LSU's Will Wade Caught on Wiretape (UPDATE: Wade Suspended Indefinitely)

[Catsrock]

While watching the LSU game, I was absolutely amazed at the signs being displayed by their fans in support of Will Wade. One sign said Will Wade for AD. Are those fans in denial or do they just not believe the recording is real??

It's officially known as Louisville syndrome. They like the feeling of winning.

[Los Gatos]

The five stages of grief starts with denial.

[Joneslab]

While watching the LSU game, I was absolutely amazed at the signs being displayed by their fans in support of Will Wade. One sign said Will Wade for AD. Are those fans in denial or do they just not believe the recording is real??

You see this sort of thing in politics a lot.

It's a cult of personality. I like Cal but John Calipari could do anything short of murder and there'd be a core of UK fans who'd stick with him.

Many people are sort of hypnotized by celebrity.

[Blue Heaven]

LSU fans were booing the AD to no end.
"Who cares that we cheated. We just won our first regular season SEC Title in years!"

[Spiritof96]

LSU fans were booing the AD to no end.
"Who cares that we cheated. We just won our first regular-season SEC Title in years!"

They will say, everyone who is winning cheats and we just got caught. So, I understand.

I have yet to fully understand that scope of the corruption in NCAA basketball. My gut says that the entire enterprise is driven by back channell egregious NCAA violations and that EVERY big name (and no-names like LSU) are involved.

I've heard compelling arguments for why UK is clean that I would like to believe, but I have my misgivings.

[Joneslab]

I've heard compelling arguments for why UK is clean that I would like to believe, but I have my misgivings.

There's 0% chance that Kentucky doesn't cheat.

I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it, mainly because if you start thinking about it it just opens this Pandora's box of consternation. But I've always felt the logic goes like this: years ago coaches looked at the landscape and saw that the players weren't being compensated, so they began to compensate them under the table. In this relationship the program comes out of it great, the players come out of it great, the fans come out of it great.

The only thing that's shattered is the NCAA's idea of amateurism.

I think this is an ideology that probably started to permeate college basketball when the shoe game started to be played in the 1980s. The NCAA quickly caught on and started punishing rogue programs (UNLV, Kentucky etc.), and then I think at that point coaches just found a different way to play the game.

I don't think John Calipari sends envelopes of cash, and I think Will Wade and Sean Miller and those guys were operating more aggressively than Kentucky/Duke/Kansas have to, but at the highest levels I would say the cheating is much more subtle and involves quite a few more middle men. In the end I do think most everybody is paying for the product.

The only question is whether or not we should care.

[Dwight Schrute]

Kentucky absolutely cheats like everyone does. There's too many people with their hand in the cookie jar for any school not to. I just think (hope) Cal's smart enough to keep enough distance that it can't be tied back - just like other coaches.

[Spiritof96]

There's 0% chance that Kentucky doesn't cheat.

I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it, mainly because if you start thinking about it it just opens this Pandora's box of consternation. But I've always felt the logic goes like this: years ago coaches looked at the landscape and saw that the players weren't being compensated, so they began to compensate them under the table. In this relationship the program comes out of it great, the players come out of it great, the fans come out of it great.

The only thing that's shattered is the NCAA's idea of amateurism.

I think this is an ideology that probably started to permeate college basketball when the shoe game started to be played in the 1980s. The NCAA quickly caught on and started punishing rogue programs (UNLV, Kentucky etc.), and then I think at that point coaches just found a different way to play the game.

I don't think John Calipari sends envelopes of cash, and I think Will Wade and Sean Miller and those guys were operating more aggressively than Kentucky/Duke/Kansas have to, but at the highest levels I would say the cheating is much more subtle and involves quite a few more middle men. In the end I do think most everybody is paying for the product.

The only question is whether or not we should care.

From the fan perspective, we are of the same mind on this one.

However, given how many times I have crossed paths with athletic dept people (current and former), I am surprised/impressed with how squeaky clean UK seems behind the scenes. That may be a show for the on-campus or Lexington community, but it is striking none the less. I hear an awful lot of dirt about player and coach behaviour and conduct (across all sports) that never makes the paper, but not even a hint of NCAA cheating. I have known students who interned in compliance, complaining about how tedious logging incorrectly reported cell phone contact with basketball recruits is. Maybe the streams never cross...

