Delays Result in Punishing the Innocent

By punishing the current players of Oklahoma State, the NCAA fails the athletes they have sworn to treat with fairness.

November 04, 2021

Tipoff

The big news on Wednesday was the NCAA’s decision to uphold a postseason ban of Oklahoma State for the 2021-22 season. This news was difficult for many associated with the Cowboys and those around the world of college basketball. For a full summary of events and reasons behind the decision, read Matt Norlander’s thorough breakdown at CBS. The events that led to this day began all the way back in 2017 when then-Oklahoma State assistant Lamont Evans was arrested by the FBI as part of a sting operation into corruption in college basketball. By waiting all the way until 2021 to dole out punishment, though, the NCAA proved that it fails to uphold one of its core tenets, fairness towards athletes (I should note that Oklahoma State appealed a postseason ban last season and that Wednesday’s announcement was the final response to that appeal).

None of the current players on the roster at Oklahoma State were part of the program when Evans was trying to funnel players to agents after college. This was also the case last season, when the ban was first handed down. Evans was fired, arrested, and served 3 months in jail after pleading guilty to the FBI. An entirely new coaching staff was installed after these events. Oklahoma State fully and willingly cooperated with the NCAA investigation. Supposedly, the NCAA cited Evans’s individual refusal to cooperate with the organization’s own investigation - when he was no longer employed by Oklahoma State - as justification for the postseason ban. Long story short, the NCAA failed Oklahoma State and the athletes. Here is head coach Mike Boynton’s emotional response to the decision, which is worth your 105 seconds if you haven’t seen it:

This decision comes at a particularly difficult time for the NCAA. The organization is preparing a constitutional convention to reorganize itself, in part over how it handles these kinds of infractions cases that have taken longer to resolve than most college careers. This past summer, the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously struck down the concept of “student-athlete” the NCAA had been asserting for decades, in a case that the NCAA itself spent millions of dollars defending all the way to the highest court in the land. Change is coming to the NCAA, and not too soon. The Oklahoma State case only drives home the urgency of reformation.

The Mixtape 

The Field of 68 team puts out lots of great content each week. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights.

  • The Field of 68 continues its rundown of the preseason top 50 team. Each preview includes an interview with the head coach and insiders that follow the team. The countdown continued with #16 Alabama, #15 Duke, #14 North Carolina, #13 Illinois, #12 Arkansas, #11 Oregon, #10 Michigan, #9 Kentucky, #8 Baylor, #7 Memphis, and #6 Purdue. The Field of 68 welcomed a pair of special guests this week to discuss the Pac-12, former UCLA star Sean Farnham, and West Coast-based college basketball analyst and former Oklahoma State player Doug Gottlieb. They joined Jeff Goodman to discuss the preseason top-5 team UCLA and the rest of the conference.

  • Basketball is often a family affair. To tell the stories of what it is like to be the wife of a D-I college basketball coach, The Field of 68 is delighted to host Andrea Hurley and Nicole Kellogg, as well as their college head coach husbands Dan and Derek on occasion, in the Ball is Wife podcast.

  • Another new podcast is the Bear Down Ballers with host and former Arizona Wildcat A.J. Bramlett. You know Arizona alum Jeff Goodman has been angling to get a UA podcast going for a while. Bramlett meets with former teammate Jason “The Jet” Terry to talk about Lute Olson stories and preview the upcoming season under new head coach Tommy Lloyd. For more thoughts on all things Arizona with A.J., check out Four Point Play below.

The Field of 12

The college football season is in high gear and the Field of 12 is on the scene. Here is a brief sample of the new network from the makers of Field of 68.

Four Point Play

Each newsletter throughout the summer, we’ll check in with one of our podcast hosts and see what they’re up to besides producing compelling content for us at The Field of 68.

This week, we checked in with A.J. Bramlett, host of the BRAND NEW Field of 68 podcast, Bear Down Ballers (Available on Spotify or wherever you access podcasts) and former Arizona standout.

  1. The big news of the day is all about the NCAA handing down a postseason ban to Oklahoma State over its involvement in the FBI corruption probe. The situation at Arizona was a little different, although the Wildcats were another team involved in that probe. How nervous are Arizona fans over receiving a punishment from the NCAA?

