^^^ Well Findlay isnt a diploma mill because its not a school. Its a private basketball club, the kids play for the team but go to a different private school. Its kind of a weird arrangement.
Also I dont believe he was 'kicked off' the team. From the reports I've read, he broke some team rules, was asked to apologized, and instead he quit. Not that thats any good either, but he wasn't kicked off.
It does seem weird for Sendek to take in a kid like this, Herb must think he can keep him in line though. I doubt Herb would take too big of a risk on a kid whos only as a 3 star, but maybe missing out on Kreal made him desperate.
Findlay is a basketball academy that's on the grounds of Henderson International school which is essentially a private prepschool. I read a ton about Findlay last year when UCLA was trying to get involved with Avery Bradley and he wound up transferring to Findlay. Basically when he went to Findlay, any chance he had of getting into UCLA was gone.
Findlay prep is named after former UNLV player Cliff Findlay who got rich in the car business and decided to open a prep "school". Findlay is in its 3rd or 4th season and from the begining they faced accusations that they were steering players to UNLV and were in essence a diploma mill due to the extremely high grad rate of kids who mostly arrive in academic peril. I believe when I read last year every singled player who'd gone through Findlay graduated and qualified for college. Cal had Jorge Gutierrez this year as a freshman, the reason he was available so late is he was a kid from Mexico who went to Findlay and the Clearinghouse took extra long before approving his transcripts. In that time Cal hired Monty and got involved. Jorge might be my favorite non UCLA player in the Pac 10 next year.
So you're right Findlay itself is not a school but it's directly tied to Henderson. SI recently wrote a story on their national championship this year and pointed out how shady the whole thing looks on paper.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/highschool/04/09/findlay.prep/index.html?eref=T1
Rudd was suspended for academics but during the ESPN televised tournament they said on air they were told he was kicked off the team at Findlay. The same guys said Tristan Thompson was booted off a New Jersey team for a physical confrontation with Dan Hurley, and wound up at Findlay. The article I linked above said it was a verbal confrontation, Thompson was kicked off on a Tuesday, and by Saturday was a playing for Findlay.
To me it's like when a CEO gets fired and the company announces he quit, you never know the truth, but the guys on the telecast on ESPN said Rudd was kicked off the team according to someone at Findlay. He left school at that time and that's why nobody expects him to qualify.
I should add he might be better than a 3 star, when you aren't playing for awhile your ranking tends to go down. Rudd has missed quite a bit of playing time last year and this year due to academics and other issues. He went down last year, raised his rating during the summer, and then went down again this year after leaving Findlay.
