Willard's job was seemingly on the line, so he did what a desperate man would do, he got the kid he needed that he thought would turn it around. I won't give him credit for Whitehead.
However I will give him credit for Carrington and Desi. Lav dropped the ball on Carrington. I remember Chiles recruiting him aggressively at one point and we had strong momentum then it just stopped. Clearly, he would have been a great get. He wouldn't have played as much as he did for us last year, but Lavin could have made it work.
Overall, I would say Seton Hall getting it done with a soph class of local kids basically reflects how bad Lavin was recruiting the last 2 years.
Carrington wanted to play with Whitehead, so whoever got Whitehead also got Carrington. Whitehead was the one who Willard chaeated to get. So he does not get credit really for Carrington in my mind. To me he is just a big cheater.
Can you point me to the rule that Willard violated. I've tried looking it up and I can't find it. I know what he did seems slimy but I can find an actual violation. You've called him out in no uncertain terms as a cheater. I just can't find the rule that he broke.
Because there isn't one. Good post.
Not such a good post. The rule clearly stated that you can hire the high school coach of a recruit, but the hire "cannot be a contingency of the commitment". Now you could never prove this unless the school was stupid enough to writ e the contingency into the contract, but if you really believe it was not a package deal, I don't know what to say.
Why was it already known 8 months before the job opening was even posted that Tiny would be on the staff, for example? And of all the people in the country that the job could have gone to, why did it go to the high school coach of the All American recruit they had coming in? I mean come on. You don';t even suspect foul play? Even Tiny himself was quoted as saying " I asked Coach Lavin why he didn't have a spot for me on his staff". That was from Tiny himself, after the story that he was given a job on the Seton Hall staff, for the next season, broke. And you don't even. . . . ."suspect" it was a package deal?
Recruiting rules seem to have been taken down except for the timing of when coaches can see players and visits can take place. I'll try to see if I can research some articles regarding this sham recruitment. I've seen a couple of articles, from the Times for example, saying it was OK to do what he did, but those articles don't make any sense. Post them and they will be torn apart.