Jonathon Hargett offered Money to attend WVU

[kchoya]

From Board favorite Pete Thamel:

www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/sports/basketball/basketball-star-jonathon-hargetts-story-is-a-cautionary-tale.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&ref=sports&adxnnlx=1345316479-NYstwylR/6VWUJVzncWalw

Hargett, who turns 30 this weekend, is an inmate at the medium-security Indian Creek Correctional Center here, serving the final months of a nearly five-year sentence for drug possession with intent to sell.

How he ended up here, a decade removed from his one season of major-college basketball and far short of the N.B.A. career that many thought was his destiny, is a story that Hargett told recently in two jailhouse interviews totaling nearly seven hours. Wearing the standard-issue prison uniform of jeans and a blue button-down shirt that resembled a pajama top, Hargett spoke of dealing with an agent at 15 and of eventually choosing to attend West Virginia because he was offered $20,000. He also recounted his years of abusing marijuana and making nearly $1,000 a day selling cocaine, a way of life that resulted in his being shot with a bullet that remains lodged in his hip.

[Problem of Dog]

WAIT. NO WAY.

[DFW HOYA]

It's a good read. Hargett was the straw that broke the Gale Catlett years and it was a steep fall.

I remember the Georgetown game at MCI Center with WVU where Hargett sat most of the second half and the friction between him and the coach was noticeable. WVU started 7-5 and finished 8-20.

Thamel also recalls that Bowling Green coach Dan Dakich quit after eight days because the program was that toxic and Hargett basically confirmed Dakich's concerns.

[AustinHoya03]

Aug 18, 2012 18:25:15 GMT -5 DFW HOYA said:

It's a good read. Hargett was the straw that broke the Gale Catlett years and it was a steep fall.

I remember the Georgetown game at MCI Center with WVU where Hargett sat most of the second half and the friction between him and the coach was noticeable. WVU started 7-5 and finished 8-20.

Thamel also recalls that Bowling Green coach Dan Dakich quit after eight days because the program was that toxic and Hargett basically confirmed Dakich's concerns.

FWIW, nobody corroborates Hargett actually receiving payments, but there's some circumstantial evidence to back his story. And as DFW points out, it sounds like Dan Dakich certainly believed it:

Dan Dakich, hired from Bowling Green as Catlett’s replacement, recalled Hargett telling him that Catlett and Cheeks were not “honorable men” because “they promised me $60,000 and only gave me $20,000.” Asked about Dakich’s recollection of his comment, Hargett said, “I ain’t never say that to him, but he mapped it out, though.”

He laughed: “That’s accurate. That’s exactly what happened.”

Dakich decided that the situation at West Virginia was out of control and, after eight days, decided to return to Bowling Green.

“What I found was a culture of dishonesty and that had been there for a while,” he said of West Virginia. For its part, West Virginia conducted an internal review of the program, which was forwarded to the N.C.A.A., that found no wrongdoing on the part of the university.