CBSSports.com's college basketball quartet spent the July open recruiting period hobnobbing with nearly 100 coaches, brain-picking them on some of college basketball's current issues. From the best players to their comrades in coaching; from the AAU programs to the agents' involvement; from the rule changes to the NCAA as a whole. We had to promise them anonymity, and in exchange, they gave us honest answers. Over the next three weeks here on the blog, we'll be putting out one question per weekday and giving you the array of results, straight from the coaches' mouths.
Players getting cars and bags of money, parents getting jobs, family members getting new houses – dirty recruitments are legendary in college basketball. The movie “Blue Chips” glorified that aspect of the sport, although it's unclear how many (or even if) tractors have actually been involved in a five-star player's recruitment. There are numerous rumors and stories about various “shady” recruitments, but that doesn't mean everything is true. And this exercise in no way makes accusations, but presents an avenue for views of people directly involved. So we go to one of the best sources possible: coaches who have been around these types of recruitments for a decade.
The question is: Which player is perceived to have the dirtiest recruitment in the last 10 years?
Shabazz Muhammad: 15 percent
Anthony Davis: 13 percent
John Wall: 7 percent
Kyle Anderson: 7 percent
O.J. Mayo: 7 percent
Derrick Rose: 6 percent
Renardo Sidney: 6 percent
Terrence Jones: 3 percent
Tobias Harris: 3 percent
Chris Obekpa: 3 percent
Also received votes: DeMarcus Cousins, DeAndre Jordan, Anthony Randolph, Enes Kanter, Josh Selby, Lance Stephenson, Khem Birch, Rodney Hood, Norvel Pelle, Mario Austin, Terrence Jennings, J'Mison Morgan, Jordan Goodman, JaKarr Sampson, Jevon Thomas
Quotes that stuck:
On Shabazz Muhammad: “This deal was done for a long time. The other rumors and stuff were just smoke and mirrors. People on the inside knew this deal was done. I mean, he turned Kentucky down.”
On Anthony Davis: "I've never seen a recruitment get shut down as quickly as that one got shut down. I don't know they did it. But it was a strong play."
On John Wall: "Baylor hired John Wall's AAU coach and that still wasn't enough to get that deal done. That recruitment was on another level. And remember, Roy Williams basically stopped recruiting him. Best player in the country is from North Carolina, and North Carolina didn't really want anything to do with it. What does that tell you?"
Kyle Anderson: “A kid doesn't go across the country to a school that doesn't fit his style of play – and turn down some of the top East coast schools – without it being it unfair. It doesn't make sense from a basketball standpoint.”
