Bo Bachelor round 2

[BAC]

9 minutes ago, BruceyB said:

I don't think any legitimate sources have confirmed or denied that OKST is paying for Jax's travel to and from Stillwater. Likewise, there haven't been any confirmed sources that have said the Bassett's were expecting their travel to be paid for, and/or who's expenses they wanted covered.

The only things that seem to be facts at this point is that Jax has been spending a good amount of time training at Oklahoma State, and when Bill reached out to Brands wanting Bo (and likely Melvin and Keegan) to have similar training opportunities at Iowa, he was told they couldn't due to a compliance issue.

If the numbers that Bo was supposedly going to make through NIL at Iowa are remotely true, a few planes tickets seems like a pretty trivial reason to decommit from a school you have been heavily endorsing since February. Especially when you're a family that flies all over the country year round to attend every major tournament.

Agree with all of this.  To your last point, I'm always skeptical when I hear about NIL dollars, but bear in mind that they're over a year away from seeing any of that income.  All those flights/hotels could quickly add up, and that's all on a high school teacher's salary.  I can see how it's a really big deal.  Still, given how sudden this seemingly was, and with the whole family cutting ties, you have to think there was some testiness to the final exchange.  Rational people would try to work through this, especially when there's so much invested on both sides in the whole "Bassetts to Iowa" thing.

You're right that confirmed facts are very limited, but I'd wager a fair sum that there was a clash of adult egos here, and the Bassett kids are following their parents' lead.

[BruceyB]

2 minutes ago, WrestlingRasta said:

Doug Schwab 

Doug Schwab ain't moving the needle.

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

1 hour ago, Mr. PeanutButter said:

Since you so conveniently moved the goal posts I will heretofore contend that anytime Lee scores, it's a scramble. Anytime he gets scored on, his opponent "hit a move"

And "Matt Ramos"

[WrestlingRasta]

4 minutes ago, BruceyB said:

Doug Schwab ain't moving the needle.

I’d have to respectfully disagree 

[Coastal]

21 minutes ago, BAC said:

That's kind of where I am.  I'm generally a fan of the Bassetts, but Bill himself has a history of recruiting violations, leading to sanctions against McCort that were among the most extreme in state history, and him being removed as coach for a spell (while Jax's dad took over, LOL). From the reporting so far, it isn't hard for me to see him saying, hey Jax's flights are getting paid for, ours aren't, you gotta make this happen."  

As for Brands, he seems just hard-headed enough to take offense.  There's reports he yelled and said "don't tell me how to run your program," or whatever.  Not confirmed, but tracks with Brands' personality. It wouldn't shock me if the tenor of Brands' response was as much an impetus of the Bassetts backing out than the actual position he took, which may well have been defensible. 

You have to wonder if Brands couldn't have salvaged this by taking a less confrontational tone, tell him he'll insist they either explore all legal options or take it up with the NCAA.  He could've even said he'd have someone from the AD's or GC's office call him, so Brands doesn't have to pretend he understands the legal nuances of it all.  I'm guessing there was a clash of egos here, and Brands opted not to swallow his pride.

On the other hand, I have a hunch that that the Bassett parents don't really understand how permissible it is to have travel expenses paid.  I personally have a very hard time believing that there's a carve-out for it in NCAA recruiting, as it's an exception that would swallow the rule.  My own guess is that some third party donor is paying Jax's expenses on the down-low and that, if a complaint were filed, OSU will be like "zOMG, we know nothing of that, but in any case, we can't stop what our silly donors do."  My guess is Bill will learn the practice isn't as widespread as he thinks it is.  Ironically, this may limits Bo's choices to PSU, which they can drive to, or OSU, so long as they're willing to keep the "free travel" gravy train going.

Of course this is all rank speculation, but hey, that's why I'm here.

Teams all over Pennsylvania do what McCourt was punished for.   McCourt was punished because Luke Sipes of Altoona, a North Carolina commit, was going to transfer to Bishop McCourt and Altoona threw a fit with District 6, threatening to make their fieldhouse unavailable.   In that part of rural PA, almost every decent size event is held in Altoona as it's the only sizable gym in the region.  The PIAA regularly uses Altoona facilities also so they have an immense amount of power for a school district.   Altoona had the SW regional and NW regional on back to back weekends in the past.

District 6 found a kid willing to testify that he was transferring to Bishop McCourt solely to wrestle.  It wasn't a kid that could ever start so it wasn't like he was recruited.   They banned McCourt for a couple of years from the state tournament.  Faith Cristian, Bethlehem Catholic.. plenty of private schools openly recruit and even some of the public ones like Reynolds and Waynesburg.   

