UTEP's Tim Floyd Slammed in Sports Illustrated Writer George Dohrmann's New Book
by Adrian Mac on Oct 13, 2010 11:33 AM MDT
in UTEP Miners Basketball
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PrintWe should just get used to this. Every few months or years the national media will come back around to slamming Tim Floyd. First, it was the USC scandal where Floyd was cleared. Then, it was an imaginary package deal that didn't violate a single NCAA rule. Now, Tim Floyd is being portrayed as a heartless monster in Pulitzer Prize winning sports author George Dohrmann's new book "Play Their Hearts Out."
The author followed several high profile middle school and high school recruits through the AAU circuit and recruiting process. Particularly, the book focuses on the recruitment of Demetrius Walker. Walker committed to USC before eventually changing his mind and going to Arizona State.
Miner fans might remember Demetrius Walker. When Tim Floyd was first hired at UTEP he nearly brought Walker in as a transfer before he decided to go to New Mexico. So, Floyd must have really left a negative impression on the kid as evidenced by the fact that a few years later he nearly came to El Paso to play for him, right?
ESPN says this book will "make you sick" because of the way it exposes AAU coach Joe Keller and many college basketball coaches, most notably Floyd. The Dagger (Yahoo! Sports) says the book paints an unflattering picture of Floyd.
The book details the phone call between Walker and Floyd when the recruit first tells Floyd he is having doubts. After hearing Walker was having doubts about his USC commitment, Floyd called him. Here is the book excerpt:
"You’ve been committed to us for months. Why are you having these feelings now?" Floyd asked.
"I don’t know, Coach. I don’t know why I am having these funny feelings, but it’s how I feel."
"I don’t really have time for this," Floyd said. "There are other guys out there we can recruit. I don’t have time to be waiting around for you."
"Well, that’s your choice. I don’t want you to sign anyone else right now. I’d like you to wait like two days, just give me some time to think."
"I see what kind of person you are," Floyd said. "You are a liar and you are not a man of your word. ... I thought you were a player like O.J. Mayo and DeMar DeRozan, not afraid of coming in and competing for a spot, but you'd rather be given a position instead of earning one."
"Coach, I'm not afraid of anyone."
"Yes you are. And I'll tell you this: If any NBA teams interested in you come talk to me first, I am going to tell them who the real Demetrius Walker is." Then the coach hung up.
Honestly, the way the national media has obsessed over Tim Floyd has even surprised me. If Floyd was such a jerk to Walker, why would he consider UTEP as a transfer destination? Yahoo! and other national outlets have been given a few excerpts from the book to generate publicity and interest. Why is this the only one anybody's talking about?
Because Tim Floyd makes for an easy punching bag. That's it.
This book covers how Adidas and Nike have infiltrated middle schools with money in the hopes of snagging the next Kobe or LeBron. It covers an AAU coach who said that if Demetrius Walker didn't make the NBA, he'd be a "bad investment." Yet, Floyd has become, again, the face of everything bad in the recruiting process by the media.
It's not Kelvin Sampson. Or John Calipari. Or Jim Calhoun. Or Bruce Pearl.
Floyd is the guy that went to the NCAA Committee on Infractions and volunteered to testify about the USC allegations when he had no legal obligation to. He didn't lie to their face like Bruce Pearl. He didn't face a show-cause like Sampson. He was cleared by the Committee and has been doing a knockout job at UTEP.
But that doesn't matter. He's the one that the media has chosen to vilify. Miner fans should just get used to it.
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Hmmm ...
I have two questions:
1. Does the excerpt say where this account of the phone conversation comes from?
2. Do we really think that everything that comes out of a coach’s mouth is milk and honey? I’m sure Don Haskins had his share of choice words for his players that would make people wince.
You make a good point when you say that if Floyd was such a monster, why would the guy consider coming to play for him at UTEP. Something just doesn’t add up.
Misery loves Company...
As you’ve indicated AMac, it just appears to be taking shots at what many consider to be an easy target…. [easy target = a big name coach at a non-big name school].
