12-25-2015, 09:01 AM
http://www.cincinnati.com/longform/sport.../77318732/
A few points here but full article has more,
YORK, Pa. – Looking back, Al Hmiel can see that he was a “slimeball.” A liar. A cheat. A University of Cincinnati basketball coach committed to landing recruits and keeping them eligible through any available means.
He looks back with loathing.
For most of his life, and in some cases for 40 years, Hmiel carried a guilty conscience and a stash of secrets arguably more damning than the infractions that earned Cincinnati a two-year NCAA probation in 1978. He admits to taking tests for prized players to keep them eligible, to steering players who were no longer wanted to hard classes in the hope they’d flunk out, to plying high school recruits with alcohol and cash, to faking Julius Erving’s signature on recruiting correspondence, to placing late-night collect calls to recruits in the name of rival coaches, to behaving, by his own admission, like a "slimeball," a "low-life crumb," “a snake in the grass.”
Greg Johnson, the player whom Hmiel says Catlett eventually instructed him to "flunk out," says Dally paid him a $10,000 signing bonus, plus $500 a month in cash, provided him with new suits monthly from a private tailor and arranged for a free Chevrolet Malibu Classic for his grandparents' use.
Even so, Hmiel says, the Bearcats were often outbid.
“I used to get so upset,” he said. “I would do the best job of recruiting a kid in America and one of the other schools would come in ... and just buy them at the end without doing all the legwork.
“I always said, if I’m going to cheat, I want to be the best cheater in the country. If I’m going to cheat, by God, give me the tools. I can get any kid in the country to come to Cincinnati, but give me the tools and the money then, so that I can cheat the best. Don’t get me three bullets in my gun. Give me six chambers and an extra shell. I don’t want to come out at the end and lose a kid because we weren’t cheating good enough.”
A few points here but full article has more,
YORK, Pa. – Looking back, Al Hmiel can see that he was a “slimeball.” A liar. A cheat. A University of Cincinnati basketball coach committed to landing recruits and keeping them eligible through any available means.
He looks back with loathing.
For most of his life, and in some cases for 40 years, Hmiel carried a guilty conscience and a stash of secrets arguably more damning than the infractions that earned Cincinnati a two-year NCAA probation in 1978. He admits to taking tests for prized players to keep them eligible, to steering players who were no longer wanted to hard classes in the hope they’d flunk out, to plying high school recruits with alcohol and cash, to faking Julius Erving’s signature on recruiting correspondence, to placing late-night collect calls to recruits in the name of rival coaches, to behaving, by his own admission, like a "slimeball," a "low-life crumb," “a snake in the grass.”
Greg Johnson, the player whom Hmiel says Catlett eventually instructed him to "flunk out," says Dally paid him a $10,000 signing bonus, plus $500 a month in cash, provided him with new suits monthly from a private tailor and arranged for a free Chevrolet Malibu Classic for his grandparents' use.
Even so, Hmiel says, the Bearcats were often outbid.
“I used to get so upset,” he said. “I would do the best job of recruiting a kid in America and one of the other schools would come in ... and just buy them at the end without doing all the legwork.
“I always said, if I’m going to cheat, I want to be the best cheater in the country. If I’m going to cheat, by God, give me the tools. I can get any kid in the country to come to Cincinnati, but give me the tools and the money then, so that I can cheat the best. Don’t get me three bullets in my gun. Give me six chambers and an extra shell. I don’t want to come out at the end and lose a kid because we weren’t cheating good enough.”