UCLA hires Phil Matthews to replace Donny Daniels

[Russ Smith]

Has been rumored for awhile apparently he's had the job for a couple of weeks but had things he needed to finish up at Nebraska so the schools agreed on the transition period. He's 59, from LA, coached Ventura JC for years, they were a national JC power under him. Howland said he's known him for 28 years and in fact Matthews coached incoming freshman Tyler Lamb's dad in JC at one point.

9 scholarship players and Emerson Murray picking Cal and Remi Barry reclassifying in 2011 means Phil has his work cut out to get anybody else.

The conference call was humorous, Matthews son is a freshman highly regarded in AAU circles and because he's the kids dad, he's allowed to attend AAU games now that NCAA rules prohibit coaches from attending. So after Howland said it's actually a nice advantage until the NCAA realizes what a bad rule that is and repeals it, one of the callers asked Matthews "so do you think Ben hired you to get your son," laughing out loud. Matthews deadpanned "probably so" and then said at least he had 3 more years before not getting his son would get him fired. They were of course hinting about UCLA losing Ray McCallum and Trey Ziegler who decided to play for their dads in college.

We'll see, I remember Matthews from his USF days I know he had a rep as a disciplinarian who was really good with guards, but IIRC one of the reasons he was fired was he had some players who didn't like his temper, and with Howland in charge you almost expected UCLA to hire a younger guy to be a go between with Ben and the players.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Awful hire.

 

[Russ Smith]

Awful hire.

Yeah I really have no opinion yet. The BRO guys love the hiring, say he's a tireless recruiter and will be great.

I just don't remember enough about him at USF to get excited. I know he was very successful in JC but generally speaking the way you win in JC is to outrecruit everyone else so you out talent them and in LA he had an abundance of talented kids who didn't qualify for D1 and was able to get them.

Apparently Howland wanted to hire him before but he up for a position in JC at the time and had the job sewn up so he declined. The position was later nixed due to budget cuts by then UCLA had hired someone else(assuming that was Scott Duncan).

Getting pretty late in the game recruiting wise for 2010.

 

[DWKB]

I'll hold judgment until I know his stance on defending rapists.

 

[Russ Smith]

Looks like Daniels leaving may have cost UCLA one recruit. Gary Bell verballed to Gonzaga yesterday and apparently said he wasn't sure about UCLA at the moment with Daniels having left. Of course Daniels is at Gonzaga now so I'm guessing Daniels who was recruiting Bell for UCLA, wound up helping Gonzaga get him.

 

[Russ Smith]

I'll hold judgment until I know his stance on defending rapists.

Selective morality is such an interesting thing. I think we can all agree what Daniels said was wrong, hell Utah suspended him, ordered him to do a year of sensitivity training, they stopped recruiting Parker and got beat up over it for recruiting the kid in the first place.

You contrast that with say Kurtis Townsend who was part of recruiting violations at Cal that led to NCAA probation. Was at Michigan when violations occurred that later put them on probation. Was at USC when violations occurred that later put them on probation. And went for the grandslam by being employed by Kansas when they went on probation(again) in 2006 for violations that started before he got there but due to lack of institutional control(NCAA not me) went on the whole time including failing to report nearly 30 secondary violations to the NCAA that the school's own internal investigation had uncovered.

So here's one guy who said something incredibly stupid 15 years ago, and the other guy has done the same thing 4 times at 4 different schools from 1994 to the present and yet someone chooses to focus on the first guy and ignore the second guy.

But he gets players and that seems to be all that matters.

And I haven't even mentioned the wonderful Joe Dooley who several years ago was caught on camera by ESPN screaming "expletive you" at 19 year old Nevada player Nick Fazekas after Nevada beat Kansas. What did Nick do to warrant the obscenity,
why he had the audacity to reach his hand out to shake Dooley's hand after the game. Self did say Dooley's actions were inappropriate but he's still on staff today. But then, he gets players, he's been rated among the top 10 recruiters in the game the last 4 seasons, so who cares about his personal conduct.

