Saturday, December 30, 2000
UK to report NCAA violations
Source: Assistant sent money orders to prep FB coach
By Rusty Hampton and Jim Adams
Louisville Courier-Journal
LEXINGTON, Ky. — A month-long internal investigation of the University of Kentucky's football program has revealed violations of NCAA rules, athletic director Larry Ivy said.
Ivy would not disclose the number, nature or severity of the infractions but said Kentucky will report the violations to the NCAA when the university finishes its investigation.
A source told The Courier-Journal that, in October, then-Kentucky recruiting coordinator Claude Bassett gave a football staff member cash and instructed that person to purchase $1,400 in blank money orders and mail them to Tim Thompson, the football coach at Melrose High School in Memphis.
Melrose is considered a football powerhouse, and Kentucky is actively recruiting several of its players.
The newspaper also obtained photocopies of the cashed money orders.
Ivy said if that occurred, it “obviously” would be a violation of NCAA rules.
“We thought that we were pretty well wrapped up, but obviously we need to go ahead and investigate this,” Ivy said. “What we've tried to do is be as thorough as we possibly could.
“(Kentucky compliance director) Sandy Bell has done a very extensive review of a lot of things, and we're about to the point where we were ready to put a report together, but this will change that, because we've got to investi gate from our end as well as the other end.”
Bassett was one of four assistants dismissed by coach Hal Mumme Nov.20.
In announcing the firings, Mumme said he was looking for better staff “chemistry.”
Kentucky's internal investigation began Nov.30, shortly after Ivy received an anonymous tip that improprieties might have occurred during a Nov.3-4 recruiting trip to Lexington made by Thompson and three of his Melrose players.
At that time, Ivy said, he notified the NCAA that he suspected possible problems and that “we're taking a look into some potential violations in our football program.”
Bassett, in an interview earlier this week, disputed that he was fired. He said he resigned from the football staff because “I knew I was no longer wanted.” He also said there is an “overt effort” to discredit him, but he wouldn't elaborate.
When the Courier-Journal showed Bassett copies of the cashed money orders and the address label, he said he had never seen the documents and had no knowledge of them.
Bassett said he never gave $1,400 cash intended for Thompson to any staff member and never instructed any staff member to send money orders to Thompson. Bassett looked briefly at the documents reporters showed him, and several times described them as “amazing.”
Thompson, 37, is well known in Memphis for the success of his football teams, which have won two state championships in his six years at Melrose. He also has become known in Lexington more recently both as a coach of Kentucky recruits and as a prospective Kentucky assistant coach.
Two former Melrose players are now on the Kentucky roster and two current Melrose students have told the C-J they plan to make recruiting visits to Kentucky in January.
Ivy said that “as of right now” he is confident Mumme was not involved in and did not know of any of the violations Bell's inquiry has uncovered. A university spokesman said Mumme was out of town Friday and could not be reached.
Asked if he was surprised, shocked or angered by what the investigation has revealed, Ivy answered: “All of the above.”
“One of the things that Coach Newton (former athletic director C.M. Newton) stressed as one of our department goals is that we're going to be totally compliant with NCAA and SEC rules,” Ivy said. “We hold weekly meetings with all the coaches about any changes in recruiting rules, constantly updating them, educating them on the do's and don'ts. ... We pride ourselves on running a clean program in all our sports, and that's why to have a breakdown in that is disappointing.”
Ivy said whatever results from the investigation, he envisions changes in the way Kentucky recruits.
“We're going to make some adjustments in our football program to ensure that we don't put ourselves in this position again,” he said.
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