Rutgers to file tampering charges against USC over hoops transfer

[Russ Smith]

http://www.mycentraljersey.com/arti...o+file+tampering+charges+against+Southern+Cal

Not official yet but the report says Rutgers will file tampering charges vs USC over junior guard to be Mike Rosario who announced last week he was leaving Rutgers. He's the first McD's AA they ever signed, led them in scoring while shooting under 40% both years.

Brian Dohn who used to cover UCLA for the Daily News(so he has West Coast connections) says his source indicates USC's staff "directly contacted" Rosario which is a clear violation of tampering rules if true since he's still under scholarship at Rutgers.

The report claims Rutgers will release him with stipulations he's not released to USC, Florida or Kansas. No indication why Florida and Kansas are also barred since nobody has suggested they tampered with him too.

His former HS teammate Jio Fontan will be at USC 2nd semester he transferred midseason, so everyone assumes this is somehow connected to him. KO denies it but 2 Rutgers sites are claiming they have a source saying it absolutely happened and Rutgers will NOT allow Rosario to go to USC without a fight.

 

[Tyler]

We dont know any of the actual details surrounding this, BUT, If this doesnt show the NCAA that USC has ZERO control over their athletic programs I dont know what does.

 

[Russ Smith]

We dont know any of the actual details surrounding this, BUT, If this doesnt show the NCAA that USC has ZERO control over their athletic programs I dont know what does.

Yep it's a weird story, the coach is out, they essentially gave him an ultimatum quit with a buyout or get fired. The coach is apparently going to appeal and drag it out. Some say this situation is the byproduct of that Rosario didn't want to be there in the mess and he contacted USC(because of Fontan). Either way a kid under scholarship is off limits to another school you can't talk to him without permission from the school he's at and it's very clear nobody at Rutgers gave permission. Rutgers tried to keep the coach initially they announced he was staying, then he apparently did something really embarassing to the school that was the last straw.

It's a tough situation it sounds like Rosario has legit reasons to want to leave but there's a bunch of reports about Fontan and his dad engineering the whole thing with USC and that KO is basically hiding behind that claiming the coaches weren't involved.

Generally nothing comes of tampering because it's too hard to prove but with USC in such hot water now the timing couldn't be worse.

 

[DWKB]

So, Rosario was released with no conditions on him going to KU.

Self must have shelled out cash for that or something, huh?

 

[Russ Smith]

So, Rosario was released with no conditions on him going to KU.

Self must have shelled out cash for that or something, huh?

Brian Dohn who used to cover UCLA for the Daily News now covers Rutgers and has been all over this story. He said the original source that Rosario talked to USC's coaches was... Rosario, he had told the coach he wanted his release and the coach said he would grant it. The coach had just gotten a vote of confidence but then less than a week later got into an obscenity filled tirade at a Rutgers baseball game that was so bad the school told him either accept a buyout or get canned. So Rosario went to meet with the staff and per one report(not Dohn's a NJ sportswriter) the AD was there when Rosario said I want to make sure my release is still good and told them he'd already talked to USC's staff and was also considering Florida and Kansas. Rutgers hadn't released him so they got ticked off and said they were going to file tampering charges against USC.

Even yesterday there were conflicting reports on what conditional release meant but in the end they just said nobody in the Big East and nobody on Rutgers schedule.

BTW multiple reports say the reason why is that when the AD talked to the remaining players he said he was going to make Rosario wait until they hired a replacement coach and several players said they would transfer themselves if Rosario didn't leave, they didn't want to play with him. So they decided rather than making Rosario wait they were going to release him immediately.

Scott Wolf who still works for the Daily News covering USC said he was told USC compliance called Rutgers compliance and were told to their knowledge there was no tampering. Dohn said he has multiple sources that said Rosario told Rutgers himself he'd talked to USC's staff, Jio Fontan his HS teammate is at USC now and his dad made the arrangements. His dad is running the show now he set up the visit to Florida.

Generally speaking schools do what Rutgers did even if they do think tampering was involved, if you block the kid it hurts recruiting and Rutgers program is in disarray right now anyways they had 12 kids transfer while Hill was the coach. The coach is challenging the dismissal trying to get a bigger buyout no doubt so that is a total mess right now.

Personally I don't see why so many schools are interested in Rosario, 38% as a freshman 39 as a soph, A/TO 1.4 to 2.8. He played roughly 60 games there including several games where they experimented with him at PG, and his career high in assists was 5. 6'2" SG's who can't shoot even 40% are not all that interesting to me.

FYI the reason Kansas was on the original list of teams he couldn't transfer to was Tyshawn Taylor was a HS teammate too so there was some presumption that Fontan(the dad) might have been in touch with Taylor(which is not a violation since he's not a coach he's a player). Fordham put several restrictions on Jio Fontan including that he couldn't go to Rutgers when he transferred because they felt the dad acted inappropriately.

 

[Tyler]

THis is odd, why would the kid make those comments in regards to the coaching staff at SC? If he did talk to them dont you think they would have told him to keep his mouth shut>?

 

[Russ Smith]

THis is odd, why would the kid make those comments in regards to the coaching staff at SC? If he did talk to them dont you think they would have told him to keep his mouth shut>?

The claim on the Rutgers boards is that Rosario didn't know the rule and thought that because he'd asked to be released and the coach indicated he would grant the release, he was free to talk to other schools.

There's another report that says the whole thing is blown out of proportion, Jio Fontan's dad is the one who told people Rosario had talked to USC coaches already, he's a meddling parent and Rosario calls him his "mentor." But when Rutgers investigated they found no evidence Rosario had really spoken to USC.

now USC fans are claiming KO has said he's not interested in Rosario, which I find interesting. Could mean he too doesn't want a small SG who can't shoot, or it could mean KO realizes the best action here is to walk away from the kid and hope there's nothing to the tampering charges.

The way it turned out is pretty typical schools always release kids who aren't happy if you don't it hurts recruiting, but the other stuff before this was pretty unusual. Dohn by the way says Fontan's transfer was similar, Fordham actually blocked him from going to Rutgers or several other Big East schools because they thought Fontan's dad had been shopping him to Big East schools and they didn't like it. In the end it appears Rosario gets his wish, the current players get their wish(Rosario gone) and now they need to hire a new coach and there's Eddie Jordan, Rutgers alum, freshly unemployed.