 

[DWKB]

Selective morality is such an interesting thing. I think we can all agree what Daniels said was wrong, hell Utah suspended him, ordered him to do a year of sensitivity training, they stopped recruiting Parker and got beat up over it for recruiting the kid in the first place.

You contrast that with say Kurtis Townsend who was part of recruiting violations at Cal that led to NCAA probation. Was at Michigan when violations occurred that later put them on probation. Was at USC when violations occurred that later put them on probation. And went for the grandslam by being employed by Kansas when they went on probation(again) in 2006 for violations that started before he got there but due to lack of institutional control(NCAA not me) went on the whole time including failing to report nearly 30 secondary violations to the NCAA that the school's own internal investigation had uncovered.

So here's one guy who said something incredibly stupid 15 years ago, and the other guy has done the same thing 4 times at 4 different schools from 1994 to the present and yet someone chooses to focus on the first guy and ignore the second guy.

But he gets players and that seems to be all that matters.

And I haven't even mentioned the wonderful Joe Dooley who several years ago was caught on camera by ESPN screaming "expletive you" at 19 year old Nevada player Nick Fazekas after Nevada beat Kansas. What did Nick do to warrant the obscenity,
why he had the audacity to reach his hand out to shake Dooley's hand after the game. Self did say Dooley's actions were inappropriate but he's still on staff today. But then, he gets players, he's been rated among the top 10 recruiters in the game the last 4 seasons, so who cares about his personal conduct.

Wow...someone's panties are in a bunch!

 

[Russ Smith]

Wow...someone's panties are in a bunch!

Just find your moral objections to something Daniels said 15 years ago to be interesting when it's so obvious you don't care at all what any of the coaches at Kansas have done in the past, or even at Kansas, as long as they get players and win at Kansas.

But those assistants continue to pay off, now Josh Selby can drive his AAU coach/former grade school principals silver mercedes off to Lawrence. no doubt with his mom in the passenger seat ready to start her new job so she can be with her son during his difficult transition to college ball.

 

[DWKB]

Just find your moral objections to something Daniels said 15 years ago to be interesting when it's so obvious you don't care at all what any of the coaches at Kansas have done in the past, or even at Kansas, as long as they get players and win at Kansas.

But those assistants continue to pay off, now Josh Selby can drive his AAU coach/former grade school principals silver mercedes off to Lawrence. no doubt with his mom in the passenger seat ready to start her new job so she can be with her son during his difficult transition to college ball.

I don't have any real moral objections to Daniels. I didn't even know about his transgressions until I went searching for something negative about UCLA. Honestly, I just enjoy the game of college basketball and really like rooting for my alma mater.

Trust me, there is only one holier than thou judgmental tight ass in this thread and it isn't me. The irony that he happens to root for, what many consider, the dirtiest college basketball program of all time (sorry Kentucky) isn't lost on me either.

 

[Russ Smith]

I don't have any real moral objections to Daniels. I didn't even know about his transgressions until I went searching for something negative about UCLA. Honestly, I just enjoy the game of college basketball and really like rooting for my alma mater.

Trust me, there is only one holier than thou judgmental tight ass in this thread and it isn't me. The irony that he happens to root for, what many consider, the dirtiest college basketball program of all time (sorry Kentucky) isn't lost on me either.

Yes I start a thread about Phil Matthews and you respond with a snide reference to Daniels but I'm the one who's a tight ass?

I'm too young to know exactly what happened with Sam Gilbert, I was 15 when they went on probation over Sam thanks to Larry Brown(remember him?). Most of the people who bring up Gilbert are too young to have any idea what really happened, but hey Tark and Bob Knight say he bought every player for Wooden so must be true. Some players have admitted they got spending money from Sam, he helped them get discounts on things, violations but nothing like what Tark and Knight allege.

Now Kansas today is a whole other animal. Most people consider Calipari to be the current dirtiest coach, ever notice how often Kansas and Calipari are competing for the same kid (either at Memphis or now UK)? Sure that's coincidence the dirtiest coach in the country and the clean program are often recruiting the same kids?

