Cheating Scandal Rocks Ivy League
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Brown University fires head coach; Seven-Player team of underclassmen will play
under first-year interim coach; NCAA Investigation continues
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Brown University fires head coach; Seven-Player team of underclassmen will play
under first-year interim coach; NCAA Investigation continues
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A cheating scandal which threatens to rock the Ivy League to its core continues to cast a cloud over Providence, as head basketball coach David Rickerts was fired abruptly by University President Richard Orton. Orton, while admitting the school was filing self-sanctions with the NCAA, said he has also replaced the entire upper-level staff of his Athletic Department over charges that a third of the 2016-17 Bears team was involved in organized academic fraud.
Meanwhile, rumors abound that the former coach's long-implicated ties with New Jersey organized crime syndicates may bring into question the Bears' entire basketball program's performance over the last several seasons due to point-shaving implications.
Newly hired head coach Rex Danninger has his work cut out for him, as only seven players remain on the program's roster, all underclassmen.
“I am here to do a job,” Danninger told the Providence Journal. “We're hopeful that the NCAA won't further sanction us, as every player who was implicated has been removed from the University, and I will be bringing on an entirely new staff to the program hell-bent on making sure nothing of this sort happens on my watch. Under the new AD, this is our program's last chance to regain respectability within the Ivy League and the NCAA as a whole, and I don't plan to mishandle that transition.”
Danninger, though he has no prior head coaching experience, has worked on the Wichita State staff for the last ten seasons, including four years as the school's chief compliance officer with the NCAA. No one in the media questions his ethics as he takes over the program, but there is legitimate debate as to whether the program can regain credibility after such a scandal.
Has Danninger signed on for a completely thankless, impossible task? Only time will tell. One thing is for sure – Brown Basketball has a long road to walk as we head into the 2017-18 recruiting season.
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Game Settings
I'm recruiting on Brutal and I'll be hamstringing myself even more by not allowing any recruiting outside the state of Rhode Island until after October 2nd, meaning out of state visits would be very limited (mostly to end of season). I will also not allow myself to recruit anyone with less than a 3.2 GPA due to the academic restrictions caused by the scandal, and no Junior College transfers.
Considering all that, plus the fact that I'll be cutting a third of the team, should mean a LOT of walk-on talent. Can I help Brown compete under these restrictions?
To put it in perspective, that leaves me only two in-state recruits I can target this year, with all other recruiting limited until after October 2nd. BRUTAL
