May 28, /pc?c?
&7i& (Dat&' ^au&t>
OSCAR L. COMBS
Mills/Casey Case Continues To Draw Attention
It's been over a month now since a Los Angeles newspaper reported that a package to the father of Kentucky signee Chris Mills accidentially burst open in handling.
The Los Angeles Daily News also reported that the package, shipped by University of Kentucky assistant coach Dwane Casey, contained $1,000 cash in it.
A package containing a videotape of Mills in a high school game was being returned to Mills' father, Claud, by Casey. Casey and UK officials have denied any money being put in the package. After the package was resealed by Emery officials, it was delivered to Mills' home where it was accepted and signed for by Chris. His father said the package contained no money in it when it arrived at their residence.
To say those allegations touched off a controversy would be the understatement of the year. Since then, there has been story after another on every possible aspect of the Kentucky basketball program.
There have been threats of law suits and an NCAA investigation is well underway. Because the future eligibility of Mills is at stake, there should be some resolution within the next couple months.
Speculation on the outcome would be foolish. Foolish is something most human beings have a tendency of being in times like this. Most every basketball observer has an opinion on everyone's guilt or innocence in this situation, yet, no one other than the principals know who really is telling the truth.
The latest development in the matter came recently when a federal judge ordered employees of the Emery Worldwide Air Freight firm to submit to recorded depositions to be taken by legal counsel of the University of Kentucky.
If the allegations prove to be truth, you can expect some major shake-ups in the athletics department. If on the other hand, the allegations are false, you can expect some expensive law suits and settlements favoring Casey.
? ? ?
Basketball fans will have an opportunity to get a first hand report on UK signees Chris Mills, Sean Woods, Shawn Kemp and Richie Farmer on May 14 with a team of USA AAU prep players take on the Soviet National Junior Team at Memorial Coliseum.
The game will tip off at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are on sale at Dawahare's throughout Kentucky and Memorial Coliseum.
Some of the other top stars playing for the USA/AAU are Damon Bailey of Bedford (Ind.) North Lawrence, Pat Graham of New Albany (Ind.) Floyd Central, Travis Ford of Madisonville-North Hopkins, Michael Allen of Lexington Bryan Station, Scott Boley of LaRue County and Notre Dame-bound Keith Adkins of PaintsviHe.
The Soviet team is composed of players 18 years of age and under. Russia's 1992
Olympic team is expected to have several of the Junior stars on its roster.
? ? ?
It's summertime and that means summer basketball all-star camps are just around the corner. There are some major changes in the dates this summer because the NCAA has shortened the time period college recruiters can watch prep players work out.
Coaches cannot watch players in the month of June so most of the highly-regarded camps won't be staged until July where the B/C All-Stars, Garfinkel Five-Stars, and Nike's famous Ail-American Camp will be going head-to-head for all the attention.
Following is a list of some of the major camps this summer:
? Nike All-American Camp, July 8-15 (Princeton, N.Y.)
?B/C Camp, July 10-15 (Gettysburg, Pa.)
? B/C Camp, July 10-15 (Carnesville,
Ga.)
?B/C Camp, July 24-29 (Carnesville, Ga.)
?B/C Camp, July 17-22 (Rensselaer, Ind.)
? Cage Scope/High Potential, June 12-17 (Highland Heights)
?Cage Scope/High Potential, July 10-15 (Highland Heights)
?Cage Scope/High Potential, July 24-29 (Highland Heights)
? Prep Stars Camp, July 17-22 (Charlotte, N.C.)
?Prep Stars Camp, July 24-29 (Charlotte, N.C.)
? Five-Star Camp, July 6-13 (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
?Five-Star Camp, July 14-20 (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
?Five-Star Camp, July 22-29 (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
? Five-Star Camp, July 30-Aug. 6 (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
?Five-Star Camp, June 11-18 (Radford, Va.)
?Five-Star Camp, June 20-27 (Honesdale, Pa.)
? Five-Star Camp, Aug. 27-Sept. 3 (Honesdale, Pa.)
The state's best camps in preparing youngsters for major college ball, the Blue-Chip Camps, will begin June 12-17 with the second week being July 10-15 and the third being July 24-29 at Northern Kentucky University.
On the local front, Madisonville's Eddie Ford will again stage Brown Badgett's Kentucky Prep All-Star Festival on July 15-17.
If last year is any indication to the caliber of competition, it should be one of the best in the country. Last summer such stars as Darrian Hancock, Sean Woods, Shawn Kemp, Chris Mills, Don MacLean, Chris Jent, Damon Bailey, Richie Farmer and Travis Ford were among the top players.
