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Jan. 29 Sioux Coaches Show


PCM

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"Blais said that during the visit, Crosby made the statement that he might not go the major-junior route and might go to the NCAA."

This is from the Jan. 8 radio show..."Blais said Crosby made an unofficial visit here and was at Minnesota last weekend. The kid is good and knows he's going to get offers, so there's no hurry for him to commit now. "You

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TC transplant--

You're still making the mistake of using quotation marks in a misleading manner. I suspect you're quoting forecheck or PCM's summaries of coach's shows, not the coach's shows themselves. Unless you have an actual transcript or recording of the coach's shows, I'd be careful attributing quotes to Dean Blais that the original authors didn't! If the quotation marks aren't there in the summary, then it's not exactly what Blais said.

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"Blais said that during the visit, Crosby made the statement that he might not go the major-junior route and might go to the NCAA."

This is from the Jan. 8 radio show..."Blais said Crosby made an unofficial visit here and was at Minnesota last weekend. The kid is good and knows he's going to get offers, so there's no hurry for him to commit now. "You

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I'm confused.

You have "Blais said ..." all over the place. That's you quoting someone other than Blais. (In court it's called hearsay evidence.)

Who said what? A broadcaster (or better yet, an internet poster) said Blais said? They can say whatever just like a newspaper can print news of a verbal commitment.

What's the actual quote? Where's the tape or the actual transcript?

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I didn't hear the show so I have no idea if there was a violation.  

I'm not a lawyer or an NCAA bureaucrat, so I don't know if what Blais said violates the NCAA rule. I do know that in the 5+ years I've been a regular listener of the UND coaches show, he has named various players the Sioux are recruiting and has made comments about them. I would think that if the NCAA believed Blais was violating the rule, he would have heard from them by now.

Regarding what Blais said about Crosby on Wednesday night, some context is in order. Someone called in to the show, said he'd seen Crosby play recently and wanted to know if the Sioux were recruiting him. Blais said that they were scouting him and mentioned Crosby's unofficial visit during UND's series against Wisconsin. He also mentioned Crosby's comment about the possibility of going the college route rather than to major-juniors.

The caller made some comments about Crosby's play based on what he'd seen of him. Blais essentially agreed with the points the caller made.

As I read the rule, it is not a violation for Blais to mention Crosby by name or to say that UND is recruiting him. He didn't say anything about specific contributions Crosby would make to the Sioux as a player. He said nothing about the likelihood of Crosby committing to UND. He specifically said that other schools besides UND were pursuing Crosby. He agreed with comments that somebody else made about Crosby's abilities.

I'll leave it up to the lawyers and bureaucrats to decide if any of that violates the NCAA rules.

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Being the "Ernie the Angler Fisher Person" I am.

PCM, how come you didn't add more about Blaiser and fishing? :)

Don't give me this is a "hockey board" only answer either. ;):0:p

______________________________________________________

Oh great more stress! I hope I used the quotation marks correctly. ;)

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PCM:

Considering that I live in Lincoln, Nebraska, your transcipts of the coaches' show are my only access to that information. I read them religiously and would be deeply disappointed if you discontinued posting them. I hope you ignore the hoopla that the "Road Kill" Trolls are trying to stir up and will continue to provide these transcripts. They are much appreciated!

Go Sioux!

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"Blais said that during the visit, Crosby made the statement that he might not go the major-junior route and might go to the NCAA."

This is from the Jan. 8 radio show..."Blais said Crosby made an unofficial visit here and was at Minnesota last weekend. The kid is good and knows he's going to get offers, so there's no hurry for him to commit now. "You

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Looking through my notes from the coaches show there was one comment made by the caller which was pretty darn funny - *almost hate to post it as it'll 99% likely become a new thread title regarding UND fans preoccupation with savior/God/all things holy -- so please don't disappoint me :p

As the caller was getting ready to hang up he said - I'll be saying my prayers each and every night - (in regards to SC).

You had to hear the whole conversation, but the caller had really good "timing", just typing it makes it sound a little lame .... for those of you unable to hear the coaches show live, it's too bad, 'cause they really are pretty funny (plus the callers are good -- good questions and the like).

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I don't think any of us Gopher fans are mentioning anything about the comments re: Crosby in jealousy as you would like to believe.

The reason we ask is because it appears that Blais does in fact comment frequently about recruits, whereas none of the Minnesota coaches mention any recruiting until the LOI has been signed.

We aren't trolling, just looking for an explanation on whether or not it could be construed as a violation or not.

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I was not trying to create controversy. I didn't post anything on here until I noticed the discussion on two other boards.

I don't know exactly what the correct interpretation of the rule is. Other fans seem to say that simply mentioning a prospect is a violation of the rule. I don't read the rule that way. However, the only part that concerns me is that Blais *seemed* to be commenting on the ability of SC (yes, I know PCM's summary is not verbatim and I didn't actually hear the show). That seems to be directly covered by the rule.

I too greatly appreciate the summaries and I hope this flare-up doesn't prevent people from posting them.

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I have to laugh at some of the trolls that come in here and try to say that Dean Blais violated some recruiting rule, which in fact He has not.

