re: Reid roomed with LSU commit Brandon Murray at IMG

quote:

---

And when he ends up at Kentucky they won't even put together that he must have been paid to go there if he didn't go to the other schools

---

LSU fans are guilty of it too with respect to football, but when you see you favorite program as one of the elite in the sport you GENUINELY believe kids would turn down significant monetary offers from other schools to come to your school

I don't hate Calipari for "playing the recruiting game" because that is simply how recruiting at the major conf. level works. Cal knows that better than ANYONE considering (a) he's very tight with fellow Pittsburgh native, Sonny Vaccaro, who is essentially the Godfather of gathering elite HS players and getting the shoe companies involved in recruiting, and (b) he's had Final Four appearances vacated at TWO different schools.

UK doesn't just "cheat", but they do it at a higher level than all but a few schools in the nation simply because they are always in the mix for the very top HS players in the country. When you are fighting with the elite of college basketball programs (Kansas, North Carolina, Duke, etc) for the very best players, the cost of doing business in that pool is much, MUCH higher

Also, UK's big booster base is MUCH more likely to fund top tier basketball players than at school like LSU. At LSU, that booster money is much more likely to go towards football, not basketball, as the interest level in football at LSU is 10x greater than that in basketball.

The bottom line is that half of the UK fanbase is delusional (like half of the LSU football fanbase) in thinking that their program is so great there is no way they have to "pay" to get top talent. The other half of the UK fanbase is pissed that schools that shouldn't be in the "country club" are actually willing to crash the party.