Cheaters Often Prosper; Stanford's Gamble; McAfee's Classless Misfire

A few days ago, Auburn's Bruce Pearl and St. John's Rick Pitino were named co--National Coaches of the Year in college basketball.

It reminded me that one of the least appealing things about the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament is that so many of the winning coaches are sleazeballs.

I don't use that term lightly, but facts are facts.

Two of the Final Four's coaches--Auburn's Pearl and Houston's Kelvin Sampson--have been two of the biggest cheaters in men's basketball. 

Pearl (above left) was nailed for numerous recruiting violations at Auburn and previously for lying to NCAA investigators while at Tennessee, to the point he was under a "show cause" penalty, which made him essentially unhirable for three years.

Sampson was a serial cheater at Oklahoma and Indiana, making illegal contacts, recruiting players committed to other schools, while also receiving the "show cause" badge of dishonor, in his case for five years.

Interestingly enough, only four coaches in the sport have ever been re-hired after getting a show cause penalty, and two of them made this year's Final Four.

But Pearl and Sampson are far from alone. Pitino (above right), who brought St. John's back to prominence this year after doing the same at Iona, was part of two scandals during his time at Louisville, involving paid strippers and prostitutes dancing for and having sex with Cardinals players and recruits, and following that, a pay-for-play scandal as part of the FBI's Division I corruption scandal. 

Pitino was also involved in his own sex scandal when he admitted to an affair with the wife of Louisville's equipment manager.

McNeese State coach Will Wade, soon to become the head man at North Carolina State after scoring a major upset over Clemson in this year's tourney, was caught on a wiretap talking about a pay-for-play offer while at LSU. After being fired, seemingly run out of the profession, he got another chance at McNeese, where he did such a good job NC State has hired him for beaucoup bucks.

In the old days, these four men were all fired, labelled as cheaters, and were pariahs for several years. Now, the rules have changed. Many of the things they did are no longer illegal.

So were they just "ahead of their time?"

No way. They knew the rules. They came up in the system and agreed to abide by those rules. Yes, some of those rules may have been antiquated or illogical, but that doesn’t excuse breaking them.

I got to know Pearl very well when he was an assistant at Stanford under Tom Davis and I was president of the team's booster group, the Cage Club.

Bruce and I played a lot of basketball on Sunday mornings in Maples Pavilion (he's not very good). My wife and I watched the Super Bowl at his house one year. His first wife, Kim, was my father-in-law's secretary.

He's an energetic, enthusiastic, engaging guy. He's also obviously a good coach and a great recruiter. 

But he was always pushing the envelope, looking for an edge, laughing about things he thought were obsolete or ludicrous. I've been surprised by neither his scandals nor his successes.

A few years ago, Bill Self and Kansas were part of that FBI scandal. But Self skated by, kept his job and won the national championship.

This year, Pearl lost in the semis to Florida, but Duke somehow blew a six-point lead in the final 35 seconds, so Sampson is in the championship game.

I don't know about you, but I hope we don't have to watch him cutting down the nets.

Stanford's Gamble: Stanford football General Manager Andrew Luck is trying to make the best of a bad situation.

The Cardinal fired its football coach a week before the beginning of spring practice and then had to scramble to either 1) promote from within, 2) hire an interim coach from the outside, or 3) look for a permanent coach.

Luck opted for No. 2, and was fortunate to land an experienced, quality coach with whom he had a deep relationship--former NFL quarterback and head coach Frank Reich.

At the Stanford press conference last week introducing Reich, Luck beamed like a proud father.

As well he should. He's made two excellent moves in two weeks.

A week earlier, Luck had dismissed head coach Troy Taylor after ESPN reported on Taylor's repeated bullying and mistreatment of female staffers.

Then last week Luck lured Reich, a 14-year NFL veteran and former head coach of both the Indianapolis Colts and the Carolina Panthers, to take over the reeling program in Palo Alto.

I agree with Andrew that Reich is "the perfect steward" for this transitional period for the football program. 

Reich, 63, had turned down a number of NFL opportunities and stressed that to even consider another coaching gig, "it had to be the right person and the right place."

Luck and Stanford offered that combination. The two had grown very close during Luck's last season in Indy, to the point that Reich officiated at his quarterback's wedding.

