Kansas freshman & his AAU coach accused of cheating/accepting payoffs...

[tornado]

Kansas freshman star & leading scorer Ben McLemore's AAU coach claims he received money to steer McLemore both to a specific agent and to college - McLemore is leaving Kansas and going in the NBA Draft and many predict he is #1

http://m.usatoday.com/article/news/2131775

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/big12/2013/05/04/kansas-jayhawks-ben-mclemore-darius-cobb/2131775/

the evidence is pretty dam*ning....the "middleman" who engineered the payoffs, a guy named Rodney Blackstock, acted as McLemore's agent and even accompanied McLemore on at least three different trips to Kansas - where they received free tickets to games....
I suspect he didn't do all this for free and he was likely paid off in turn by some Kansas booster...the AD at Kansas is Sheahon Zenger - former ISU AD - and this is obviously going to be quite a headache for him.

As always - these revelations come from investigative reporters and bloggers and the NCAA will try like heck to ignore & look the other way because they simply don't want to admit this stuff goes on all the time with the top prospects.

if this is true - then McLemore may be ruled ineligible and Kansas will have to forfeit all (31) of their wins.
The NCAA appears to have had some knowledge of this way, way back as they ruled McLemore ineligible in 2011-2012 and he had to sit out for undisclosed reasons..

[bradleyfan124]

Huh! Imagine that! Those BIG schools do those kind of things?...

[tornado]

Evidence mounting that Kansas freshman guard Ben McLemore may have had issues that could have affected his eligibility - the NCAA obviously - as always - just hoping this will go away - but they are going to have to act - just don't expect any action soon - they love to wait 5 years like they did with Bush & Mayo at USC

http://m.usatoday.com/article/news/2437815

[tornado]

More on the AAU/illegal payments topic -

I ran across a few columns that detailed how this stuff goes on all the time - sometimes in very inventive fashion to funnel money from agents, shoe companies, and even from boosters, middle-men, or people who represent specific D-I schools -
such that the $$ lands right in the AAU coach's pocket and then he's inclined to "guide" the kid to whatever school he wants to...or funnel some of the $$ to the kid whatever works..

Charles Barkley recent stirred up some trouble by revealing what he knew - and that the illegal payments that ultimately make it to the players' bank accounts - go all the way back to his time 30 years ago!
Plus - we all now about this story- and how the Davis' didn't dare carry through with their threat to sue because they KNEW if they did the facts would come out!

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/campusrivalry/post/2010/08/sun-times-says-anthony-davis-dad-asked-three-schools-to-pay-for-commitment/1#.UdOmS1LheUQ

here's one article from this morning that tells about the big money involved...
but they seem to pretend the "illegal money" does not exist - but if you click on the links for the companion articles - you'll see it does..

http://qctimes.com/sports/high-school/basketball/boys/bottom-line-aau-a-money-machine/article_b12456f6-607d-5fd1-9b8d-7d01d00aedb5.html

Thus, it is no coincidence that the coaches connected the most strongly with these sleazy methods (Self, Calipari) repeatedly get the very top recruits who are tainted with this sleaze (John Wall, Josh Selby, Ben McLemore..)

...but some of the columns seem to indicate it goes on at almost all levels of AAU play - except for a few clean programs - but then they build their players from lower levels on up - they rarely ever start off with the top players who seek out the sleaze early..

Note once people are retired and out of the entire system - they seem much more free to talk about this and reveal the truth..
see the comments by Ton Penders..

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1253430-college-athletic-recruiting-how-young-is-too-young

[thirdkill]

Charles Barkley recent stirred up some trouble by revealing what he knew - and that the illegal payments that ultimately make it to the players' bank accounts - go all the way back to his time 30 years ago!

Thirty? Remember Peoria Spalding's Alvin O'Neil and the problems at Illinois in 1970? It didn't start then, either.