Tennessee Makes Special Delivery to NCAA: Lane Kiffin

Filed under: Tennessee, USC

For the past several months the University of Tennessee and the NCAA have been feverishly negotiating the notice of allegations that UT released Wednesday. The damage to the Volunteer athletic program was significant, but it wasn't crippling. Why? Because Tennessee handled the NCAA, a bureaucratic agency that answers to its own regulations and precedent as it sees fit, just about as well as a university can.

By that I mean that Tennessee immediately retained heavyweight attorney Mike Glazier, who specializes in these investigations and is worth his weight in gold. Whatever legal fees the Vols paid him in 2010 and '11, Tennessee got the best bargain for its money in college football this side of Cam Newton. They ought to retire his gavel on the ring of honor at Neyland Stadium.

In earlier drafts of the notice of allegations the Volunteer football program was set to take a hit for a major violation, a failure to monitor, alongside Lane Kiffin. Then, voila, Glazier worked his magic in the last two weeks and not only managed to avoid a direct hit to the football program, but he delivered Lane Kiffin's head on a silver platter to the NCAA.

Throughout this investigation, according to multiple sources, the goal of Tennessee was to isolate the football violations and place them squarely upon Lane Kiffin and his staff. Ultimately the Vols succeeded in going state's evidence and making Lane Kiffin football's fall guy.

A few months ago, Bruce Pearl said he missed Lane Kiffin being in Knoxville because Kiffin would always put his foot in his mouth and get the attention off Pearl. Well, Pearl got his wish. For one last time, Kiffin delivered the Volunteer basketball coach the ultimate gift, on a day that Pearl got slammed with seven major violations, a great deal of attention has shifted to the only real surprise from the notice, Kiffin's being hit with two major violations of his own.

Let's dive in and consider six other major takeaways from the notice of allegations arriving.

 

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Source: http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2011/02/23/tennessee-makes-special-delivery-to-ncaa-lane-kiffin/

Big Ten NCAA Basketball

Greg Beals Interview

Ohio State baseball coach Greg Beals talks to Collegebaseball360.com at the 2011 Big East/Big Ten Challenge.

Source: http://collegebaseball360.com/2011/02/25/greg-beals-interview/

USC University of Florida

A Knight of Familiar Disappointment

Editor's Note: This column originally published Feb. 4, 2008.

With Bob Knight, the latest black eye was never more than a downturned head, blown call or salad bar running low on iceberg lettuce away.

So when Knight abruptly announced his retirement Monday, a day which might replace Christmas on the calendars of more than a few referees, the logical reaction was to wait for the next shoe to drop. Or, since it's Knight we're talking about, wait for the shoe to come hurtling at an unsuspecting reporter.

Had he given another impromptu lesson on etiquette while gripping a Texas Tech student by the arm with the same gentleness Gary Sheffield applies to his bat, as he did at Indiana in September, 2000?

Had he smacked Texas Tech chancellor Kent Hance with a pair of pristine white gloves and opted for pistols at dawn?

 

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Source: http://ncaabasketball.fanhouse.com/2011/02/28/bob-knights-retirement-a-knight-of-familiar-disappointment/

Ole Miss Temple

Cooper-Dyke Bringing Hall of Fame style, Broken Clipboards to UNC-Wilmington

Filed under: Coaches, Women's Basketball

TOWSON, Md. -- As Cynthia Cooper-Dyke turned to walk out a side door of the Towson Center to board the team bus for a seven-hour ride in the middle of the night back to Wilmington, N.C., it was gently brought to her attention that she had broken yet another clipboard in that night's game in frustration over her team's play.

"How many is that this year?" asked Cooper-Dyke.

"Five," answered an assistant coach.

There are three things that make that situation pregnant with irony. First, UNC-Wilmington, where Cooper-Dyke is in her first season as head coach, had just beaten Towson by 29.

