Time to cancel the phone plan. So says Kansas coach Bill Self, who I talked to Wednesday night at the Jimmy V charity auction dinner in New York City.
When discussing the current state of college basketball and the treacherous offseason its had with its coaches (Bruce Pearl, now Baylor self-reporting texting violations), Self was prompted to say enough is enough. The NCAA's rules in regard to cellphone usage, and phone calls in particular, are archaic, according to Self.
"My personal opinion is, I think times have changed with the social networking, Facebook, tweeting. I'm not sure phone calls are near as important as what they used to be," Self said. "I personally don't feel like we should have a phone-call rule. If kids don't want to talk you, they shouldn't talk to you. We should put the onus on the kids - or the families. I really believe the rules we have concerning phone usage is something that was needed, was warranted. I think the times have changed where it's not near as important as it used to be."
He did not rush to any coach's defense - and we're dealing with text-messaging rule-breaking more than anything, so far as we know - but perhaps Self is on the money here. What's to stop an assistant coach from creating a phony Twitter account and direct-messaging a recruit 40 times per day? How can something like that possibly be monitored right now?
More and more, there are new ways to cheat with technology. Self seems to want all lines of communication open. While a lot of coaches can dance in the gray when discussing NCAA rulings, it's refreshing to see Self so adamant about this, even if he opens himself up to criticism. After all, if there are no rules on when phone calls can be made, flood gates will certainly open. As if coaches weren't already insecure when it comes to reeling in recruits.
Can you imagine a coach caressing his iPhone at 11 p.m. and making a desperate phone call every 15 minutes? It's a bad scene, man. I'm sure most of us have an ex who could relate.
Self also acknowledged a lot of the negative that's happened in the past six months within college basketball, but his spin is that universities, when they catch coaches cheating, do a lot as fast as they can to rectify their situations and clean up their programs.
"I think that is in the process of occurring," Self said of universities becoming more and more accountable. "You're going to hear more things, with social networking and all the rumors out there that are not substantiated, and you have the NCAA taking a very active approach in chasing down different things, you're going to hear some stuff. But a lot of times when you monitor yourself and you have checks and balances, that's what cleans it up. Even through the cleanup, you still hear the negative things. I'm a big believer that our sport's as good as it's ever been."
Photo: AP.
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