Right about now, Missouri coach Quin Snyder could use some benefit of the doubt.
Too bad he hasn't earned it.
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| Quin Snyder has been facing so many questions his future at Missouri is in doubt. (AP) |
The truth about NCAA investigations like the one at Missouri, where the coaching staff has been accused of supplying former player Ricky Clemons with cash, clothes and improper academic assistance, is that some questions simply cannot be answered. Either way. At least, not with anything more substantial than someone's word.
But every day, it seems, the case against Missouri grows. It started as a classic case of she-said, he-said. Clemons' former girlfriend said Missouri broke multiple NCAA rules. Missouri said no, privately painting the woman, Jessica Bunge, as vindictive -- out to get Clemons and the school because (A) Clemons assaulted her and (B) the school tried to help him, not her.
Now Missouri must defend itself against a case of he-and-she said. Clemons and Bunge, an unlikely alliance, independently agree: Missouri broke rules.
To reach a finding, the NCAA might have to guess which ones. If any.
- Either Clemons and teammates received cash from Missouri assistant coaches Tony Harvey and Lane Odom, or they didn't. There won't be receipts of the alleged transactions.
- Either Clemons received a truckload of clothes and other gear from Snyder, or he didn't. It's unlikely anyone has pictures of Clemons loading up the back of a sports utility vehicle.
- Either Clemons had papers researched and written for him by tutors, or he didn't. The NCAA can't prove what ideas did or didn't come from Clemons' head.
In these instances and others -- specifically, Clemons' jailhouse allegations that teammates Rickey Paulding and Arthur Johnson also were paid by coaches -- the NCAA ultimately will have to decide who is telling the truth, and who is lying.
None of the characters involved are what you would call unimpeachable -- and that extends to the Missouri coaching staff.
For five years, Snyder hasn't merely operated on the edge of NCAA legality. He hasn't just pushed the envelope. He has torn the envelope to pieces, and he has been caught doing it.
- His staff was caught making NCAA-prohibited phone calls to two transfers, Southern Idaho's Clemons and VMI's Jason Conley. In Clemons' case, Snyder's staff called too many times. In the case of Conley, the 2001-02 national scoring leader while at VMI, Snyder's staff apparently tampered with a player under scholarship at another school.
- The mothers of Paulding and Johnson accompanied their sons on a Missouri-chartered airplane during the players' official recruiting visit, a violation of NCAA rules. Both future All-Americans committed to Missouri on that visit; both families had to reimburse the university $1,621.45.
When operating within the legal bounds of recruiting, Snyder has made himself comfortable in ethically gray areas. Most obvious was his hiring of Tony Harvey as an assistant in 1999.
Harvey's father, Lou, for a time was the guardian of two Missouri recruiting targets, Robert Whaley and Jeffrey Ferguson. Both committed to the Tigers. Snyder initially stood behind Whaley -- considered one of the top players in the high school class of 2001 -- when Whaley was charged with raping a 13-year-old girl. The case went to trial, and before it ended in a hung jury, Snyder announced Whaley wouldn't attend Missouri after all.
At the time, in June 2001, Snyder defended his support of Whaley to the Kansas City Star.
"If people begin to doubt who we are," Snyder said, "they can only look at what we do and then they can judge that."
People are looking. And it doesn't look pretty.
In Clemons, Snyder accepted a transfer who had attended at least five high schools, who had been accused of assaulting a woman in junior college and who had needed to pass 24 credit hours from three schools in one summer to become eligible at Missouri. Last season, after Clemons was charged with a second assault against a woman, Snyder suspended him for one game.
In junior college transfer Randy Pulley, Snyder accepted a transfer whose transcript required extra scrutiny by school and NCAA officials. Two games into the season, Pulley was cleared to play for the Tigers. He is slated to debut Dec. 21 against UNC-Greensboro.
In Kareem Rush, Snyder signed a 1999 recruit connected to infamous summer coach Myron Piggie, a convicted drug dealer. Rush eventually was suspended for the first third of his freshman season at Missouri for admitting he had received $1,800 from Piggie while in high school.
In many, many other cases, Snyder has pursued recruits whose off-court baggage had scared off all but a handful of schools. In that class, the only name worth mentioning is Southern Idaho transfer Uche Okafor, who signed with Missouri but was never cleared to play because of his involvement with a Russian professional league.
As the NCAA weighs the current charges against Missouri, it cannot ignore Snyder's pattern of legally and ethically questionable recruiting. Assuming the NCAA's decision comes down to a matter of trust, it's not clear who can be trusted more, Quin Snyder or Ricky Clemons.
And maybe that's your answer right there.
Royalsfan67 
