Wade did what he had to do to get LSU back on the map....

How about not talking on the phone about all of this?

I am not shitting on Wade or even judging him. I'm just saying he's a big boy and he got caught doing something, what we don't know yet, and that there are consequences for that. Deal with it,and if it ends up being nothing, get back to work.We all know what goes on in college bball recruiting. But if you get caught you pay the piper. end of story. Or work to get the rules changed.

quote:

---

How about not talking on the phone about all of this?

---

I agree with this, Wade didn’t make the best decision by him speaking directly to Dawkins.

I think we will all be surprised when we find out how many coaches are on wiretaps talking about paying players. Hell it took Coach Cal three stops to figure out how to illegally recruit without getting caught.

My point is, don’t come on this board and shite on Wade then come back years down the road and bitch about having a mediocre basketball team.

Unfortunately, the way college basketball is now, you can not compete with the blue bloods unless you can land these high profile pay to play players.

I'm not shitting completely on Wade. He did what it takes to run with the big boys. His failure was to handle things himself, leaving himself and the program no plausible deniability in this situation. I will shite on all the mouthbreathers here who have tortured explanations as to how he was just talking about playing time and increased educational opportunities. The Rant consistently makes the OT look like Rhodes Scholars.

The biggest failure here, if we want to be playing the recruiting game as it stands today so we can compete for titles, is this: the AD condoning playing the game as long as nobody gets caught with their pants down, then immediately opening everyone up to a PR and NCAA nightmare the instant things look bad. Even worse if he legitimately had no clue what was going on in his own athletic department.

If you're going to play the recruiting game, an organization needs to know how to play all levels of the recruiting game, up to and including handling PR and the NCAA when someone fricks up and shenanigans are exposed. You handle Wade behind the scenes until you are FORCED to do something about him publicly. Worst case is that you get sanctioned and Wade gets fired.

Joe Alleva's instinct was to immediately begin Operation Footbullet, making sanctions and Wade getting fired the starting point, and that has no place in an athletic department that wants to do what it takes to play with the big boys. That's the mentality of a mid-major AD in a program that's just happy to be there. Also, let's not think for a moment that when the NCAA starts snooping (AND IT WILL), it's not going to be putting a hairy eyeball on all of our sports.

That's the reality of what happened here. Wade did what he had to in order to compete in today's environment and slipped up. Alleva compounded the problem by being Joe Alleva. Pragmatically, they probably both should be gone at this point. One for playing the game sloppily and one for playing the game incompetently. In reality, Wade's likely the only one gone and we're stuck with that ratfrick Alleva.

The sad thing is that if either had played their part of the game correctly, there's a decent chance nobody gets run and sanctions could be avoided.

Umm LSU was pretty much completely off the map in basketball before Wade arrived. He played the game like all the other big boys do and it ruffled some feathers.

quote:

---

You can’t have a squeaky clean program and win championships in NCAA basketball and football.

---

Exactly.
I posted this in an earlier thread:

Take the Wade situation out of this conversation for a minute.

It’s occurred to me that this pay for play thing is no different to the illegal use of steroids in the 1980’s-2000’s.
Athletes taking steroids, especially track and field and baseball where it was rampant.
The old East German and Russian track and field athletes and weightlifters out performing the rest of the world at the Olympics..
The North American track stars of the 90’s and 2000’s to get faster and recover from injury and overuse more quickly. To win at the World Championship and Olympics.
MLB hitters, to score more home runs, pitch with strength.

That’s also cheating. It spread because other “clean” athletes suddenly could not compete.
They wanted to level the playing field. Just like college basketball teams now.

It’s the “If you can’t beat them, join them” at its extreme.

So before you single out one college program, consider the real reason why “everyone’s doing it”. Leveling the playing field.

Beautiful Thread and post. Just got done bashing a.m radio thread basically describing same point. Thank you, the real tiger fans must be just waking up this champion Sunday.

Good point. And anyone who doesn’t think our baseball teams do the 90s were not juicing..

quote:

---

Good point. And anyone who doesn’t think our baseball teams do the 90s were not juicing..

---

Man, I miss Gorilla Ball.

quote:

---

How do you think Brady got those players? I was a student at the time and I saw their cars...

---

Damn, dude. You’d better tell somebody quick.