Second, the win moved the Seahawks to a 21-6 overall record and to 13-3 in the Colonial Athletic Association, keeping them in contention for an at-large NCAA tournament bid.

 

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Source: http://ncaabasketball.fanhouse.com/2011/02/26/cooper-dyke-bringing-hall-of-fame-style-broken-clipboards-to-un/

Big 12 Sports UCLA

North Carolina Ready for High Stakes Rematch With Duke

Filed under: Maryland, ACC, North Carolina

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Harrison Barnes said he did not even stay up Saturday night to watch the Duke-Virginia Tech game. Roy Williams did stay up, though. "I'm sitting at home, so I'm comfortable,'' he said Sunday night after his North Carolina team had played Maryland. "I didn't have to coach it.''

Williams and his players will see Duke soon enough -- six days later, in the same building, the Smith Center. And because of the results of the games Saturday and Sunday, the chances are excellent that the game will decide the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season champ, as well as the usual bragging rights on Tobacco Road. Both Duke -- ranked first in the nation going into the weekend -- and 19th-ranked North Carolina have to get past one more conference game before meeting in prime time to decide it all.

Of course, after Virginia Tech beat Duke, North Carolina had to handle another opponent immediately, and it did, decisively. Maryland needed this game as much as, or more than, the Tar Heels thanks to its precarious NCAA bubble positioning -- and the Terps got simultaneously run over and swatted away, 87-76. No getting caught up in the moment or overlooking opponents for this group, not this season and not lately.

"We all woke up this morning and we were told about the game,'' said Barnes, the freshman, who set the tone by knocking down three three-pointers in the game's first four minutes. "And that was great and all, but we knew we had to come out here today and play our game. Because if (Duke) lost and we lost, then we're in the same position we were in. We knew this was a big game for us, and we had to come out and win.''

The Heels have been winning just fine lately. They lost the week before Christmas to Texas, and since then they've won 15 of 17. Their last lost was at Duke, but they've won five straight since. Their previous loss was early in the ACC season, a 20-point throttling at home to Georgia Tech that still defies logic. It also raised the questions about whether this team really was past last year, the 17-loss disaster.

"You lose a couple of games in November and December, and people kind of stop talking about you,'' Maryland coach Gary Williams pointed out, before calling North Carolina, sure to move up in the polls this week, "a top-12, top-15 team.''

 

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Source: http://ncaabasketball.fanhouse.com/2011/02/27/north-carolina-ready-for-high-stakes-rematch-with-duke/

Tulane Pac 10

No, Tennessee Fans. Your Nightmare is Not Over.

Try as they might, the Tennessee Volunteers cannot escape the hell that was "The Lane Kiffin Era."

The NCAA on Wednesday released a "notice of allegations" outlining alleged rules violations in Vols' basketball, baseball and football programs. But while the apparently very serious hoops charges relate to incidents that actually took place during the tenure of current Vols coach Bruce Pearl, the football charges date back to the nightmarish days of Lane Kiffin, who spent one eventful and ridiculous season in Knoxville before heading off to Los Angeles to take over at USC.

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Source: http://collegefootball.about.com/b/2011/02/23/no-tennessee-fans-your-nightmare-is-not-over.htm

University of Georgia Konica Minolta Gator Bowl

Tim Floyd Reprimanded After Sideline Outburst

Tim Floyd has been reprimanded by Conference USA after an outburst during a game last week.

Floyd, the first year coach at UTEP, had to be escorted off the court by police officers after being thrown out for arguing a call. Floyd claims that he was mostly innocent, and that the officials had a quick whistle.

Still, C-USA officials are upset with the way that he handled the ejection.

"When a coach is ejected, I expect them to leave the floor," league commissioner Britton Banowsky said in a statement. "Coach Floyd's actions were unacceptable. I have made our expectations clear going forward and do not expect this to happen again."


Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

 

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Source: http://ncaabasketball.fanhouse.com/2011/02/25/tim-floyd-reprimanded-after-sideline-outburst/

Utah ESPN