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The NCAA has a habit of acting under a cloud of secrecy and stealth when “investigating” whether potential actions on the part of a student-athlete have damaged their amateur status.
The Texas Longhorns basketball team is the most recent victim of such a situation, as the NCAA continues to drag their feet on the investigation of point guard Myck Kabongo and his alleged workout with a trainer connected to LeBron James‘ agent upon a trip to Cleveland to visit his childhood Toronto friend Tristan Thompson, now with the NBA‘s Cleveland Cavaliers.
The NCAA, in all it’s infinite wisdom, has yet to provide Texas with any information about Kabongo’s pending eligibility or lack thereof, leaving Rick Barnes and his staff in the dark as the toughest portion of the non-conference slate awaits and Big 12 action is right around the corner following the holidays.
To fill in for Kabongo, Texas is using a patchwork of true freshman point guard Javan Felix— who’s playing much heavier minutes than anticipated– and non-point-guards like Julien Lewis and DeMarcus Holland who are having to handle the ball much more often than Barnes would prefer, thus causing a bizarre, but very tangible void in leadership.
To compound this, Texas is also without Jaylen Bond, the team’s enforcer that brings toughness to the hardwood which has been sorely lacking to this point in the young 2012 season.
If the NCAA had a collective conscious of any sort, they would tell the Texas Longhorns coaching and compliance staff something in regards to Myck Kabongo’s short and long-term future.
Leaving them in limbo as conference play ends is not only bizarre behavior, it’s poor business practice toward a major player that makes the NCAA a ton of money on an annual basis.
And, after all, let’s stop kidding ourselves about the NCAA being concerned about the “student-athlete” ideal. That’s as antiquated as my grandmother’s black-and-white wood-framed TV.
Texas is losing money without Myck Kabongo, and so is the NCAA.
Eventually that loss will be enough for the NCAA’s silent treatment toward the Longhorns to end.
Hopefully that day will come sooner than later. It should.
Time is money.
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Kris Hughes is the College Football Network Manager for Rant Sports and a member of the Football Writers Association of America. You can follow him on Twitter or check out his Facebook page.
Kris is the host of Rant Sports Radio on the Blog Talk Radio Network Wednesday evenings at 8 Central Time.
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