@jaybate-1.0
I finally found it. Here is the entire transcript of Pitino's comments on the subject; I am going to guess that they can be interpreted in many different since they are ambiguous enough...although I find it hard to believe that he just found out about the shoe company's influence.
Anything in particular on your list?
I think we need to deal with the ... What I personally don't like, and I've seen it over the past five years, I don't like -- I can't recuirt a kid because he wears Nike in the AAU circuit. I mean that's -- I've never heard of such a thing, and it's happening in our world. Or, he's on the Adidas circuit so the Nike schools don't want to recruit him. I never thought that shoes would be the reason you wouldn't recruit players. It's a factor. I think we need to deal with that. We need to get the shoe companies out of the lives of young athletes. We need to get it back to where parents and coaches have more of a say than peripheral people. That's easier said than done. I don't know how to do that. That's like trying to get the runners out of the game. We try our best to do that, but I don't know how to do that.
Do you think you're at a disadvantage not being a Nike school?
I think our pool shrinks. Our pool shrinks. But, that being said, in the last few years we're having some of the best recruiting classes that we've had in the last 13. It almost makes us -- I realized looking back on it how much time and effort I've wasted because I wouldn't believe what I just said.
Are there players who specifically said they can't come play for you because you're not ...
No, they don't say they can't come, but the outside influences from the shoe companies and the AAU coaches know that if that kid goes to an Adidas school, he may not get renewed by Nike. It's the outside influence. It's not actually the kid who cares. But you know, if you guys are influential in a young person's life and you said, 'boy, you should really go to Kentucky, they're a Nike school.' He doesn't have to say a Nike school, he just has to say Kentucky. Everybody's in that court because you're all working for that shoe company. I think that's a bigger problem than whether you guarantee scholarships, but nobody wants to talk about that. Why nobody wants to talk about that is because it's money related. Any time it's money related, schools -- University of Louisville makes a lot of money through Adidas, so you don't really ... I think it needs to be cleaned up.
I've always wished the NCAA would do it -- I've written letters about it -- I wish the NCAA would run the camps in the summertime so then everybody gets explained to them all the NCAA rules -- what you can do, what you can't do -- by the NCAA. So they run the camps and they tell us when to go in and watch and they legislate all of that. That would be a great way to spend all that money, that war chest that they have. I don't think they want to do that.
And by the way, I'm not speaking about a personal situation that just happened to us. That really wasn't the case, believe it or not. I'm talking about, in the last five years, I've seen a tremendous change on this. Believe me, it's a very competitive thing by these shoe companies to get players. I mean they're going out and recruiting like us in the summertime. 'Let's get this kid in EYBL and this kid in Adidas Nation,' and they're competing like us for recruits. It's very tough to address because our pockets are lined with their money.
Do you think there's a relationship between their money and high school players?
I think the high school players are all getting shoes and they're all getting uniforms to play in the AAU circuit. I don't think there's anything illegal, but they're all getting shoes and apparel and the AAU programs are getting taken care of by the shoe companies. We all know that. It's out in the open. Some of these AAU programs get paid a lot of money to run their program. There are the elite programs, and some of them are very good, very good. But what I've learned is, if I go in and there's a Nike program and they're getting paid a grand sum of money, Louisville's not going to come in and recruit them. It doesn't make sense because they might get that grand sum of money down the road if they don't go to those schools. Same thing with Adidas. If they're an Adidas school, the Nike ...
I just learned this. I never believed it until the last couple of years. That's a problem that needs more addressing, not to go off on this tangent, but that's a problem that's really prevalent in basketball.
Do you think there are a lot of other coaches who feel the same way?
I'm sure the Nike coaches don't feel that way (laughs). Because they're winning the battle.
**Why have you been successful (recruiting) despite that advantage?
**
It took me a long time to realize who I'm going after and we've finally done a good job with that.
So you stay away from Nike kids?
No, not stay away, we just know the programs that are really influenced -- the really marquee programs -- that are influenced by them. It's not just Nike. Under Armour's a big player in this now. Under Armour's become the second-largest (apparel) company in the United States, right? They're competing and competing hard. I wish it wasn't there. I think it's going to be there a long, long time, as long as we're getting paid by those schools.
If that's the case, then how do you adjust long-term? Do you recommend going to Nike?
No, no. I don't think that's the answer. The answer for us is to find out what athlete is involved in which AAU program. How loyal is he to that AAU program? What outside influences in that program push him and direct him toward Nike schools. So we have to do our homework and be very diligent. Obviously the last two years, we've been very diligent because we've had great success.
Before the new Adidas deal, was that something you addressed with Tom or anybody in the athletic department?
I have my own choices to make for which shoe company. I'm sort of separate from the university in that regard, though we're sort of tied in together. I'm very comfortable where we are with Adidas because we're having great success. If I didn't feel we were having great success, I would recommend that we go with Under Armour or go with Nike, whoever it may be. It was my fault, not the shoe company or the university, that I didn't do a good enough job finding out and researching how big certain factors are with certain people. It's nobody's fault but my own.
Is there a concern, being one of the higher-profile programs, that whatever comes that way that you're connected with them vs. Nike?
As long as you do your homework, you're fine. I didn't do my homework. The shoe companies aren't to blame. They're playing the ultimate competitive game. Who can be No. 1? Right now, Nike's No. 1. Under Armour's making a push. They're competing like we're competing. We've got to make sure that we know that it doesn't matter to the kids. Those kids are the kids we want to go after.
FWIW, this is what Rob Dauster of College Basketball talk on NBC had to say:
I have a couple thoughts on this:
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There’s zero chance that I believe that Rick Pitino found out about shoe company influence in the last five years. Zero.
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I think the influence that these shoes companies is a bit overblown. Andrew Wiggins, the prospect with the most marketability that has come through high school ranks since LeBron and Kevin Durant, was a Nike kid all through high school. He went to Kansas, an Adidas school. In this year’s recruiting class for Kansas includes Cliff Alexander and Kelly Oubre, both of who were Nike kids and are two of the best pro prospects in the Class of 2014. Duke just earned a commitment from Chase Jeter, who played his AAU ball with the same Adidas program that produced Shabazz Muhammad.
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That said, I believe that what Pitino is saying about shoe companies is precisely what happened with Blakeney. The kid picked an Adidas school, the people around him — those that make their money from the swoosh — were not happy about it, Blakeney decommits. It’s not a pretty situation, but I’m not sure it’s the epidemic Pitino makes it out to be.
Lots of "food for thought" for the thought foodies...:)
