Crimson mixes up cheating and trying

And that’s got very little to do with the fact that I’m from Columbus, Ohio, and that Amaker used to be the head coach at the University of Michigan. In all honesty, I liked the guy there, and I would have liked him to stay there for a couple more seasons without an NCAA appearance, and as it was pointed out to me, Amaker’s Harvard squad beat Michigan earlier this season, and for a Buckeye fan, shouldn’t that be enough to give him the benefit of the doubt?

I don’t care much about Harvard wanting to become a contender in the Ivy League and therefore going after players whose academic records don’t look quite like the rest of the applicant pool. As long as the final recruiting class meets the league’s minimum standard, I’m not going to gripe too much. After all, recruiting is a complicated game, perhaps more difficult than the actual sports the recruited students play. It’s especially difficult for Ivy League coaches, who must pay significant attention to their recruiting class’ academic credentials as well as its athletic prowess. So it should come as no surprise that coaches try to cut corners and push the envelope when gathering prospects for their team. By the logic above, if the NCAA doesn’t find Harvard guilty, then I won’t.

There is a difference, however, in that unlike academic standards, questions of this kind are rarely black and white. There is no mathematical formula that can tell me if the Harvard basketball coaches are a big fat bunch of cheaters. I doubt an NCAA investigation would find them guilty based on what the Times has reported so far. Harvard and the Ivy League announced Tuesday that they will launch a formal investigation into whether Amaker and his staff committed any violations. Whether they will find anything remains to be seen.

Harvard had already begun probing Amaker’s recruiting tactics last year. Amaker — who definitely does not reside in Trenton, N.J. — just happened to run into then-rising high school senior Zach Rosen’s father at Rosen’s local ShopRite in Trenton during a basketball tournament. Suspect, but as the father of the six-foot, one-inch point guard told the Times, Amaker wouldn’t be found guilty in court. Case in point, last year’s Harvard investigation into the matter didn’t find him guilty of anything.

What about assistant coach Kevin Blakeney? He joined the coaching staff on July 2, 2007, only a week or two after he was playing pickup basketball with a Harvard recruit.

So he was at the local high school playing pickup, someone might say. If by local you mean 180 miles from his house, then sure, he was only hanging out in the neighborhood. No problem.

Blakeney claims that he was not under contract with Harvard and therefore could not have been recruiting for a school to which he had no connection. He was simply visiting the Gonzaga basketball coach and likes to play pickup to stay in shape, Blakeney said. Never mind that he exchanged phone numbers and developed a rapport with one of the boys and put himself in an unfair position over other coaches.

Both of these instances occurred during the time when coaches are only allowed one contact per month with high school athletes, which means that all encounters must be left to chance. But like all good stalkers know, chance is easily manipulated. How fortunate for the Crimson that Amaker needed groceries when he was 300 miles from home and that Blakeney was visiting a friend and felt the urgent need to play a couple games of basketball.

Maybe there’s something in the water in New England that makes head coaches think it’s okay to bend or break rules they don’t like. But as Bill Bellichik learned the hard way, cheaters never prosper.