Canadian basketball beat reporter gets John Calpari in hot water with his tweet

Image of Canadian basketball beat reporter gets John Calpari in hot water with his tweet

In an era where everything is captured and/or tweeted and shared across Social Media, coaches, players, reporters and everybody associated with the game must be careful with their words and intentions.

Tariq Sbiet a recruiting blogger finds himself caught in the middle of a potential NCAA violation after a tweet he made about Kentucky Head Coach John Calpari and his interests in rising Canadian High School Basketball prospect Anthony Bennett (Findlay Prep, Nevada).

The tweet came from 2011 Nike Sponsored EYBL Peach Jam championships in Augusta, North Carolina.

Here's what the Tweet read:

"Coach Cal of Kentucky also told me he really likes Anthony Bennett @ABennett24 and that he would be a nice fit for the wildcats"

The reporter quickly deleted the Tweet but a screenshot captured the evidence and was then distributed amongst other blogs to validate if Calpari had violated any official NCAA recruiting rules.

Below are the NCAA official rules regarding comments before signing a player.

13.10.2 Comments Before Signing. Before the signing of a prospective student-athlete to a National Letter of Intent or an institution’s written offer of admission and/or financial aid, a member institution may comment publicly only to the extent of confirming its recruitment of the prospective student-athlete. The institution may not comment generally about the prospective student-athlete’s ability or the contribution that the prospective student-athlete might make to the institution’s team; further, the institution is precluded from commenting in any manner as to the likelihood of the prospective student-athlete’s signing with that institution. Violations of this bylaw do not affect a prospective student-athlete’s eligibility and are considered institutional violations per Constitution 2.8.1. (Revised: 1/14/97)

Anthony Bennett is currently ranked amongst the top 10 prospects in 2012 and has just about every major NCAA school after his services.

The event comes at a time when the NCAA is trying to find the right balance of communication allowed between coaches, schools and players using social media.



 

Who Buzzed

Leave a comment