Bill Self committed violations at Illinois one of which was the exact same violation he committed with John Wall where he said it was sometimes hard to remember all the rules.

Kansas literally just got off probation a few months ago and now the associate AD resigns and the former director of KU's athletic ticket office and current assistant AD in charge of the Williams Education Fund is placed on administrative leave. Why? Because it seems some developer guy got busted and in trying to get a deal he spilled the beans about how tickets for NCAA games and KU basketball had been illegally sold for profit for years. Kansas, the IRS and the FBI are all investigating.

The Williams Educational Fund is "the fund raising arm of KU athletics", it helps fund the student athletes at Kansas. Apparently someone was taking tickets paid for by wealthy boosters and reselling them for profit and had been doing so for years.

What did Kansas do, they sent out an email to all their boosters assuring them this wasn't a matter that involved any NCAA violations. Sure apparently theft, fraud and money laundering has been going on for years but don't panic, we won't go on probation because of it. Don't worry your donations aren't being misused we're still using them to pay Daniel Orton's father and brother to speak at camps just like always.

I mean Bill Self literally bought his house from the developer who was arrested. Kansas booster and the Rush brothers. Kansas booster and Darnell Jackson (and per published reports JR Giddens before that). The whole Doug Compton story involving the Morris twins. The story about one of the Morris twins firing a BB gun at a woman out the window of his dorm room, the interesting part of that story is that the twins were NOT on scholarship yet because they weren't academically cleared, they were NOT allowed to be living in athletic dorms yet there they were.

And since you like the wayback machine so much back in 1985 Wilt Chamberlain admitted he was paid money while playing at Kansas in the mid 1950's, so KU has been "going rogue" for close to 60 years now.

 

[DWKB]

Yes I start a thread about Phil Matthews and you respond with a snide reference to Daniels but I'm the one who's a tight ass?

Maybe you don't know what a tight ass is?

I'm too young to know exactly what happened with Sam Gilbert, I was 15 when they went on probation over Sam thanks to Larry Brown(remember him?). Most of the people who bring up Gilbert are too young to have any idea what really happened, but hey Tark and Bob Knight say he bought every player for Wooden so must be true. Some players have admitted they got spending money from Sam, he helped them get discounts on things, violations but nothing like what Tark and Knight allege.

Now Kansas today is a whole other animal. Most people consider Calipari to be the current dirtiest coach, ever notice how often Kansas and Calipari are competing for the same kid (either at Memphis or now UK)? Sure that's coincidence the dirtiest coach in the country and the clean program are often recruiting the same kids?

Bill Self committed violations at Illinois one of which was the exact same violation he committed with John Wall where he said it was sometimes hard to remember all the rules.

Kansas literally just got off probation a few months ago and now the associate AD resigns and the former director of KU's athletic ticket office and current assistant AD in charge of the Williams Education Fund is placed on administrative leave. Why? Because it seems some developer guy got busted and in trying to get a deal he spilled the beans about how tickets for NCAA games and KU basketball had been illegally sold for profit for years. Kansas, the IRS and the FBI are all investigating.

The Williams Educational Fund is "the fund raising arm of KU athletics", it helps fund the student athletes at Kansas. Apparently someone was taking tickets paid for by wealthy boosters and reselling them for profit and had been doing so for years.

What did Kansas do, they sent out an email to all their boosters assuring them this wasn't a matter that involved any NCAA violations. Sure apparently theft, fraud and money laundering has been going on for years but don't panic, we won't go on probation because of it. Don't worry your donations aren't being misused we're still using them to pay Daniel Orton's father and brother to speak at camps just like always.

I mean Bill Self literally bought his house from the developer who was arrested. Kansas booster and the Rush brothers. Kansas booster and Darnell Jackson (and per published reports JR Giddens before that). The whole Doug Compton story involving the Morris twins. The story about one of the Morris twins firing a BB gun at a woman out the window of his dorm room, the interesting part of that story is that the twins were NOT on scholarship yet because they weren't academically cleared, they were NOT allowed to be living in athletic dorms yet there they were.

