May 24, /Jtffr
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NCAA, Grant And WHAS All Hot Topics
Never is there a dull moment around the University of Kentucky campus and topics such as the WHAS controversy, Harvey Grant and the NCAA have added new meaning to the'traditional off season.
We talk about a few of the topics today.
It was five years ago this summer we got into some hot water with UK officials for revealing then Governor John Y. Brown, Jr.'s attempt to fire then football coach Fran Curci and replace him with ex-NFL coach George Allen.
Today, we again are the messenger of unpleasant news, that of the NCAA being in Lexington.
It really comes as no great surprise, but TCP is the first to confirm the presence of NCAA investigators at UK since The Lexington Herald-Leader's investigate artciles last article.
UK president Otis Singletary said in March that the University had completed its inhouse investigation and had forwarded its findings on to the NCAA. He said the University would have no further comment until the NCAA responded to the University.
There has been nothing but silence.
Earlier this week, TCP learned that at least one NCAA investigator has been in Lexington for at least a week and that investigator has reportedly told several former UK players that he expects to spend at least two or three weeks more in the Lexington area, interrogating various persons concerning accusations made in stories published by The Lexington Herald-Leader last October.
The good news to this story is that the NCAA has wasted little time in turning its attention to the UK situation. For Kentucky, it's better to get on with any type of a probe, learn the findings and deal with any problems head on instead of letting them drag on and on.
UK Coach Eddie Sutton has been quoted several times as saying he wants the NCAA to resolve the situation as soon as possible so recruiting won't be affected over a long period of time.
What is known is that all current Kentucky players were interviewed by UK lawyers earlier in the year.
Of course, all the major accusations leveled in the newspaper articles came from former players, many of whom have since said they were either misquoted or taken out of context in their statements.
Many former players have declined requests for interviews by the NCAA, but one who agreed to talk with the NCAA reportedly was ex-Wildcat Tom Heitz.
One former player, who asked not to be identified, said he has been contacted by the NCAA at least five times, by both telephone and in person. He said he was told by the NCAA representative that he (the NCAA) would bump into him (the ex-player) sooner or later.
The ex-player said he was reluctant to talk with anyone after he was misquoted in the newspaper article. "I just don't want to talk
with anyone about it. I've got other things to do," he said.
Another former player said he has no intentions of talking with the NCAA. "I didn't say anything before and I don't have anything to say now," said the former UK eager.
Juco All-American Harvey Grant won't be playing in a Kentucky uniform after all. For many of you TCP subscribers living outside the friendly confines of the Commonwealth, this isn't much of a surprise since many of you probably didn't even realize he had ever signed.
Actually, we had to tear up a page of this edition of TCP just before it went to press. Earlier this month, Grant signed a SEC scholarship letter to attend UK this fall. Later, it was learned that Grant had signed similar Georgia State and Nevada-Reno.
But Coach Eddie Sutton was confident that Grant would honor his signing at UK and be in Lexington this fall. Actually, none of the Grant signings are binding because he signed a national letter of intent out of high school with Clemson.
Rules and regulations of the national letter of intent allow a player to sign only one national letter. All others are invalid. So when a player signs one out of high school and then transfers to a junior college, he is not officially tied to another senior school until he actually enrolls and attends one class.
Since Grant had signed with Clemson (he left Clemson after one year) all he could do
NCAA Probing UK Hoop Program
with another school was sign a scholarship which obligates the school but not him.
Those were the minor problems. Then the bombshell.
On May 13 Grant and two of his teammates at Independence Community College in Independence, Kansas, were charged with burglarizing campus buildings.
The charges stemmed from a March burglary where some television sets, VCRs and other electronic equipment were taken from the college media center, and another about May 3 in which musical equipment was taken from the fine arts center.
As soon as Sutton (who was out of town attending Southeastern Conference meetings at the time) could get a handle on the situation, he phoned Grant and discussed the matter. A short time later, Sutton announced in a one sentence statement that he and Grant had mutually agreed that it would be best if Grant did not attend the University of Kentucky.
Before the ink could dry on newsprint, word filtered its way to the Bluegrass that former Southern Cal freshman star Tommy Lewis (who was recruited hard by Kentucky for a year and a half) had been deported from the USC campus and that he was interested in talking to UK.
For the third time in eight months Sutton uttered those increasingly famous words, "thanks, but no thanks."