As for me, as with steroids in any sport, I don't care about paying players at all. As with PEDs, not only does it not bother me, it should be legal.

[justford]

What should LSU do regarding the upcoming SEC and NCAA Tournament? Let it ride and see what happens or remove themselves from the tournaments? I guess they are innocent until proven guilty but what a mess if they were to win the National Championship and then be found guilty of violations.
Your thoughts?

[Spiritof96]

What should LSU do regarding the upcoming SEC and NCAA Tournament? Let it ride and see what happens or remove themselves from the tournaments? I guess they are innocent until proven guilty but what a mess if they were to win the National Championship and then be found guilty of violations.
Your thoughts?

Pretend it didn't happen and enjoy the winning while it happens. Do you think U Mass or Mepmphis, regret how much fun they had in thier final 4 runs? Or UL in 2013?

[Joneslab]

Pretend it didn't happen and enjoy the winning while it happens. Do you think U Mass or Mepmphis, regret how much fun they had in thier final 4 runs? Or UL in 2013?

To be totally fair though, UMASS and Memphis weren't aggressively paying players.

The Memphis/D. Rose thing they definitely knew about and chose not to tell anyone. So Memphis was surely aware they probably had an ineligible player. I'm not sure about Camby but knowing what we know about Cal, he probably had no problem with Camby taking that money.

Louisville is a closer example to what's happened at LSU. But that whole era has been a source of massive frustration and regret (and maybe even embarrassment) for UofL. I'm not sure they would've done things differently if the wiretaps of Pitino would've come out about one of those players in '13, but I don't know if you let Wade coach and Smart play if you're LSU.

That would be thumbing their nose at the NCAA in a time when it's really not wise to do so, because they may hammer them with the death penalty. I'd definitely fire Wade and move on. For similar reasons I think this is why it appears Sean Miller is stepping down at Arizona.

[Dwight Schrute]

I actually think LSU should've kept on as if nothing happened unless there's some sort of definitive proof that Wade and Smart are complicit in wrongdoing.

The season's going to be vacated if wrongdoing is proven, may as well treat it as an offsides in Football and take a shot down field anyway.

[Joneslab]

I actually think LSU should've kept on as if nothing happened unless there's some sort of definitive proof that Wade and Smart are complicit in wrongdoing.

A wiretap is pretty good proof.

If Cal were caught on wiretap I wouldn't want him coaching the team. This is parsing, but to me there's a difference in the game Kentucky likely plays and the scorch-the-earth tactics that the Adidas people were obviously involved in.

Wade apparently was involved in a scheme where he was essentially sending out offers, free agent-style. While I think the gray area is employed by most everybody in college basketball, I don't think you can allow a coach to continue on once he's caught doing something like that.

[Dwight Schrute]

A wiretap is pretty good proof.

If Cal were caught on wiretap I wouldn't want him coaching the team. This is parsing, but to me there's a difference in the game Kentucky likely plays and the scorch-the-earth tactics that the Adidas people were obviously involved in.

Wade apparently was involved in a scheme where he was essentially sending out offers, free agent-style. While I think the gray area is employed by most everybody in college basketball, I don't think you can allow a coach to continue on once he's caught doing something like that.

It's still going to come down to what can be proven. I'd look at what UNC was doing and keep going and let the NCAA prove it. If it was a cash transaction and there wasn't a paper trail and people don't cooperate with the NCAA, it's not out of the realm of possibility the NCAA doesn't have a case.

[Joneslab]

It's still going to come down to what can be proven. I'd look at what UNC was doing and keep going and let the NCAA prove it. If it was a cash transaction and there wasn't a paper trail and people don't cooperate with the NCAA, it's not out of the realm of possibility the NCAA doesn't have a case.

The UNC thing has allowed coaches to pretend it's the wild west out there.

Both before and after UNC, it's always been wildly against the rules to run your program by calling your money man and asking him to go find players for you.

I think the only way to "clean" the game is to essentially pay players, but even after that happens we'll still have actors doing their business like Will Wade. Because no matter how you adjust the rules there will always be those out there who are eager to break them.