And since you like the wayback machine so much back in 1985 Wilt Chamberlain admitted he was paid money while playing at Kansas in the mid 1950's, so KU has been "going rogue" for close to 60 years now.

You should write a book. You seem to know all there is to know about how dirty of a program KU has. I'm sure it would sell a ton. Plus the NCAA might actually "take us down" once your expose shows the world what they're all missing.

 

[Russ Smith]

Maybe you don't know what a tight ass is?





You should write a book. You seem to know all there is to know about how dirty of a program KU has. I'm sure it would sell a ton. Plus the NCAA might actually "take us down" once your expose shows the world what they're all missing.

They've already taken you down several times, honestly the only surprise is the punishment hasn't been worse. Given the recent history of violations when they found lack of institutional control, academic fraud, extra inducements to players etc in mens football and basketball and womens basketball it was somewhat surprising the punishment wasn't worse. It was sort of what everyone expects at USC, basketball to get nailed and football to get off easy. At kansas football got nailed, and basketball got off easy. Usually the fine is progressively worse but for some reason Kansas just keeps getting off relatively easy.

I mean you literally just got off probation over institutional control and oh by the way people have been illegally selling tickets for years? What part of institutional control do the folks at KU not get? Did they really not know it was going on when boosters clearly did?

When UCLA had the problem with football players getting handicapped parking placards illegally I thought that was really embarassing(and spearheaded by Cade McNown which is why I disliked him so much). But as bad as that was, it was a bunch of 19-22 year olds. But this ticket scandal is adults, how little oversight can there be if nobody caught it?

But given in 06 the NCAA found that Kansas had uncovered 28 secondary violations and failed to report them to the NCAA I guess we shouldn't be surprised at the lack of oversight? I would assume even if someone did figure it out they weren't going to say anything until this contractor guy got caught paying a kickback and in trying to get a deal broke the story about the ticket scandal. I can see the AD has put in some really strict controls since the 2006 probation.

 

[DWKB]

You must be registered for see images

Seems like a serious case of pot and kettle along with selective disdain.


Seems like your masturbatory obsession only deals with one school in the mid-west.

 

[Russ Smith]

You must be registered for see images

Seems like a serious case of pot and kettle along with selective disdain.


Seems like your masturbatory obsession only deals with one school in the mid-west.

Off the top of my head I can name at least 4 times that Kansas mens basketball has been on probation, first time I'm aware of is 1956, for providing transportation for a recruit. Of course at that time Wilt Chamberlain was a Jayhawk and he himself admitted he got paid by boosters while at Kansas. The probation didn't include any postseason ban, largely because the NCAA didn't know Wilt was being paid.

In 1972 mens track, football AND basketball (Ted Owens) went on probation for multiple violations. Kansas' chancellor at the time, ironically named Chalmers, said he was happy to see there were so few "serious violations" and that most of them were committed by people no longer on staff at KU. He was disturbed at some of the violations committed by boosters but said he was surprised the penalty was so severe (1 year probation no tv games).
Kansas had actually been censured by the conference 2 years earlier for several things which included certifying Mike Bossard on a fraudulent highschool transcript and not taking action when they learned said transcript might be a fraud. Hmm I wonder if Bossard knows Darrell Arthur?


In 1988 mutual friend Larry Brown got Kansas on probation again. KU fans love to tout the Brown story Askew's grandmother was dying I gave him the money for a ticket, I would do it again. Nevermind that money was about 1/3 of the total amount the NCAA found out had been given to Askew, Brown also paid his mom's phone bill($350). They also found out who made the payments, ex KU player Mike Marshall, who Brown tried to throw under the bus . After Marshall transferred out of Kansas as a player he was found to have taken over 15,000 from McNeese State boosters. Sure that never happened when he was at KU. WHen he was sleeping on Brown's couch, he was found to have made multiple loans to Danny Manning, which Manning insisted he paid back. So that NCAA title was with a player whose dad was hired to get him, and the player was being paid by the coach through Mike Marshall. Marshall was used by Brown as the delivery man for the payments to Askew, Brown insisted he wasn't trying to hide it, which is of course why he had Marshall do the deliveries. Larry's a bad man UCLA fans know this too.