It all goes back to the Tito Horford days of last but Sutton has wisely made the correct decision each time. Quite frankly, either of the three (Horford, Grant or Lewis) could
Although there has been no notification to the University of Kentucky of an official investigation, The Cats' Pause has learned that the NCAA is in the Lexington area and expects to be here for the next three weeks.
Several former UK basketball players report they have been contacted in recent days by an NCAA official who wants to discuss allegations made in a series of articles published by The Lexington Herald-Leader last October.
NCAA officials neither confirm nor deny any ongoing investigation of a school.
However, John Darcy, general counsel for the University of Kentucky, told TCP Tuesday he has "no comment" on the report that NCAA investigators are in Lexington.
Darcy did confirm that the University completed its inhouse investigation of the basketball allegations back in March and reported to UK President Otis Singletary at the time.
In that report, the investigating group said 67 persons inside and outside the United States had been contacted by UK. Of that group, 36 were former or current UK players. All but eight of those were interviewed. The eight not interviewed were former players who declined the request.
In addition to those, the report said 18 current and former employees (which included coaches) were interviewed and the report
noted that all were cooperative.
Another thirteen people were also called by the UK committee. These people were non-employees, non-players. In other words, boosters. Eight were interviewed and five declined to be interviewed by the committee. Neither Singeltary nor the university made any comment on the university's findings.
According to the university, that report was forwarded to the NCAA shortly after its March 3 presentation.
Several former players say they have been called numerous times by an NCAA investigator as recently as last weekend. At least one fromer player (Tom Heitz) has been questioned.
According to NCAA rules and regulations, the current investigation has to be in the preliminary stages because a university must be notified in writing before an "OI" (or official inquiry) can be issued. Darcy says UK has received no such notification.
The current visit by the NCAA is not unusual in cases like these says one former NCAA official. He terms it as a "bird dog" trip to see if there is enough evidence to warrant a full-scale probe.
UK head coach Eddie Sutton was out of town and could not be reached for comment although any probe would most likely be directed to the pre-Sutton days.
have been an instant solution to the absence of Kenny Walker. Sutton certainly has placed a great deal of emphasis on quality over ability by his actions.
The WHAS Radio controversy!
Take your pick on this one for there are many phases. First and foremost to most Kentucky fans is whether or not the Louisville station will carry Wildcat football and basketball broadcasts. Second is the ongoing negotiations to sell the station.
Earlier this month, the UKAA board of directors voted unanimously to offer the broadcasts on a simulcast basis to both WHAS and WAVG Radio in Louisville. If WHAS doesn't want to accept the broadcasts on a "shared" basis, then the games would go to WAVG exclusively.
WHAS has balked at the offer, insisting that it will take the games only if it has the games exclusively. Trouble brewed with WHAS' decision to give UL top billing which means that UK games would sometimes be tape delayed when the two schools play at the same time.
Kentucky, which has enjoyed No. 1 status for the past fifty-plus years on the station, obviously didn't enjoy that decision. WHAS wants to move the conflicts games to its sister FM station, WAMZ and then rebroadcast the UK games at a later time on WHAS.
UK's board members were very emotional when it came voting time at its meeting to determine who would win the broadcast rights in Louisville.
Led by former Kentucky Govenor A.B. "Happy" Chandler (who said "we ain't good enough for them, they ain't good enough for us"), the board appeared to quickly change its attitude of one favoring the powerful 50,000-watt, clear-channel station to stronging opposing WHAS.
One board member, obviously seeking control of emotions, commented, "I'd like to have the first dance, too, but sometimes the second dance is better than none at all."
To which UK vice-president Ray Horn-back snapped, "but not when you've been to the previous fifty dances."
Rumors were spreading that Kentucky was prepared to swallow its pride and accept No. 2 billing to UL on WHAS just minutes prior to the meeting in a move obvious to salvage what UK could on the Louisville station.
But that changed quickly.
As one board member later commented, ' T was for anyone except WHAS. We don't have to take that kind of treatment from anyone."
During the meeting, it was pointed out that UK basketball will not be affected that much if WHAS doesn't join the network this year.
WLW Radio, the powerful 50,000-watt, clear-channel station in Cincinnati has already agreed to become part of the UK network for Kentucky basketball this year.
There is no question that football will be the sport to suffer the most since WLW has said it probably won't carry UK football this season. However, 50,000-watt stations are
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