What did Kansas State know about O.J. Mayo?

Kansas State assistant basketball coach Brad Underwood caused a stir when he told a local Rotary Club meeting that O.J. Mayo wanted to play for the Wildcats, but was shot down by then-head coach Bob Huggins. Mayo's best friend, Bill Walker, played for K-State last season and announced that he will join Mayo as an early entrant in the upcoming NBA draft. Huggins, Walker and Mayo are all originally from West Virginia.

From an article in Friday's Manhattan Mercury:

Underwood today indicated that Mayo was saying up to the last minute that he wanted to come to K-State to be with Huggins because of their long ties. Huggins, though, said, "We're not going to take you. You'll never pass," in reference to NCAA amateur clearinghouse rules.

"So it's no surprise that this is coming out now," Underwood said of the scandal. "We knew it."

The irony is that "nothing's going to happen to O.J. Mayo," Underwood said. "It's becoming Southern Cal's problem."

Earlier this month, in the wake of allegations that Mayo received up to $30,000 in extra benefits, Huggins told the Associated Press that student-athletes should be required to stay in school longer.

Kansas State spokesman Tom Gilbert issued the following statement,

Neither Kansas State, nor anyone who has been employed by the university, has firsthand knowledge of any improprieties in the recruitment of O.J. Mayo.  In his speech to the Rotary group, assistant coach Brad Underwood was speaking in generalities about his recruitment by K-State.  We are unaware of any specific instances of NCAA violations involving Mr. Mayo.

Neither Underwood nor Wildcats head coach Frank Martin were available for comment.

Comments

[Henry D]

Huggins is right.

What good is forcing kids to play college ball when they are only committed to a year? There is no mid-season to refocus and re-evaluate the direction of a team.

It makes the coach's job almost impossible. I look at Mayo's and Love's departures as completely destructive to the effort that the rest of the Trojan and Bruin teams put together over the course of a year. It hurts the kids who stay even worse. The coaches build the team around players that leave in a year, meanwhile the ones who stay get shitty looks from the NBA and are forced to draft early rather than stick around in college and fail to see their team materialize.

Either commit them to 2+ years of college ball, or just let the greedy asswipes draft out of high school.

[trojanman]

Interesting quote. But, Underwood's premise proved wrong in that the NCAA DID clear Mayo to play.