Hackett Deal at USC Under Scrutiny
Southern California’s basketball team is under NCAA investigation concerning a possible “package deal” for junior point guard Daniel Hackett, whose father, Rudy, was hired by the team as a strength coach the year before Daniel matriculated. In one of many such instances, the governing body is questioning whether USC hired Rudy with the understanding that his son would enroll a year later. As university employees’ children receive free tuition anyway, such an arrangement would allow USC to essentially recruit the younger Hackett for free, using the athletic scholarship that they would otherwise have offered him on another athlete. Such a circumstance is not technically in violation of NCAA rules, though the recent incidence of “packages” has led the governing body to initiate a focus group study of the phenomenon.
Trojans Head Coach Tim Floyd emphatically denied any impropriety in comments to the AP: “All I can tell you is that that bridge was crossed three years ago with the NCAA, with the Pac-10, with our compliance office and we have not done one thing wrong.” The coach went on to laud the contributions of the elder Hackett to the USC basketball program: “As far as Rudy Hackett being at this university as our basketball coach, he was here a year before Daniel Hackett got here and he’s far more qualified than 95 percent of the assistant coaches in the United States of America.
He played in the NBA, he played on a Final Four team at Syracuse, coached and played in Italy and was highly recommended by the number one team in Southern California,” referring in the last instance to the Southern Cal All-Stars AAU team that employed Rudy before 2005.
Gonzaga Clinches Ninth Straight WCC Title
The Gonzaga men’s basketball team, a perennial contender in the NCAA tournament, clinched a remarkable ninth straight West Coast Conference title with a win against lowly Loyola Marymount (2-25, 1-10 WCC), continuing what has become a historic dynasty. The win also clinched a 12th consecutive 20-win season for the Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs (20-5, 11-0 WCC) dominated the Lions 91-54, flexing their defensive might against the worst shooting team in the nation. The Lions, who average only 34.8 percent shooting, shot an even worse 31 percent against Gonzaga, who leads the nation in field goal defense, yielding only 37.1 percent per game. After jumping out to an early 17-2 lead, Gonzaga never looked back.
Sophomore guard Steven Gray netted a career-high 23 points, while senior forward Josh Heytvelt added 18 points. Freshman forward Kevin Young and sophomore forward Vernon Teel led Loyola Marymount with 13 points each, but their efforts proved to be in vain. “It never gets old,” Gonzaga Head Coach Mark Few said to the Associated Press on the impressive streak of conference titles. “A streak like that speaks volumes on the program and how it hasn’t let up.”
Penn State Beats Illinois in Big Ten Clunker
Penn State’s upset of No. 16 Illinois this past Wednesday was stunning in more ways than one. The final score was a paltry 38-33, an astoundingly low scoring affair.
The Nittany Lions (19-8, 8-6 Big Ten) squeezed out a victory on the road while shooting only 28 percent. After escaping the first half with a slim 17-15 lead, Penn State benefited from sophomore guard Talor Battle’s game-high 11 points, as well as seven points and eight rebounds from sophomore forward Andrew Jones.
After the game, which some pundits mocked as setting the sport back to the days of founder James Naismith, Penn State Head Coach Ed DeChellis joked to the Associated Press that “Naismith probably rolled over several times.”
The Illini (21-6, 9-5 Big Ten) managed just 30 percent shooting and did not attempt a single free throw the entire night. Their 33 team points was the lowest total ever at Illini Assembly Hall. The teams’ 71 combined points was also the building’s lowest total, as well as the fewest scored in a Division I men’s basketball since Monmouth beat Princeton 41-21 in 2005.
Senior guards Chester Frazier and Trent Meacham led Illinois with only seven points each, and they received little help from the rest of the Illini squad.
“I told the other coaches the other day I wasn’t sure how well we would play,” Illinois Head Coach Bruce Weber told the AP. “But I could have never anticipated this.”
Nets’ Sean Williams Arrested at Boston College
Former Boston College star forward Sean Williams, the New York Nets’ first-round pick in the 2007 NBA Draft, was arrested by campus police while attending a basketball game at his alma mater last Sunday. Williams allegedly violated a non-trespassing order obtained by the school last May by coming to campus to watch the Boston College-Duke game. Williams was spotted in the stands and arrested prior to tip-off. Howard Fisher, Williams’ attorney, told the AP that the arrest stemmed from a “lack of communication” with Boston College police, as Williams was attending the game on the invitation of a basketball team staff member, even though he is prohibited from setting foot on campus by the non-trespassing order.
Williams had been kicked off the Eagles’ basketball squad in January 2007 for numerous violations of team rules, including a marijuana arrest in 2005 — charges were dropped after a rehab stint. When confronted on Sunday, Williams was allegedly belligerent towards the arresting officers, later allegedly scrawling obscenities on his fingerprint card when asked to sign it. Fisher suggested to the AP that “maybe it’s just human nature to act that way when someone is invited to an event and then placed under arrest.”
Free on $40 bail after his booking, Williams did not appear in court for his scheduled arraignment on Tuesday. In spite of prosecutors’ requests for the issuance of an arrest warrant, the judge simply pushed the court date back to March 5, following the Nets’ March 4 game against the Boston Celtics.
– Compiled by Colin Steele and Conor LeBlanc
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