Championship coaches round table: Calipari, Boeheim, Self on cheating in NCAA

Eric Prisbell, USA TODAY Sports | USATODAY

The 12 active national title-winning coaches in men's college basketball have seen seismic changes in the game over the past few decades.

Against the background of the 75th NCAA tournament, USA TODAY Sports offers lengthy interviews with these dozen active title-winning coaches, all of whom still are head coaches at the Division I or II level. They provided a window into their ever-changing world, offering perspective on several big-picture issues that affect modern-day college basketball.

Wednesday, March 20 Question: Have you ever lost a recruit because you would not cheat?

John Calipari:

"Well, I don't believe so. Here's what I would tell you: The way we present it, they know we are not doing something. It's presented in a way where they would not come back at us and say, 'If you are willing to do this, we will come.' They know it is not an option, so they don't present it that way, you know what I'm saying. Have players been influenced by (others)? I don't know, maybe so. Have we backed off because of academic concerns and then they get in other schools? Oh, yeah. That happened. I don't get into all of that. The ones we are supposed to get, we get. The ones that aren't supposed to come here, don't come here."

Roy Williams:

"I have made a lot of decisions in my life to not get involved in scenarios that I thought were going to get ugly at the end. There is no question that some decisions that have been made surprised me, and I guess that is a better way that I would like to answer that."

Bill Self:

"I really think that it is pretty sorry for anybody to say — how's the right way to put this? — in recruiting what frustrates me a lot of the time is when you don't get a kid, the feeling is either he was not good enough or somebody cheated to get him. And I think that is a terrible attitude to have as a coach. Sometimes you just get beat. I don't know that I ever have, to be quite candid with you. There have been numerous rumors. There are rumors about everybody on everything. Rumors don't mean that it is remotely true or not. I cannot tell you right now honestly that I know for a fact that people have bought kids we recruited, or cheated on kids we recruited."

Jim Boeheim:

"That just sounds like sour grapes. If you asked 25 coaches, they will all say that they did at some time, my guess would be. And probably of those 25, more than one of them probably cheated."

Tubby Smith:

"I've got to say yes. Yes. Plain and simple, because somebody asked me for something and I didn't do it and they went somewhere else. It's beyond third-parties now. It's entourages, you know what I mean? That third group is not just one person. It's a freakin' entourage. That group is bringing other things to the table that are influencing and impacting this young man. Kids deal with a lot. In this day and time, there is a lot of pressure, a lot more pressure for these young people. I don't know if I could have handled it, with all the media scrutiny, the social media, just the demands for interviews all the time. Not just pregame interviews but all the time. Then it starts at such an early age. Cover of Sports Illustrated? C'mon, man. YouTube highlight films of everybody. Everybody. You can Google up any player. Any high school player. But they don't realize what comes with that is the pressure, the expectations. Some people can handle it and some can't. There's nothing you can do. [When you lose a recruit because another school cheated], that's why you have 10 guys or five guys on the list at that position. You may not get them anyway. When that element does come involved, that's not necessarily with every kid, there's only a few guys with that potential, only a few in that position. That's why I was always against the one-year deal. Let them go. Let them go. It really doesn't do us any good to have them for a year. It doesn't do the kid as much good. We just become another place where the NBA can evaluate kids. Just let them go. Let them go out of junior high. Let them go when they can, just like they do with any other protégé."

Rick Pitino:

"It happened two times in my life. Once two or three years ago. I was blown away. In all my years no one had ever asked me for anything. Whether they asked the assistant coaches I am not sure. And it happened for the first time three years ago. Shook their hand and said to them, 'This is over.' We left my basement, where the families were gathering on a visit. I said, 'Best of luck to you.' That was the only time in my 30 some years did it ever happen. I just move on to the next kid. It doesn't bother me at all. A coach who gives anything to a player is now being bought and he can never discipline the player. He is going to live in fear every night he puts his head down on the pillow that something is going to come out on what he did. To me, that's something I never want to go through."

Steve Fisher:

"Not that I can recall. I think everyone has lost recruits that you wonder why you lost them. Without going further on that, I think most people, you recruit hard. Often times it is easy to say, when you don't get a kid, 'Well, I didn't get him because someone cheated to get him.' That's the easy thing to say. But I do think there are times when you see a player go to a particular place, and you were recruiting him, and you scratch your head and go, 'Man, how did they go there instead of coming here?' … I think (third-party influences) have been there forever. I have been in college coaching since 1979. It was there then. It is here now. With the growth of summer basketball, and all these kids on all these travel teams, there are more of these folks that are with these kids for two straight months in the summer who have influence on them that you have to find a way to get to know. I'm an old-time high school coach. I coached high school ball for 11 years. Even if I think the high school coach might have minimal influence, I always, always, always have and always will have the high school on speed dial first. Now, you have to talk to these other people. You have to communicate with people that have an impact on where these kids are going to go. But if you have ever been a high school coach and spend time and energy with these kids, I think out of respect for the profession, you'd better involve the high school coach. We try to get to know the parents. The moms, dads and families. But, yeah, you have to deal with whole lots of people in the recruiting world and the quickest thing you better do is figure out who has their ear."

Larry Brown:

"I would agree that I think there's a lot of bad stuff happening out there. There's no doubt in my mind we lost kids. It's going to happen … So many of the kids we recruit have nothing. I have seen kids who have children now. Kids 18 years old and have a baby. It's hard to look at people and judge what they do. The more I see it, I don't want every kid to make a lot of money. But I want every kid who comes to SMU to be able to go to school like an SMU student. Or every kid at KU can go to school like a KU student. So if a kid can go out and eat on a Friday night, or go to a movie because his parents are able to provide that, every student-athlete should have that ability. To go beyond that, I don't think is right. We do provide an education and if we do our job a chance for these kids to be successful later on in life. At KU, some guys would drive to school, parents drop them off in a nice 4 X 4, take out a fridge and a TV. Other kids would get off bus with a duffel bag, I don't know if that's right. Play in an NCAA tourney game, some parents can be there and stay in a nice hotel. Others, it's hardship for them."

Rollie Massimino:

"Wow. I don't want to get into that. I don't want to throw anybody under the bus, you know what I mean? I have never cheated, OK, knowingly. Let's get out of my end, you know what I mean? I never cheated and I never would say I competed against somebody for a player who did, and I wouldn't. I am too old for that baby stuff. (When asked again): Probably. I am not going to say I did. But I know of people who were illegally recruiting, let's put it that way."

Contributing: Nicole Auerbach