Roy Williams got them on probation in 2006, or I should say his time at KU led to the investigation that ultimately got them on probation. The violations occurred both when Williams was the coach and when Self was the coach. And yes I know they were giving 25-50 dollar gifts to ex players, of course they caught 2 boosters doing it and have no idea how many more were. 50 bucks times several boosters adds up quickly and KU certainly had no shortage of boosters. The same guy who paid Jackson was allegedly paying Giddens 2 years earlier although Giddens was never officially named. That was not all the violations just the ones most commonly discussed.

UCLA has 2 in mens basketball the one after Brown left violations covered both Browns time at UCLA, and some that occurred when Wooden was there and specifically named Sam Gilbert in 2 or 3 violations, (co-signed a carloan for a player, paid for an abortion for the girlfriend of a player). The 2nd was under Harrick because they had 2 too many current players at the dinner at Monty's when the Collins twins were visiting. Harrick lied on his expense report to try and cover it but Michael Holton refused to back his lie and reported it to the AD who self reported it to the Pac 10 and the NCAA and fired Harrick. So UCLA has one probation in the last 30 years in mens basketball which is what we were talking about.



Kansas has been probation 2 times in the last 30 years, Brown, Williams and Self. The last 5 coaches at Kansas have all gotten them on probation and if the NCAA knew Wilt was being paid while playing for Harp that would have been even worse.

They won a title while on probation and then were immediately investigated over Arthur's eligibility.

But they got away with that one, the NCAA was more interested in nailing Mayo and Derrick Rose they simply took the findings of the Texas folks who found what they wanted to find, nothing.

And now KU is in the middle of a ticket scandal involving mens basketball.

Must be fun to be a Kansas area sports reporter, especially an investigative journalist, anytime you want to get a big story you can just find out the latest stricks KU basketball is up to and there's a story.

I'm really only talking mens basketball but if you want to include other sports Kansas mens football has been pretty bad too. UCLA used a ringer in womens softball, don't condone it but I don't follow it at all and it has nothing to do with mens basketball. But i can understand why a KU basketball fan wouldn't want to limit the discussion to just mens basketball, it makes KU look less dirty if you add them all up and compare them to others instead of just looking at basketball.

 

[overseascardfan]

You da man Russ! How do you know all this?

 

[DWKB]

Off the top of my head I can name at least 4 times that Kansas mens basketball has been on probation,

You can name 4 times, not at least.

first time I'm aware of is 1956, for providing transportation for a recruit. Of course at that time Wilt Chamberlain was a Jayhawk and he himself admitted he got paid by boosters while at Kansas.

Yup, drove a kid from KC to Lawrence when his car broke down to take an entrance exam, then Phog drove him back to KC to go to his job. Kid never played at KU. It sounds so much more horrible when you say it though. That's a theme here, isn't it Russ?

Roy Williams got them on probation in 2006, or I should say his time at KU led to the investigation that ultimately got them on probation. The violations occurred both when Williams was the coach and when Self was the coach. And yes I know they were giving 25-50 dollar gifts to ex players, of course they caught 2 boosters doing it and have no idea how many more were. 50 bucks times several boosters adds up quickly and KU certainly had no shortage of boosters.

Those two boosters were married. This is the equivalent of accusing someone of trying to board a plane with a swiss army knife as being a terrorist. Again, sounds much worse when you say it.

UCLA has 2 in mens basketball the one after Brown left violations covered both Browns time at UCLA, and some that occurred when Wooden was there and specifically named Sam Gilbert in 2 or 3 violations, (co-signed a carloan for a player, paid for an abortion for the girlfriend of a player).

