The month of March is usually the time where college basketball teams make a name for themselves. However, someone needs to tell this to the Georgia Tech basketball program because they continue to tarnish their name with recruiting violations.
According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia Tech’s former assistant coach Darryl LaBarrie and Ron Bell, who is friends with current Georgia Tech head coach Josh Pastner, are both involved in these alleged violations.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution stated, “The NCAA found that in November 2016 – six months after his hire to join Pastner’s staff – LaBarrie took a prospect on an official visit and a team member to a strip club and facilitated an improper recruiting contact with a person described in the notice as a representative of the school’s athletics interest. It also found that the prospect and team member were provided by $300 cash, though not by LaBarrie.”
College athletic departments will seemingly do whatever it takes to draw talent to their school, but bringing a high school prospect to a strip club in the hopes to impress him seems likes more of a movie fantasy than reality. However, LaBarrie is not the only one to blame.
ESPN reported Georgia Tech Alum and former NBA player Jarrett Jack may have been involved in these allegations.
“Jack, whom the NCAA declared to be a representative of Georgia Tech’s athletics interests, is alleged to have provided Carter and an unidentified then-Georgia Tech player with $300 for the strip club visit,” the sources told ESPN.
And yes, the last name Carter in that statement is referring to current Chicago Bull Wendell Carter Jr.
Carter Jr. was the alleged prospect that endured this recruiting experience. It is obvious Georgia Tech’s recruitment pitch to Carter Jr. inevitably failed, because the former five-star recruit went to play ball at Duke.
Ron Bell is far from innocent, as well. ESPN continued to report: “Bell, who met Pastner while he was an assistant coach at Arizona, was charged in the notice with offering impermissible recruiting violations after he allegedly paid for airline tickets for former Georgia Tech players Josh Okogie and Tadric Jackson to fly to Arizona. He also allegedly attempted to influence former Memphis player Markel Crawford to transfer to Tech.”
Bell accumulated a bill that was totaled to be about 1,400 dollars in travel, clothing, shoes, and food expenses.
Georgia Tech retaliated with a response today about the alleged violations. The statement read:
The Georgia Institute of Technology announced Friday that it has received a notice of allegations from the NCAA.
The notice, which alleges three violations of NCAA rules within Georgia Tech’s men’s basketball program, was received following a joint review by Georgia Tech and the NCAA. A notice of allegations is a step in the NCAA’s process of investigating potential rules violations, but the process is ongoing. Georgia Tech has until May 16, 2019, to respond to the allegations.
Because the NCAA process remains open, Georgia Tech will not have further comment at this time.
As for current Georgia Tech head coach Josh Pastner, his jobs seems to remain safe for now. Scott Tompsett, Pastner’s attorney stated, “Josh cooperated fully with the NCAA investigation and he has not been charged with any violations.”
Paster also has not been charged with “failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance nor failure to monitor his staff.” Proceeding forward, fans and the media will have to wait until May 16 for Georgia Tech to respond to these allegations.