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

1 hour ago, HokieDave87 said:

I think it's very common for guys not within the 250 mile radius to train on their own dime at their future school. I don't know about the Jax Forrest situation where they're paying to bring him in. I guess he is on a world team so you could be bringing in a training partner but I think Iowa would be all over that if they could/wanted to be.

It also seems like a very extreme ask to bring in Keegan Bassett to help his RTC guys train. If I had to guess I'm going to guess Bill Bassett is at fault here and maybe Brands could've handled it better but overall had the right idea.

It as a thing when there was NLI.  NLI has disappeared as of last year, I believe.

RTC rules:

https://assets.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blteb7d012fc7ebef7f/blt06815c1d8208fb85/67c62f305108fbfbf835ff0c/Regional_Training_Center_Criteria.pdf

Funny, I don't see the "private school workaround," and if it ever existed, it prob existed for boarding schools.

Edited yesterday at 12:00 AM by Interviewed_at_Weehawken

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

59 minutes ago, Coastal said:

FACT - Bo Bassett idolized Spencer Lee.  FACT -Bo Bassett spent more time with Spencer Lee.  FACT -Bo Bassett decommited from Iowa.   

Iowa missed their chance to land Taylor and now there's just not a proven option for the next coach.   

 

Was Taylor a proven option.  Is he a proven option?

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

38 minutes ago, PortaJohn said:

He just broke down what Wille said on his podcast.  

Not what I saw.  I saw something on FB that went to the places that I think Willie didn't want to go.

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

6 minutes ago, Coastal said:

Teams all over Pennsylvania do what McCourt was punished for.   McCourt was punished because Luke Sipes of Altoona, a North Carolina commit, was going to transfer to Bishop McCourt and Altoona threw a fit with District 6, threatening to make their fieldhouse unavailable.   In that part of rural PA, almost every decent size event is held in Altoona as it's the only sizable gym in the region.  The PIAA regularly uses Altoona facilities also so they have an immense amount of power for a school district.   Altoona had the SW regional and NW regional on back to back weekends in the past.

District 6 found a kid willing to testify that he was transferring to Bishop McCourt solely to wrestle.  It wasn't a kid that could ever start so it wasn't like he was recruited.   They banned McCourt for a couple of years from the state tournament.  Faith Cristian, Bethlehem Catholic.. plenty of private schools openly recruit and even some of the public ones like Reynolds and Waynesburg.   

*McCort

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

5 minutes ago, Interviewed_at_Weehawken said:

Not what I saw.  I saw something on FB that went to the places that I think Willie didn't want to go.

Corby: Bill wanted the kids to train in Iowa City like Jax is in Stillwater and pay for his flights and Iowa compliance said that's illegal.Bo can only train in Iowa City for a camp for a certain # of days he doesn't live within 250 miles of Iowa City. Bill kept insisting they FIGURE it out. And Tom told him and and his wife don't tell me how to run my program. They said he YELLED at us . Most people who want power take being told no as being YELLED at. Iowa isn't paying HS kids and other programs are. Other programs are giving HS kids vehicles as well. Jax made final x and Bo lost at U20 and Bill couldn't handle it.

 

 

[Coastal]

7 minutes ago, Interviewed_at_Weehawken said:

Was Taylor a proven option.  Is he a proven option?

Taylor was developing high level wrestlers at his club, M2.   Haines skipped his senior year of high school to train at M2 for the year and ended up in the finals as a true freshman.  Kasak did the same and placed 3rd.

That's about as proven as you can get without being a current college coach.

[bnwtwg]

1 hour ago, BAC said:

Might as well make it first class and throw in some hookers

Hey Kyle! Never knew we had an all-timer among us!

[HokieDave87]

23 minutes ago, WrestlingRasta said:

I’d have to respectfully disagree 

Schwab is no DT, but he definitely would move the needle

[PortaJohn]

12 minutes ago, Interviewed_at_Weehawken said:

Corby: Bill wanted the kids to train in Iowa City like Jax is in Stillwater and pay for his flights and Iowa compliance said that's illegal.Bo can only train in Iowa City for a camp for a certain # of days he doesn't live within 250 miles of Iowa City. Bill kept insisting they FIGURE it out. And Tom told him and and his wife don't tell me how to run my program. They said he YELLED at us . Most people who want power take being told no as being YELLED at. Iowa isn't paying HS kids and other programs are. Other programs are giving HS kids vehicles as well. Jax made final x and Bo lost at U20 and Bill couldn't handle it.

