Remember that time that McDonald’s All-America seemed to be really interested in Syracuse? And then he mysteriously dropped the Orange from his list of favorites? And then we were all really bummed out when he chose Kansas?
Bum no more.
SU and The Per’fesser may have dodged a bullet with the most recent news on Josh Selby. Apparently, the NCAA is sniffing around Selby’s relationship with Carmelo’s business manager. (You’d think ‘Melo and his boy would have shoved him toward the 315. Thanks for nothing boys.)
Selby is one of three highly-rated recruits the NCAA is poking at. From CBS Sports’s Gary Parrish:
“Also in that group is Selby’s cousin, Will Barton, a freshman at Memphis who was ruled ineligible by the NCAA on Wednesday because of issues about his academic background, sources told CBSSports.com. The third player is Enes Kanter, a freshman at Kentucky whose past involvement with a professional team in his native Turkey continues to be scrutinized.”
Is there a possibility the NCAA finds an improper relationship between Selby and Robert Frazier? Yeah. And is it possible the NCAA lowers the boom, ripping away Selby’s amateur status and forcing him to spend a year playing overseas before entering the NBA Draft? Yeah. But it’s slim.
The relationship would have to be an egregious, over-the-top impropriety. The kind where he’s driving a Lexus and his mom is living in a 400k condo. High school hoops and AAU is littered with shady relationships between athletes and all types of scum.
Although, Bill Self should be worrying at least just a tad. The hammer on USC and subsequent investigations at UConn and West Virginia seem to have signaled a new era of tough love by the previously toothless NCAA.
Kansas won’t be penalized for recruiting him and Self will piously point the finger at the “evil hangers-on” like Saban and Meyer did last month. But with an elite recruiting class already, Syracuse didn’t need the distraction and negative PR of Selby being ruled ineligible.
Consider this bullet dodged.
Posted: D.A.
