Utes Need No Mercy From the NCAA
Brad Rock of the Desert News believes the NCAA has, correctly in his opinion, let Utah head coach Larry Krystkowiak off the hook for his recent publicity violation:
Krystkowiak could have been in a tough place. Coaches naturally respond to questions about talent. In this case, he was talking about a player who might end up playing for his rival, BYU. But there’s no way that could be construed to be a recruiting pitch by Krystkowiak.
The theory, advanced by both Rock and NBC’s Rob Dauster is that Jabari Parker is not a “recruitable athlete” for Utah because Utah is not in Parker’s list of finalists. The NCAA does not see it that way. Any high schooler is considered a prospective student-athlete and coaches are prohibited from commenting on their athletic ability.
So Krystkowiak committed a violation, but the reason we have not heard more about it is that the penalty is not significant. Utah will likely conduct rules education with the basketball staff and Krystkowiak might get a letter in his personnel file. At worst, Utah will be prohibited from contacting a prospect everyone agrees they are not recruiting.