Thursday, October 14th, 2010 at 3:15 pm  |  17 responses

Report: Baylor Coach Threatened to Deport Recruit

It is being reported that the Baylor basketball program is being investigated by the NCAA for their involvement in the recruiting of nationally ranked junior Hanner Perea. According to the report, sources have confirmed that Baylor assistant coach Mark Morefield “sent dozens of text messages to Perea’s AAU and high school coaches in July while they were coaching events, which is against NCAA rules.” The story goes on to say that, “Morefield, according to sources, had already been suspended by the school and was not allowed to recruit on the road in July for previous texting infractions.”

In addition, a text by Morefield to Perea’s coach at La Lumiere HS, Alan Huss, has caused some controversy.  The message said that if Perea, a Colombian native who transferred to La Lumiere in Indiana through the A-Hope Foundation, didn’t attend Baylor, he would be deported.

“I guarantee u if he does [commit to another school] he will be in Colombia for the spring and summer and next year. Don’t forget it,” the text message read.

Kevin Kunst, the athletic director at La Lumiere School, is quoted in the New York Times speaking on how the message will affect the school’s relationship with Baylor. Kunst made it clear that it would have an impact on “how much we have interaction with Baylor,” while also adding, “Is this what the world has come to? I understand college athletics is a serious business, and it’s a business that brings a lot of money to universities and that’s always going to bring out the darker sides of things. But this is a kid. He’s a kid, at the end of the day.”

The NCAA is expected to be on campus later this month to interview Baylor head coach Scott Drew and members of the Bears coaching staff.

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  • Ben Osborne Posted: Oct.14 at 3:17 pm
    Disgusting. There’s a lot of interesting stuff going on at a program that was almost given the death penalty just a few years ago.

  • M Cho Posted: Oct.14 at 3:24 pm
    WTF? That’s nasty.

  • Enigmatic Posted: Oct.14 at 3:30 pm
    He didn’t threaten to deport anyone. At least not from what I can tell in the text messages. When he said “I guarantee u if he does [commit to another school] he will be in Colombia for the spring and summer and next year. Don’t forget it” I took it as him saying the kid would be unhappy or unsucsessful at another program and would choose to go back home instead. Or hell, he could just mean that the kid will go home on summers instead of working with the team, or going to school, or whatever. There are a whole bunch of ways that text can be taken.

  • The Black Rick Kamla Posted: Oct.14 at 3:32 pm
    absolutely makes me wanna hurl!!! UGHHHHHHH….

  • The Black Rick Kamla Posted: Oct.14 at 3:39 pm
    @Enigmatic….this is reasonable…but the whole “Dont Forget” thing just has a threatening tone to it

  • Mark Posted: Oct.14 at 3:54 pm
    @Enigmatic… quite frankly you must have your head up your butt. It is pretty clear what is implied in that text. Baylor either has paid off someone back home (Colombian national coach is the rumor) or he is without reason threatening a kid with something he can’t follow through on. The kid lives in the USA year round, and clearly he is trying to scare the kid into thinking that will not be a possibility. The only question is whether he really has something to back that up ($) or if he’s just spouting off because he feels they aren’t getting him to Baylor.

  • T-Money Posted: Oct.14 at 3:57 pm
    Enigmatic: Nah… the “don’t forget it” part doesn’t fit with your explanation. That implies a certainty, i.e., “you know what’s what so don’t try to pull a fast one”. why would he go home during the summers or be unscuccessful at any other college BUT baylor? doesn’t make sense.

  • MooButter Posted: Oct.14 at 4:15 pm
    Reports like this are always taken out of context. Who knows what other texts were sent before and after this one providing that context. No coach is that stupid. Plus, when something is in [brackets] in an article like “commit to another school”, it means thats not a direct quote. What exactly did that part of the text say?

  • Enigmatic Posted: Oct.14 at 4:52 pm
    @ T-Money and Black Rick – fair enough, I can see that.
    @ Mark — Thanks for the personal attack. Makes me want to discredit your whole post. You do raise some valid points, but for you to claim I have “my head up my butt” about something like being threatened to be deported is laughable, considering the color of my own skin prompts many Americans (especially Arizona) to wish I would be deported as well.

  • dfrance21 Posted: Oct.14 at 7:45 pm
    It just goes to show you how the media can manipulate things. I read the headline and the text and I was shocked, but Enigmatic and MooButter make valid points. It does have a threatening tone, but this could have been the final text in a long string of texts going back and forth. The “don’t forget it” could be in response to a threatening text sent by the other party.
    Either way, Morefield is in the wrong because not only are texts prohibited during that time, he was also already on suspension.

  • Jukai Posted: Oct.15 at 12:19 am
    Really, REALLY read this:
    “Is this what the world has come to? I understand college athletics is a serious business, and it’s a business that brings a lot of money to universities and that’s always going to bring out the darker sides of things. But this is a kid. He’s a kid, at the end of the day.”
    Truest thing said in sports in a while.

  • Ali Posted: Oct.15 at 6:07 am
    Hahaha…this is some funny shi*!

  • Allenp Posted: Oct.15 at 2:07 pm
    It’s a business. Never forget that all you young cats trying to play sports. Don’t believe anything else from any adult you meet beyond a rec league. It’s a business and they are thinking about business.

  • Allenp Posted: Oct.15 at 2:11 pm
    Moobutter
    Actually, those brackets mean that there was likely a general word there that wouldn’t have made sense without the context in the brackets. Like the words “it” or “he” or “she.” Reports use the brackets because the preposition that was actually said doesn’t make things clear without the information in the brackets.
    Hope that helps.

  • Allenp Posted: Oct.15 at 2:12 pm
    sorry, the noun, not preposition. my bad.

  • Allenp Posted: Oct.15 at 2:13 pm
    pronoun. lol.

  • DC Posted: Oct.18 at 5:58 pm
    I actually agree with enigmatic
    this text has multiple possible meaning
    it was taken tht way becuz they knew that interpretation would cause the most controversy

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