Since Basketball is the focus of the day, basketball information is what I drew out of the article the most. What about those violations?
Now, as he prepares to retire May 31, it almost seems appropriate that another bit of uncertainty at SMU has popped up. Men's basketball head coach Jimmy Tubbs was fired April 6 amid reports of NCAA violations. The Dallas Morning News reported the alleged violations included the purchase of hamburgers for players, providing small amounts of laundry detergent, and excessive practice time. SMU responded that Tubbs would not have been fired for those reasons and that more serious violations have been uncovered.
What were those more serious violations? And why won't the school report them now?
In a recent interview, Copeland did not disclose the additional violations, but did offer some explanation as to why SMU would not make them public at this time.
"One of the things we don't want to do is pre-empt the NCAA," he said. "As they do their deliberations, there's a process there that takes a long time."
"We don't want to speak out and pre-empt that process with too much detail," Copeland said. "We can't do that. It would be unwise for us, as a school, to do that.
"We were very thorough with the investigation. Because we were comprehensive and because we were thorough, we ran across some things that we know; and there's no doubt about there being violations.
"Having the NCAA sit there, even though their report hasn't come out, we had a sense how they were responding to those things, as well."
Anyway, read the whole thing.
The Dallas Morning News has nothing new. Frustratingly, they update online articles continuously during the day. The article I link to may be very different from what you read online or what you read in the paper. This drives the researcher in me nuts.
The Austin American-Statesman announces that Rodney Terry has pulled out of the UNC-Wilmington job. You can read this several ways. Terry hasn't pulled out of any other jobs and the UNC-Wilmington job is very much still open. That is probably good for Terry and probably good for SMU if it wants him. Rodney Terry also is supposedly being considered for the Virginia Commonwealth job, but that job will not be filled any time soon as Virginia Commonwealth doesn't even have an athletic director at this time.
On a related note, the DMN Sports Letters to the Editor are not available online for some reason. Several were on the basketball "situation." My personal favorite was something to the effect that "Jim Copeland has shown that he is just as inept at firing coaches as he is at hiring them." Greatness.
Finally, Orsini also spoke to Fran Frascilla. I am not that excited about Frascilla because (a) I think he is kind of nuts; and (b) he throws his name out there for just about every job there is. Some people think he would be an inspired choice. Here is a bit from one e-mail I received:
+ Wife is an SMU alum and grew up in HP
+ Not a basketball-only guy (won't make excuses about football getting resources, but will support football and use it as a recruiting tool). Already attends most home football games as a season-ticker holder and knows Phil Bennett well. His sons have even been SMU ballboys in basketball.
+ Extensive NBA and international basketball contacts: Donnie Nelson on down and has scouted part-time for several NBA teams. Dallas recruiting ties are overrated; he has national and international ties.
+ A name. Coming from ESPN, he brings some star power.
+ Great overall record and NCAA tournament experience (Evans is Dement, a career .500 coach, Terry has never been a head coach).
+ Will get a local radio show on KTCK or KRLD. Long-standing and strong friendship with Chuck Cooperstein. Great relationship with national media, ESPN, Andy Katz, Vitale, Digger on down. Built in national pub, esp. if he gets it going. Already be mentioned once in NY papers.
+ Already serves on the SMU Athletic Forum board, so he already knows the top boosters, sponsors.
+ Baggage -- and he does have some -- is distant and followed Dave Bliss' first nuclear meltdown at New Mexico. And, the year after he left St. John's they made the Elite 8 and have not been close since.
+ Total basketball junkie. Overgrown, undersized gym rat. Eats and sleeps the game. Read some of his columns on ESPN.com. He LOVES hoops and has a TON of energy. We need energy not excuses like Schumate, Dement and Tubbs kept making. You make your own breaks!
+ He won't take the job unless he gets a financial commitment from Turner and Orsini to update facilities and schedule
See, I get e-mail. See, I post e-mail I receive. But not all e-mail. The mail order Viagra e-mail are staying in the junk mail folder.
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