Not sure on the first-
I do know that Dohrmann spent tons of time with Walker and Keller (his AAU coach) but the released clips don’t say if he was present when the call was made. I suspect we’ll have to buy the book to find that out. I’d rather read 40 Minutes of Hell.
And for #2- No we don’t. And we don’t know the nature of CTF’s and Walkers relationship. There is no context behind this call which is another reason why I don’t like Yahoo! ESPN and others using it to slam Floyd.
Axes Up. Miner Rush - For UTEP Miners Fans
trudat at least we're not being investigated
by the ncaa like baylor—always wondered how they went from tragedy to a premiere program overnight—we may know why.
by MinerManiax on Oct 13, 2010 3:20 PM MDT via mobile up reply actions
SI is a bunch of cowardly hacks. They came after UTEP many years ago. Of all of the big name schools they could have attacked, they chose to come after UTEP. Haskins hated the bastards. Now, add to that the fact that UTEP’s football coach has millions of their dollars. Plus, he is loved by the people of El Paso. And, they love that he is spending their money! Let’s thank them for subsidizing Mike Price’s salary. So, now they have another go at trying to punish UTEP for their lack of a spine. Sports Illustrated is the National Enquirer of sports jounalism. No, wait. That’s not fair to the Enquirer.
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by kyyote on Oct 13, 2010 12:22 PM MDT reply actions 1 recs
Amen Brother!...
SI, is mailing it in from a distance; akin to yelling obsenities out the window of a car driving by at 80mph to those walking on the sidewalk.
Are you freaking serious??? Don’t they have something more important to write about? I’m sure every big name coach has had a few of those conversations with virtually every one of their players… it’s a normal part of the game… Big time coaches know how to put pressure on their players, it’s called motivation. That’s what they do. SI should get a life.
I agree, it is much ado about nothing for 99.9% of college coaches
For Tim Floyd, it’s headline news.
Axes Up. Miner Rush - For UTEP Miners Fans
Yes they don't have it on tape
But then how do we really know Demetrius considered UTEP, the story you linked to has no quote from him about UTEP, not one shred of evidence he ever considered UTEP. You readily accept that he did, but you won’t believe Floyd said those things to him because it’s just hearsay, seems a bit self serving no?
If you’ve read the whole book, I just finished it, you’ll realize there’s a LOT more in there about Floyd and USC. For example AAU coach Pat Barrett allegedly had a deal to “sell” Walker to USC for 200K. He steers the kid to USC, someone at USC pays him 200k by donating it to his AAU team. Barrett denies the amount was that big, but doesn’t deny the whole allegation.
When Walker didn’t immediately sign with USC it was Barrett not Floyd who first tried to push him to sign. Walker by that point had been advised by multiple people to avoid USC, it was a dirty program in real trouble with the NCAA, and Floyd was lying to him. Sonny Vaccaro even told him if you go there he’ll run you off by your soph year.
Yes Walker Was stalling USC so he could visit ASU and hopefully get an offer, he was also an 18 year old kid, are we really surprised he changed his mind, especially given what was going on at USC under Floyd at the time?
Floyd threatened to blackball him to the NBA, talk about low blows.
Earlier in the book there’s an excerpt where a bunch of kids who know each other via AAU get together and compare notes on Tim Floyd. Seems USC has been recruiting all of them and they realize Floyd is telling them all the same things, you’re my priority, I’m only taking X number of kids and you’re at the top of the list, there’s an offer waiting for you at USC. When they realize how many of them have been told the same BS, one of them, Darius Morris, finally confronts Floyd and asks him exactly what does an offer from you mean? Floyd says some more nonsense and Morris goes after him and says well you told me that but you also told this guy and that guy that so what’s an offer from you really mean? Floyd tells him that he(morris) is the guy we really want, as if to say the others are just fallback plans if Morris goes elsewhere.
I realize coaches have to recruit backup plans but it was VERY clear in the book that the experience those kids had with Floyd was completely out of the norm from other schools that recruited them. Floyd was clearly lying to all of them about how valued they were to USC. Morris picked Michigan.
There’s a reason people pick on Floyd, because he’s not a good guy. You’ll eventually figure that out.
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