So UCLA gets a two for one special, huh? That seems fair

What's the time difference between Wooden and Brown, 5 years?


Again, you should write a book. The worst of the worst: the history of KU Basketball. Maybe Kansans are just criminal people. Who's the mastermind of all of this? From 1956 to 2010 there have been a lot of personal changes, Chancellors, ADs, coaches. So who carries the torch?

I personally think you're petty and pathetic really. I never really cared much one way or another about UCLA basketball, but I also didn't know that they had such utterly ******* fans. Sorta changes things now.

 

[Russ Smith]

You da man Russ! How do you know all this?

I actually didn't until I googled, I've said for years Kansas' last 3 coaches got them on probation I never knew Ted Owens had too until I googled it yesterday. So with the coach before Owens that's 5 in a row. Is there another program in NCAA history that has had 5 consecutive coaches caught cheating?

Fresno State did it twice (Tark and Lopes), UNLV did it twice (Tark and blanking on his replacement).

I mean it's amazing that such a clean program has screwed up with FIVE straight coaches.

 

[Russ Smith]

You can name 4 times, not at least.



Yup, drove a kid from KC to Lawrence when his car broke down to take an entrance exam, then Phog drove him back to KC to go to his job. Kid never played at KU. It sounds so much more horrible when you say it though. That's a theme here, isn't it Russ?



Those two boosters were married. This is the equivalent of accusing someone of trying to board a plane with a swiss army knife as being a terrorist. Again, sounds much worse when you say it.



So UCLA gets a two for one special, huh? That seems fair

What's the time difference between Wooden and Brown, 5 years?


Again, you should write a book. The worst of the worst: the history of KU Basketball. Maybe Kansans are just criminal people. Who's the mastermind of all of this? From 1956 to 2010 there have been a lot of personal changes, Chancellors, ADs, coaches. So who carries the torch?

I personally think you're petty and pathetic really. I never really cared much one way or another about UCLA basketball, but I also didn't know that they had such utterly ******* fans. Sorta changes things now.

Well apparently you forgot about Bryan's other charge from the NCAA, that Kansas had knowledge of an outside offer of financial assistance(hint that's a booster gave him money). Kansas did not deny an offer of money "may" have been made but denies they had any knowledge of it. I'm detecting a trend here are you? 2 trends actually, one payments to players by KU boosters, two, that you always choose to gloss over the bad stuff in any allegation and say it was just a ride from Kansas City to Lawrence and back.

So 2 married boosters were each paying players, why ? Because they both insisted the HEAD COACH told them it was ok, and it wasn't just under Roy it was still going on under Self and Kansas admitted the coaches were completely aware the players were being paid after graduating. You'd think with his years of experience Roy would have asked Compliance but no, and then Self comes in and hey let's keep doing it. Why were they making separate payments, if married why didn't they just lump their payments in together? And how do we know they were the only 2, maybe they were just the only 2 dumb enough to admit they did it?

UCLA was a 2 for 1, Bartow and Cunningham weren't named, most of the violations were on Brown's watch, players getting favorable loans on cars from a local car dealer was what broke that story(LA Times). They found the Sam Gilbert stuff the co signing of a loan and paying for an abortion that was during Wooden's watch. Now if you want to call that 2 violations giving UCLA 3, fine, then we'll make Kansas' number go up to 5 since both Roy and Self were named in the 06 violations.

So if you prefer 3 for UCLA and 5 for Kansas be my guest, it doesn't really change that Kansas has had 5 consecutive coaches caught cheating since the mid 50's. Many instances involved boosters paying players, do you think that's why non KU fans suspect this parents moving to Lawrence to live near their kids thing is just a cover for boosters giving jobs to parents to recruit the son?

I said I can name at least 4 because after discovering Owens' violation, which I hadn't known about, I'm honestly not sure if there were any more, there's too much dirt it's like digging a hole at the beach all the sand keeps falling and filling up the hole.