Around the Big East

Alumni Hall said:
Quick recruiting story of Henefeld.
His first stop into the US was St. John’s. Louie had his trusted sidekick from the old days in his office, Red Sarachek, a prominent Jewish coach from Brooklyn. With Red present, Louie and Nadev started a conversation on expectations playing for SJU. After about 10 minutes, Nadev was asked if he ever played ball professional in Israel. He did not answer the question and moved on. 10 minutes later, Louie asked him if he ever received money to play in Israel. Again Nadov changed the conversation . Now Red smells a rat 🐀. Then Red asked him point blank if he signed a professional contract in Israel. With that, Henefelds handler ended the recruiting visit. They hopped in a car and headed right to UCONN and Jim Calhoun. He signed with UCONN later that afternoon. Louie and Red “knew” he had already taken cash in Israel and did not want to go through another NCAA witch-hunt after the Marco Baldi ordeal in 1986, the Walter Berry lawsuit in 1983-84. And we would be back in the NCAA bullseye if he signed with SJU.
Even in his bio, it mentions that he played professionally in 87-88 and 88-89 in Israel prior to playing at UCONN. Back then you could not even accept expense money from teams according to NCAA but the NCAA gave it the old 🙈 to UConn and never investigated.
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Henefeld was good.
But his signing led to someone even better: Fellow Israeli Doron Sheffer who pushed Keven Ollie out of the starting PG spot and raised UConn to a title contender and perennial Top 10 program. Hard argument that the Sheffer - Allen backcourt was one of the best ever in the BE.
 
Fwiw the program picked up another $450K last night. A possible 3 national titles inside of 8 years for the Big East.

I hate that it’s UConn but in the arms race that is college sports, screw every other conference. I’d rather be spiteful that our conference just hoisted another one.
 
Alumni Hall said:
Quick recruiting story of Henefeld.
His first stop into the US was St. John’s. Louie had his trusted sidekick from the old days in his office, Red Sarachek, a prominent Jewish coach from Brooklyn. With Red present, Louie and Nadev started a conversation on expectations playing for SJU. After about 10 minutes, Nadev was asked if he ever played ball professional in Israel. He did not answer the question and moved on. 10 minutes later, Louie asked him if he ever received money to play in Israel. Again Nadov changed the conversation . Now Red smells a rat 🐀. Then Red asked him point blank if he signed a professional contract in Israel. With that, Henefelds handler ended the recruiting visit. They hopped in a car and headed right to UCONN and Jim Calhoun. He signed with UCONN later that afternoon. Louie and Red “knew” he had already taken cash in Israel and did not want to go through another NCAA witch-hunt after the Marco Baldi ordeal in 1986, the Walter Berry lawsuit in 1983-84. And we would be back in the NCAA bullseye if he signed with SJU.
Even in his bio, it mentions that he played professionally in 87-88 and 88-89 in Israel prior to playing at UCONN. Back then you could not even accept expense money from teams according to NCAA but the NCAA gave it the old 🙈 to UConn and never investigated.
Click to expand...

Oh man, I've never heard this version of the story before, but I 100% buy it considering the source. The media always spun the story that SJU was the first team in on Henefeld but he visited the campus and decided it was "too urban" and he wanted to go to school at a place that had a more traditional university campus and that's how he ended up in Storrs. I always thought that that story was suspect but had no information to the contrary. Thanks for sharing that, very informative!
 
Footwork21 said:
Oh man, I've never heard this version of the story before, but I 100% buy it considering the source. The media always spun the story that SJU was the first team in on Henefeld but he visited the campus and decided it was "too urban" and he wanted to go to school at a place that had a more traditional university campus and that's how he ended up in Storrs. I always thought that that story was suspect but had no information to the contrary. Thanks for sharing that, very informative!
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I never have had the impression that UCONN’s campus was an attraction. The foundation of their transition from a nothing program to where they have been over the last 20-25 years is green - its just not the grassy hills and quads.
 
Footwork21 said:
Oh man, I've never heard this version of the story before, but I 100% buy it considering the source. The media always spun the story that SJU was the first team in on Henefeld but he visited the campus and decided it was "too urban" and he wanted to go to school at a place that had a more traditional university campus and that's how he ended up in Storrs. I always thought that that story was suspect but had no information to the contrary. Thanks for sharing that, very informative!
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That story is BS. What Alumni Hall said is correct and I wish I could say more but I can’t.
As for the more traditional campus, there is nothing comparable in Israel, and what Jew could not feel comfortable in Queens.
 
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