  • Everyone that has been involved in it, it’s in the back of your mind. With the new program, new leadership, people are still excited. Right now, there’s a good group of guys with Coach Lloyd and being excited for the future. All you can do is prepare each day and put the best product on the court.

  1. There is a new head coach in Tucson, former Gonzaga assistant Tommy Lloyd. While there is a brand new coach, the roster has had a surprising continuity. Usually, the old head coach leaving results in a mass exodus. Coach Lloyd was able to hold onto a lot of the younger players. How do you think he was able to convince Bennedict Mathurin, Azoulas Tubelis, and the other core players to stick with him?

  • I think that goes to show what type of coach Tommy Lloyd is going to be. I spoke to Jason Terry last week. He spoke about how Coach Lloyd is honest and upfront with the team. There isn’t any b.s., no schmoozing. He wanted guys to be a part of it and they bought it. It speaks very highly of Coach Lloyd. You will see guys take steps forward this year because of the trust the coaching staff has in them. Keeping those core guys together, that is going to be a huge boost for them on the court.

  1. This roster is pretty young. In addition to sophomores Mathurin, Tubelis, Kerr Krissa, and Dalen Terry, even some of the transfers coming in are sophomores, including Oumar Ballo from Gonzaga and Pelle Larrson from Utah. With a new coach and a lot of young players coming in, what kind of growing pains do you expect this season?

  • It always takes a group time to find their chemistry. I went to practice about a month and a half ago. Coach Lloyd, he’s buttoned up. He knows what his system is and what he wants. Even though Tubelis and Mathurin are young in grade, look at their performance at the FIBA U19 Championships in Latvia over the summer. Their basketball maturity will shine through on the court. I love Dalen Terry’s work ethic as well. I think overall, it is exciting.

And one!

  1. You’re a former National Champion, having played and started on that legendry 1997 Arizona team. Famously, your team is the only one to take down three #1 seeds, Kansas, North Carolina, and Kentucky. That Arizona team was also the most recent West Coast team to win a National Title. Speaking on behalf of West Coast basketball, what’s the deal with the championship drought and when will it end?

  • It’s hard to win a National Championship! There have been a lot of good teams on the West Coast. UCLA is a perfect example of that. It’s not an easy thing to get through those 6 games. The talent on the West Coast is great. There’s talent in LA as there always is. The talent in the youth programs is getting really good. There are the Mobley brothers at USC going on to the pros. West Coast basketball is on the upswing. We were happy to represent back in 1997 and put some respect on the West Coast.

Stay tuned for upcoming episodes of the Bear Down Ballers podcast with AJ Bramlett. Upcoming guests include sophomore forward Ben Mathurin.

Around the Rim

This section highlights some of the best writing on college basketball to hit the web. Consider these your extra credit assignments for fall semester.

Brian Rauf is feeling himself. And you know what? I can dig it. The world of sports betting is taking over. Why not go big before the season even begins? If you feel like you can pick a winner on Selection Sunday, maybe you can pick a winner on November 1st and really rake in the dough. The odds will be better at the very least.

If you haven’t picked it up yet, this edition of Around the RIm is all about the betting market. For the 7th year, Jim Root takes a look at the field and places teams into tiers. It goes from Tier I: The Real Contenders all the way to Tier V: The Stay Aways. My personal favorite group is Tier III: Do Something Smarter With Your Money. How exciting would it be to ride St. Bonaventure or Drake to a surprise Final Four? Really exciting!

Folks, we are less than one week away from the first college basketball games of the season (!). You might have a plan for November 9th (I’ll be at MSG to take in the Champions Classic). Do you have a plan for the rest of November and December? Trevor Sinodhinos has you covered. There are possible Final Four previews, like the potential Illinois vs. Arkansas matchup in the Hall of Fame Classic on November 23rd. Or how about a Final Four rematch, where UCLA takes on Gonzaga in Las Vegas on the 23rd? If you are into glitz vs. grind, check out the Memphis vs. Virginia Tech matchup on November 24th. Perhaps one of these gems is worth your treasure as well as your attention? If you want to see every non-conference event schedule this season, check out Jeff Goodman’s comprehensive schedule over on Stadium.