re: Wade's Recruiting Class

Was it just his gut feeling?

I think it was more than that.

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This Tony Farmer that punched his girlfriend in the head?

Or this Tony Farmer that kicked his girlfriend in the face four times?

No thanks

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No, the Tony Farmer that finished his 3 year jail sentence and paid the price of his crimes. Someone that had paid there dues shouldn't have to continue getting fricked afterwards. That was something decided in court and he has served the penalty. Time to move on. Ubless you expect him to beat up another ex girlfriend which I highly doubt will happen since he is already on his second chance.

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No, the Tony Farmer that finished his 3 year jail sentence and paid the price of his crimes. Someone that had paid there dues shouldn't have to continue getting fricked afterwards.

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No way Wade is shitting on his honeymoon by having that video tied to his early tenure. In general I'd be stunned if Farmer got a chance to play anywhere close to a P5 program.

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No way Wade is shitting on his honeymoon by having that video tied to his early tenure. In general I'd be stunned if Farmer got a chance to play anywhere close to a P5 program.

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This is he correct answer.

Zero chance Wade wants to have this cloud around the program when he's trying to build fam support

Well...Markel Crawford from Memphis just committed to Ole Miss so I guess he's out.

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uote:
No way Wade is shitting on his honeymoon by having that video tied to his early tenure. In general I'd be stunned if Farmer got a chance to play anywhere close to a P5 program.


So you are saying Ban the Box does not apply to recruiting athletes only to recruiting employees?

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We had a good discussion about this a week or so ago, and the answer is something none of us would know. Which is this - from talking with the coaches and/or players at Lee College, which might include Duop Reath and Branden Jenkins, who played with him for a year, is this the same guy who beat that girl up, or is it a guy who learned his lesson and has become better for it?

Will Wade has the resources to know the answer to that question. We don't. We have this, which might be somewhat persuasive, but otherwise this is the kind of thing a coach has to evaluate.

The one thing we should all agree on is whatever LSU would do with someone like Farmer, LSU doesn't endorse what he did. Nobody does. If LSU would take the kid, it would be out of a sense that he wouldn't do anything like that again - if he did, obviously he would have to go. But having done 3 years in jail for it, which is a pretty serious punishment, there is reason to think he's older and wiser enough that you wouldn't have those problems.

So if Wade would conclude he's not likely to repeat any of that, I'd say we should consider bringing him in. Right now, other than the Kevin Knoxes or Mohammed Bambas or Brandon McCoys or Shakur Juistons, none of whom we look to be in the mix for right now, Farmer might be the best player available.So long as you don't think he's a threat to repeat what happened in his senior year in high school, I think you take him and disregard the "PR hit" surrounding the recruitment. When it's understood that you don't endorse his past by signing him, that's not substantive, it's bullshite. And it's about time we start caring more about substance in this world.

It's a risk.

I think you minimize the actual risk through vetting. Wade knows the coaches at Lee; he recruited Hamdy to VCU from there. And Reath and Jenkins played with Farmer, so they can vet him from a teammate's perspective.

You minimize the PR risk a little different way. You do that by calling it an experiment that you judge is worth taking based on your research and evaluation of the individual, and you're going to qualify the experiment by making it known up front that no such behavior will be tolerated, that Farmer himself knows there is a zero tolerance policy in hand and that he's pledged himself not to return to that behavior.

Obviously if he shows up here and smacks a bitch up he's gone the next day and you apologize for what turned out to be an ill-advised decision. And yeah, there's a hit, but if you run the guy off immediately at least you flush it and move on.

I think you acknowledge the downside and recognize there will be differing opinions, but if you honestly believe he's not the same guy who made that mistake, you ask the folks to give Farmer a chance to prove he can be a good citizen.

And then you hope he can give you 15 and 10 a game and put you in the tournament, because if he turns out not to be able to play dead none of this analysis is worth a damn.

Getting rid of johnny "I don't give a shite and you can see it on my face" jones was the biggest improvement for our program. Will wade is going to coach these guys up and add some talent. God johnny jones sucks. Our team legit looked like some dudes playing pick-up ball at the ymca...and not those good pick up games, the shitty ones. fricking sad I tell ya.

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It's an interesting discussion, but we don't know if LSU is even interested in Farmer, or vice versa.

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Nope, we don't.

Though I would imagine if LSU came calling it wouldn't be a hard sell for Farmer. On top of the opportunity to play at a Power 5 program, there's the fact he'd be reunited with Reath and Jenkins who he played with as a freshman.