We'll have more on the festival in next month's issue of TCP.
? ? ?
A must year for Jerry Claiborne and his staff. That's what most everyone is predicting for the Wildcats as they meet head-on with possibly the toughest Wildcat schedule in more than a decade in Big Blue Country.
Kentucky picks up both Auburn and Alabama this fall and must visit LSU in Baton Rouge for a second straight year. The only thing in the Wildcats' favor is a seven-game home schedule.
Yet, many people feel this could be a successful season if the Wildcats should win five games.
To the surprise of many though, Jerry Claiborne's colleagues in the SEC recently predicted that UK would tie Vanderbilt for seventh place in the league this fall.
In the Birmingham News annual spring poll of league coaches, the Auburn Tigers were picked to win the league title. Picked to finish below the Wildcats and Commodores are Mississippi and Mississippi State.
? ? ?
Congratulations to UK baseball coach Keith Madison and his Bat Cats, who captured second place in the regular-season SEC race.
Hampered all spring with key injuries, the Bats Cats could have chucked it in several times, but kept fighting back and captured second place by pounding Georgia twice on the next to last day of the regular season.
Preseason All-American candidate Chris Estep was hampered early when he suffered a severe gash on his forearm as he made a sensational catch preventing a home run. The end result was a visit to the doctors and over two weeks on the pines as his throwing arm healed from some 15 stitches.
It proved costly in some respects, but the Bat Cats came on strong during the pennant chase and into the league's postseason tournament in Starkville, Miss.
This week, the Bat Cats hope to win their first postseason title, but if they don't, look for them to still have an excellent shot at an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament leading up to the College World Series in June.
Despite some less-than-impressive losses to non-conference foes, Kentucky did play well in the highly-regarded SEC and a second-place finish in the regular season (barring a complete flop in the SEC tourney this week) should be enough to earn UK its first-ever NCAA tournament invitation.
? ? ?
Kentucky's spring basketball recruiting produced one signee and although Eddie Sutton had hoped for three. Other possible signings were short-circuited for good when the Chris Mills story broke the second day into the national letter signing period.
Richie Fanner, who dazzled fans once
again in the annual KHSAA state tournament, won the MVP honors for the second year in a row and capped his brilliant career with the Mr. Basketball title.
On the first day of national signing period, he inked a letter of intent with UK.
Earlier, Fanner had indicated he would make visits to Vanderbilt, Western Kentucky and LSU before making his final decision.
He paid a moral-obligation visit to Western Kentucky, where he had become good friends with coach Murray Arnold, then decided to pass on the other official visit offers to sign with UK.
Kentucky had high hopes of winning over Don MacLean of Simi Valley (Calif.) High and Maurice Brittian of Hutchinson (Kan.) Junior College.
It's difficult to say if UK would have signed either if the Mills story had not erupted, but it's safe to say the controversy certainly didn't help UK's chances.
Eventually, MacLean eliminated Kentucky from his list of choices before finally deciding on UCLA over Georgia Tech. To me, I have to believe that if MacLean ever wanted to attend Tech, he would have done so back last November. It's no secret that MacLean was hoping that UCLA would lure Larry Brown back to Los Angeles.
When Brown said no, you have to believe MacLean would have been interested in Kentucky. Rumor out of Pittsburgh had it that MacLean had expressed interest in UK as late as the Dapper Dan Classic in Pittsburgh right after the Final Four.
The final recruit to turn away from UK was Brittian who had Kansas, Georgia Tech and Kentucky among his final three choices. Brittian even visited UK after the Mills story broke, but in the end, he chose Georgia Tech.
One has to wonder if MacLean had opted for Georgia Tech, would Brittian still have selected Bobby Cremins' program? Had MacLean gone to Tech, it says here that Brittian still would not have chosen UK. Lexington is too hot a spot for recruits right now, right or wrong.
? ? ?
HITS AND MISSES . . . Coach Eddie Sutton and his Wildcats are supposed to play in the Great Alaska Shootout, but there are unconfirmed reports that UK officials are trying to get out of the commitment so the 'Cats can make a trip to Hawaii this winter. I'm all for that . . . Should the NCAA determine that UK has violated NCAA rules and hands down a rule which would include sanctions such as a ban on postseason tournaments and live television, it could tremendously affect other schools on the UK schedule. A ban on television would, no doubt, affect the SEC television schedule because no UK games could be shown and that would affect SEC rivals as well. Another question would have to be dealt with. [Continued On Page 22]