 

 

Willie said all of that in his podcast this morning except for the yelling part

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

5 minutes ago, PortaJohn said:

Willie said all of that in his podcast this morning except for the yelling part

That is kinda important.  

Did Willie bring up the jealousy part?

[PortaJohn]

1 minute ago, Interviewed_at_Weehawken said:

That is kinda important.  

Did Willie bring up the jealousy part?

He brought up Jax in passing. Being on a different platform vs a message board I think he did a good job threading the needle and being respectful.  Starts  @13:00.  Goes on for a decent 15 mins

 

[Dogbone]

3 hours ago, BAC said:

If I were in the Brands' position, I'd be telling my AD, "Hey, my competition is doing this, either get approval for this from the GC or file a complaint against the other schools for recruiting violations, because this is not a level playing field." 

I am sure this was part Bill Bassett's complaint.  But we also don't know how the Iowa AD/Compliance views wrestling. The AD stepped in to stop AJ getting admitted after the double bird, they had the gambling issue to deal with and just recently had to make a public statement (or lack thereof) about William's arrest.   It's entirely possible the AD said, no we are not going to risk a violation on this (pure speculation on my part).   David Taylor is the new penny on campus and just had success that is bringing positive attention to the school.  With Paycom bring in new revenue, maybe OSU is just saying screw it, the NCAA lacks teeth and we will do what we want. 

It also raises the question of who pays for the flights?  Bo's NIL deal with Bob Nichols was already agreed upon and now with revenue sharing, who pays for flights if Bob says I already giving you $5M.  that flight money has to come from Revenue Sharing.  Maybe OSU NIL deal with Paycom included flights to Stillwater and Bill Bassett is just upset he didn't get the best deal. 

 My point is there is a lot we don't know. It seems very unlikely Brands would say Bo couldn't train there unless compliance or paying for it was an issue.  So if its out of Brand's hands and that is the reason Bo de-committed then it probably wasn't going to work anyway.

I agree with the notion that Bassetts are probably at fault and Brands could of handled it better and been a little softer around the edges.  But I doubt he committed to Iowa because he thought Brands would deliver every message with sunshine and roses. 

Edited yesterday at 01:47 AM by Dogbone

[BAC]

2 hours ago, bnwtwg said:

Hey Kyle! Never knew we had an all-timer among us!

I said hookers and blow.  Don't leave out the blow.

PS Sads is a punk

[WrestleFan12]

This kid is annoying. And of all the young guns making noise these days (Jax, Blaze, Duke, etc.), I'm predicting Bassett is the most likely to underachieve, relatively speaking. He's Daton Fix 2.0, at best.

Edited yesterday at 02:43 AM by WrestleFan12

[BarSeries]

1 minute ago, WrestleFan12 said:

This kid is annoying. And of all the young guns making noise these days (Jax, Blaze, Duke, etc.), I'm predicting Bassett is the most likely to underachieve, relatively speaking. He's Daton Fix 2.0.

Bassett isn't making the NCAA finals four times

[Caveira]

Just now, BarSeries said:

Bassett isn't making the NCAA finals four times

Bassett will not pop for peds.   That’s my prediction. 

[1032004]

3 hours ago, BAC said:

My own guess is that some third party donor is paying Jax's expenses on the down-low and that, if a complaint were filed, OSU will be like "zOMG, we know nothing of that, but in any case, we can't stop what our silly donors do." 

Sounds like that’s what happening.  But isn’t that quote also Iowa’s defense to Bob calling up guys that aren’t in the portal and paying them to enroll at Iowa?  Why would Iowa’s compliance department be okay with that but not this?

[PortaJohn]

1 hour ago, Dogbone said:

Maybe OSU NIL deal with Paycom included flights to Stillwater and Bill Bassett is just upset he didn't get the best deal. 

I believe it has been confirmed that Jax was receiving help from a private citizen in PA for flights out to Stillwater. She has since passed

[Le duke]

I’ll do the unthinkable and defend Tom Brands here. Sounds like he did the right thing.

Now, could he soften the blow and maybe manage the situation better? I’m guessing he could. You can deliver bad news in a way that doesn’t drive someone away.

All of this being said, Bassett’s dad isn’t coming off very well here.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[PortaJohn]

1 minute ago, Le duke said:

I’ll do the unthinkable and defend Tom Brands here. Sounds like he did the right thing.

Kudos, I stand with you.  Find it admirable