back-doored Maryland by doubling some of the penalties they had intimated were to come. Gary stayed anyway.

2. Walt Williams could have left. Gary Williams has said in countless interviews that his success at MD owes everything to Williams electing to stay. Walt was an All-America talent and a local kid. When he decided not to use his get-out-of-jail-free card, you could feel the whole region relax. He knew he'd be playing with lesser players and on losing teams. 

3. Keith Booth - the most celebrated Baltimore City HS player in his class - signed with Maryland a couple of years later.

(if there's a 4th, it's that Maryland caught lightening in a bottle a year after Booth with Joe Smith and then they were pretty much all of the way back)

Anyway, I know most of you guys don't care about this ancient history and the world is different than it was 25-30 years ago. I just wanted to relay what it felt like when the school I root for had the stiffest penalties imagined imposed.

 

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