boggans/harrington/jounalists [whatever that means

[MIKE MACALUSO]

Yes, boggie did sign with okla state. Most posters are probably too young to recall that when saint eddie sutton was at kentucky he presided over one of the worst "scandals" [there's that word again] ever in collegiate hoops. sutton had recruited sean kemp from elkhart, indiana and chris mills from los angeles. in fact, sean sutton, eddie's son, current OSU assistant and heir apparent to the throne at OSU got nailed for taking kemp's SAT test. Kemp got nailed stealing $$ and jewelry from sean sutton and in the greatest caper of all, KU assistant coach dwayne casey got nailed fed exing $10,000 to chris mills when the fed ex package accidently opened up...KU got the traditional slap on the wrist--the "journalists" chose to look the other way--the "scandal" was soon forgotten...since buffalo does not have much to write about, perhaps mr harrington could do a series on "scandals" that have occurred at the big schools over the last ten years and how they are forgotten about very quickly...lets start with kentucky, missouri, ohio state, canisius, syracuse, northwestern, michigan, st johns[strippers for all], villanova [phones for all] boston college [fixing games with the mob]---quite fertile ground for a book i would say !

[JeremyD]

Great post, baptiste. The transgressions of our former staff aren’t nearly as despicable as what has occurred at some other programs. However, the fact that the Bonnies “scandal” has upset those of us in the St. Bonaventure community so much, I think, demonstrates that we have higher standards of conduct than people such as the Great Eddie Sutton.

[crashdavis]

Hey folks - a scandal at another University does not make ours any better. All of this should piss us all off as these kids and our obsession with the team drives us to overlook OUR transgressions. Or better yet, some of us believe that therapy comes from identifying others who have done worse!

I, as an alum, am pissed off that my degree has taken a hit and could have a perceived loss in value because the academic standards were loosened. The basketball team is secondary.

Mike Harrington has a right to write what he can confirm. The mission for the University is first and foremost to be an institution of higher learning and basketball is secondary, at best. That, in my mind, is the proper perspective!

I hope that the administration can get the University back on course.

[Clintb]

Baptiste,

A few things:

A quick google search on the Kentucky basketball probation of the era will bring up innumerable in-depth recounts of all the traditional hijinks. However, in none of those recaps will you find that Sean Sutton ever took an entrance exam for anybody. You won't even find that accusation made in any single news story - instead only on message boards, for some reason. You can find the actual student's name in various stories. Amazingly, it has become internet and pop culture lore that Sean Sutton took tests for other players, where there is no logical connection to suggest any such thing happened. Although it's a frequently made accusation, it's still a libelous and baseless one.

Also, just for the purpose of clarification, Kemp was not the player singled out for a questionable test score. As you'll recall, Kemp initially played at a junior college in Texas.

[Colin]

Also, didn''t Kentucky end up getting serious NCAA sanctions as a result of their scandal? Being barred from the NCAA, losing scholarships, etc. is hardly a "slap on the wrist."

And the journalists certainly didn't "look the ther way" -- it was a huge story.

And further, it's not the job of a local WNY writer to talk about scandals at Kentucky or wherever -- it's his job to write about local schools like Bona.

[MIKE MACALUSO]

to the c and c boys...i think you best check your facts..you must not be J majors...sean sutton was indeed in the middle of the test taking scandal and the kemp hijinks..it was in the sporting news and in SI. it was a large story at the time, but like all large school transgressions...they did get off relatively easily..heck the michigan hoops team should have been shut down for the stuff they pulled [paying large $ to guys] northwestern should have shut down both hoops and football, missouri weenied out severly over the last 3-4 years...i dont know how old you are our what type of historical perspective you have, but southwest louisiana voluntarily shut down their program after larry fogle, roy ebron and dwight "bo" lamar adimitted to getting paid big time. also univ of san francisco shut down their hoops after bill cartwright, quinn daily, wilfrod boynes, et all admitted getting payola. smu shut down their football programs after eric dickerson and craig james told all about getting paid large to play..i wholeheartedly agreed that what wick, vbk and all did was a crime, but it was one player...not the whole squad like these larger schools...brown indians did the deed, paid the price..time to move on..harrington should stick to writing about the monsigner martin league or the niagara falls hoops factory...check the facts on ky...sutton sr and jr were in the middle of the whole thing..as was "big pappa" kemp

[Phantom]

Well said Crash!

[Clintb]

Groan.

You can scour the internet, read the SI story, and do whatever else you like, and nowhere will you find that Sean Sutton was ever implicated in taking a test for the recruit in question. My facts are straight. You are proceeding in making a libelous accusation that has no bounding in reality.

If you wish to read the Sports Illustrated article on the subject, it is written by Alexander Wolff, who also wrote the book 'Raw Recruits'.

You may also want to run a search for Chris Shearer, who is the student suspected of assisting Eric Manuel.

In neither published report will you find reference to the scenario you have dreamed up involving Sean Sutton.

Here's just one example baptiste:

A number of years after the fact, the student, Chris Shearer (named in the book Raw Recruits but listed as anonymous by the Lexington Herald Leader), came out and claimed he thought Manuel copied the answers off of him. - Lexington Herald Leader, pg A1 March 18, 1992. Interestingly, the student went as far as saying that during the test, he looked at Manuel's answers and found similar answers. This type of information leads to some questions such as 1.) what was he doing looking at other people's tests during the ACT (and comparing answers) 2.) why didn't he come out with this information earlier and 3.) if he thought Manuel was cheating, why didn't he ask to be moved during the test or tell one of the proctors, all of whom said they didn't notice anything unusual during the test. This student was heard to be boasting at school after the test that he helped Manuel get into Kentucky (Raw Recruits, pg. 172) It certainly seems possible that Shearer, with his changing stories, was a little more involved in the events than it first seemed. Before this claim in 1992, Shearer was less than cooperative with the NCAA investigation. When Ed Dove, the public defender who took up Manuel's case, approached looking for information, Shearer's father told him, "You're not coming around my kid". (Odd Man Out," pg. 170) Again in 1991, Shearer refused to be interviewed for Alexander Wolff's article in Sports Illustrated.

[boathouse]

Crash. If you feel your degree has lost value, you know nothing about bonas. In what way are you saying it has lost value? Is it in your own opinion? Are you having trouble finding a job? Are you friends who went to big state making fun of you? In my opinion I do not let, what is most likely less than a dozen peple ruin my time at bonas. I am proud to say that I went to SBU. Even though, most of the time I get the same response, where? People who do know bonas only have good things to say about the school. Only annoying sports columnists andpeople like yourself real still think a D-1 program making a mistake is a shock.