I also pretty sure that the NCAA is going to launch an investigation into a matter such as this. Lets compare a couple of things.

Example Number one.

Imagine this Joe Troll calls up the NCAA office in Kansas City and says he Mr NCAA official a fan posted a non-verbatim quote from an unoffical web page and apparently Dean Blais coach of UND might have said some version of this. I can't confirm or deny because I haven't heard it but I think it might be a stretch, or it could be some minor violation.

Example number two.

(All the while last seaons Lou Nannie and Glen Solmor couldn't handle the fact that Zach Parise chose UND over UofM, no problem there they go down to Fairbault Minnesota to try to strong arm and bully a 18 year old kid into changing his mind, and convince him into going to the UofM instead of UND. All the while telling him he has made the wrong decision, that he doesn't know what he is doing, blah, blah,...)

Hum thats a tough one. I think the Solmor Nannie situation is way more serious than some unfounded allegation.

I mean its pretty obvious that Blais knows the rules and isn't going to break the rules besides, I doubt that the NCAA is going to care what some fan from another opposing conference team's web page cares and thinks.

Besides I am sure that Blaiser talks to all kinds of young kids, I am sure Blais talks to all kinds of fans too...

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Nathan,

Blais may comment about potential recruits on occasion, but at least he doesn't send in his goons, i.e. Sonmor and Nanne, to bully and sway potential recruits. I know, I know, I know, Lucia had no knowledge of that situation, blah, blah, blah. Who really cares?

Either way, it is an old and tired topic, not unlike the alleged comments Blais made regarding Crosby.

In my opinion, the comments were within the acceptable parameters established by the NCAA and I am sure most Sioux fans would agree. Gopher fans and fans of other teams scattered throughout the country likely will not agree. But, none of our opinions matter to the NCAA so it will remain a point of contention, albeit a meaningless one.

I, for one, hope we can move on and have some constructive conversations about more worthwhile topics.

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Nathan,

Blais may comment about potential recruits on occasion, but at least he doesn't send in his goons, i.e. Sonmor and Nanne, to bully and sway potential recruits.

Hey Schmitdoggy_Dog,

I didn't know I got sent in to bully people :)

Solmor and Nannie are not worthy of being called Goon's

Thugs would be more appropriate...

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We aren't trolling, just looking for an explanation on whether or not it could be construed as a violation or not.

I want to thank Hammy for posting the actual text of the NCAA rule in question on POI and others for reposting it here.

As I interpret it, the rule says that a coach can say the name of a potential recruit and can say that the school is pursuing him as a recruit. The coach is not allow to comment on the player's abilities, what strengths he might bring to the team or the likelihood of the recurit making a commitment to the school.

Regarding Sydney Crosby, the question of the moment is whether he'll go the NCAA route or the major junior route. At this point, Crosby himself probably doesn't know the answer. But until he makes that decision, the question of which school he'll attend if he chooses the NCAA route is a moot point.

Blais said UND is one of two or three schools recruiting Crosby. He didn't say anything about whether Crosby was more likely to attend UND than any of the other schools.

Personally, the part of the rule that prohibits coaches from commenting on the abilities of players they're recruiting seems rather silly. What, exactly, is the point? Consider this purely hypothetical call to the UND coaches show:

Caller: Coach Blais, are you recruiting Sydney Crosby?

Blais: Yes, I am.

Caller: How good is he?

Blais: I can't say.

Caller: Is he fast? Does he have good hands? Does he have a good shot? Is he strong on the forecheck? Is he a good two-way player?

Blais: Sorry, but the NCAA prohibits me from commenting on a player's abilities.

Caller: You must have a reason for recruiting him, don't you?

Blais: Yes, I do.

Caller: Well, if he sucked, you wouldn't be recruiting him, would you?

Blais: I can't say.

I certainly don't know this, but is it possible that the University of Minnesota holds its coaches to a more stringent standard about what they should and shouldn't say publicly about a recruit? Perhaps they use a "better safe than sorry" approach. If that's the case, Blais obviously is not bound by that standard.

Edit: Oops. Left out a very important word.

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I think what PCM is saying is more along the lines of what we were looking for. I know that's pretty much how it's handled down here, maybe when you have a history of issues within the athletics department, you look for any way to cover your butt?

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PCM,

I have said this in the past on POI.... but when Lucia is on the radio, I always try to remind people to not bother him with asking specific questions on a recruit that hasn't signed a LOI. I have seen it happen before on the radio in which some "dope" inevitably asks Lucia a question on some kid and it puts Lucia in an odd spot in which he just says that he can't comment on a specific player. I realize that not every Gopher fan is as educated on the rules as many of the Gopher fans on the internet but I would hope they would learn over time.

I don't really care to get involved in the argument of whether this situation is a violation. That is for the NCAA to decide. I do think Blais would be better off not answering specifics though. Not worth the risk in my book.

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Hammy,

I don't think it's so much about uninformed "dopes" as it is about the NCAA rule not making a whole lot of sense to most people. Essentially, the rule says that coaches can say that they're pursuing certain recruits, but they can't say why. What is the NCAA's rationale for that?

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