The two men also made it clear that another 3-9 season--Stanford has had four of them in a row--would not be acceptable.The goal is to make 2025 a launching pad to return Stanford football to prominence.

“The one thing I really appreciated, and maybe the thing that made me come out here, is we both agree this interim label does not mean a step back,” Reich said. “It does not mean hitting the pause button. The seeds of a long-term vision can be planted this year.”

Reich comes from a family of coaches. His mother, father and brother are all coaches. His goal as a coach is to "teach and inspire." He preaches a mantra of "prepare, practice and perform," and wants his players to "get one percent better every day." He believes "a better man makes a better player."

Admittedly, the timing is far from perfect. Being hired as an interim coach the day before spring ball begins is far from ideal. And Reich will have to deal with the built-in disadvantages of being a lame duck coach working with someone else's staff.

But if he can stabilize the program, find a way to win six games, and put Stanford in position to hire a top coach in December, Luck's gamble will have been a tremendous success.

Classless McAfee: I've never understood the fascination with Pat McAfee. The former NFL punter has become a media star on ESPN, one of the network's highest paid and most popular performers, along with insufferable blowhard Stephen A. Smith.

But McAfee, known for giving Aaron Rodgers a platform for his latest conspiracy theories and creating a gross "frat boy" type of atmosphere reminiscent of "shock jock" Don Imus or early Howard Stern, recently stooped to a new low.

McAfee chose to amplify a spurious internet rumor about Ole Miss freshman Mary Cate Cornett to millions of nationwide listeners, most of them young men, without checking on its veracity or giving any thought to the impact on the young woman's life.

One day after someone on an anonymous messaging app posted a false rumor that Cornett was cheating on her boyfriend with his father — an unfounded accusation she, the boyfriend and the father all deny — McAfee shared the story on "The Pat McAfee Show."

He and his bro stooges made several off color references to Cornett and how "Old Miss dads are slinging meat right now." 

Finally, after two minutes of giggling, the in-studio guest, ESPN NFL reporter Adam Schefter, who had come to discuss the draft prospects of Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart, had to ask, "Where is Jaxson Dart in all of this?"

The story had begun to circulate on the site formerly known as Twitter, but McAfee's millions-strong ESPN audience, his 2.8 million subscribers on YouTube, and ESPN's credibility poured fuel on the fire, giving the rumor new impetus and believability. 

Other media types picked it up as well, including two clowns on Barstool Sports, and ESPN radio hosts in St. Louis promoted it on an "Infidelity Alley" segment.

As a result the young woman was subjected to hundreds of obscene and degrading messages, calling her a "slut" and a "whore," and suggesting she kill herself. Vile notes were slipped under her door.

Houston police showed up to her mother’s house, guns drawn, in the early hours of Feb. 27, in an apparent instance of “swatting”--when someone falsely reports a crime in hopes of dispatching emergency responders to a residence. 

So now Cornett spends most of her time holed up in her room, taking courses online, because "I can’t even walk on campus without people taking pictures of me or screaming my name or saying super vulgar, disgusting things to me."

As for McAfee, this isn't his first brouhaha regarding women. Last year he spread false claims that Algerian Olympic boxer Imane Khelif was a man and called Caitlin Clark a "white bitch." He makes jokes about Larry Nassar, the USA gymnastics doctor who abused hundreds of girls. He gave Rodgers an opportunity to falsely link Jimmy Kimmel to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Given this track record, it will be interesting to see if ESPN continues to showcase McAfee on its College Football GameDay broadcasts this fall, with thousands of young men cheering behind him.

Facts have always been optional on sports talk shows. That's one of the reasons I don't watch or listen to them. A large percentage of callers are nuts or have an axe to grind. Hosts try to come off as all-knowing, but their main job is to stir controversy and gain audience numbers and clicks.

Cornett says she plans to sue McAfee and ESPN. “I would like people to be held accountable for what they’ve done,” she said. “You’re ruining my life by talking about it on your show for nothing but attention, but here I am staying up until 5 in the morning, every night, throwing up, not eating because I’m so anxious about what’s going to happen for the rest of my life.”

Go get 'em, girl.