Scarbinsky AU Recruiting Article

[BZ770 2]

Scarbinsky: Auburn hoops still won't recruit through Komara

By Kevin Scarbinsky -- The Birmingham News

February 19, 2010, 5:30AM

Will Butler's Trevor Lacey become another Southeast Elite star who chooses a college other than Auburn? So far, so close became the motto of Jeff Lebo’s Auburn tenure long before another no-cigar defeat at Florida.

His Tigers were so close to taking him to the NCAA Tournament last year for the first time in his head coaching career.

Last weekend, they were so close to winning at Mississippi State and putting themselves in actual contention in the woebegone SEC West.

And then Romero Osby dunked and completed a three-point play to erase Auburn’s final lead and best hope in regulation.

Why was that moment more significant than any other big play gone wrong for the Tigers?

Osby played for the Southeast Elite AAU program based in Huntsville. Southeast Elite has alumni playing key roles throughout college basketball.

Just not at Auburn.

That may have something to do with two true facts.

The director of Southeast Elite is Mark Komara, the key figure in Auburn’s 2004 NCAA infractions case, and Auburn still won’t go through Komara to recruit his program’s players.

Never mind that the NCAA ban on Auburn’s recruiting contact with Komara ended in 2006.

"It’s not that they can’t recruit our players," Komara said. "They won’t go through me.

"That’s perfectly fine with me for any college coaches. I’d rather they go through the high school coaches and the parents.

"I don’t want to get involved in any recruiting. I’m 100 percent out of it."

Auburn got hit with NCAA probation six years ago, right after Lebo accepted the job knowing he was about to inherit sanctions not of his making.

The key and controversial issue: The previous Auburn staff’s recruiting of two Komara players who signed with other schools. The NCAA Infractions Committee declared Komara a representative of Auburn’s athletics interests.

The committee chairman said Komara was the first so-called AAU coach or team sponsor deemed a booster. That ruling didn’t seem to fit the evidence, which was a lot of phone calls between Auburn coaches and Komara, the kind of calls college coaches make to AAU coaches all the time.

Still, Auburn self-imposed a ban on recruiting through Komara, and the NCAA extended it to April 26, 2006, the official end of the school’s probation.

Auburn has continued that ban to this day.

Give Lebo credit for taking the high road, too often the road less taken in major college recruiting, and give Auburn credit for being smart.

Sure, the NCAA ban ended in 2006. But if the Infractions Committee declared Komara an Auburn rep once, what would stop that bunch from doing it again?

Komara has closer ties to the school now. His son Anthony, a freshman student at Auburn, helps the basketball program’s video coordinator as an unpaid volunteer.

Komara himself considers Lebo "a friend.''

"Any kid that asks me about Auburn, I tell them to listen to Coach Lebo," Komara said. "I think the world of Jeff Lebo. He’s a class act."

That hasn’t helped Lebo recruit this state. Only two of Auburn’s current scholarship players — sophomore Frankie Sullivan and senior Johnnie Lett — and none of Auburn’s six fall signees are Alabama natives.

Meanwhile, look at some of Komara’s former players.

Osby comes off the bench for Mississippi State. Courtney Fortson leads Arkansas in scoring. Rico Pickett, who started his college career at Alabama and then transferred to Miami-Dade Community College, leads his Manhattan team and the entire Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in scoring.

Varez Ward was starting at point guard for Texas before a ruptured quad tendon ended his season after three games.

Two more recent Southeast Elite players are major recruits right now. Big Luke Cothron, a Huntsville native playing at a North Carolina prep school, commited to North Carolina State, but is still being pursued by the likes of Kentucky and Alabama.

Butler High junior guard Trevor Lacey, whose season ended almost two weeks ago with a torn knee ligament, is one of the more highly regarded prospects in the class of 2011.

I asked Auburn if Lebo would comment about Komara and recruiting, and I got this statement from Auburn associate AD Rich McGlynn: "Because of previous NCAA issues, we cannot comment."

Komara said Auburn coaches are "more visible in gyms in north Alabama in the last two years than ever," which is nice, but I wonder.

At least in part because of previous NCAA issues, can Auburn basketball recruit in this state?

This article shows that our Team tries to recruit and be above board, but we never seem to deliver.

[Mikey 16,751]

Naming Mark Komara a "representative of Auburn's athletic interests" is about the stupidest thing the NCAA has ever done, and that covers a lot of ground.

What it was, the NCAA wanted to nail Cliff Ellis and mess up the AAU team Komara was coaching and the "representative" foolishness was the only way to get the job done. Lacking real evidence, they arbitrarily, without any proof and against all reason, named Komara that because they had the power to do so.

That won't be retracted because to do so would be admitting their own contrivance. Lebo, and any coach that follows him, will have to learn to live with that and work at a disadvantage.

The Bledsoe kid from Huntsville that's lighting it up at Kentucky expressed ire at Auburn for not recruiting him. Guess why we didn't? It was the Komara deal.

I know Scarbinsky's article says "sanctions" ended in 2006, but to this day Komara remains , in the NCAA's folder, "a representative of Auburn's interest". If we recruit a kid he's working with and the NCAA gets mad at either Auburn or Komara, they'll pull that card out and play it again.

[TitanTiger 20,519]

I know Scarbinsky's article says "sanctions" ended in 2006, but to this day Komara remains , in the NCAA's folder, "a representative of Auburn's interest". If we recruit a kid he's working with and the NCAA gets mad at either Auburn or Komara, they'll pull that card out and play it again.

Right. And here's the other thing: basketball affects everything else. If the NCAA hit Auburn for recruiting a Komara kid again, it puts the entire athletic department in the repeat violator window. The football team could get flagged for an illegal hangnail and have the hammer brought down on them. The PTB at Auburn are not going to let basketball, baseball or any other sport up there put the football team at risk with an NCAA so willing to make s*** up. So Komara is off the map as far as we're concerned.

[aucanucktiger 1,798]

Until alabama's legislature enacts laws like those in Nebraska and Florida holding the NCAA to the same due process transparency for its investigations and "conclusions" that every other person and entity in the U.S. is held to, the NCAA will inflict all the arbitrary punishment based on secret dossier's that they want.

[dyehardaufan 0]

The Bledsoe kid from Huntsville that's lighting it up at Kentucky expressed ire at Auburn for not recruiting him. Guess why we didn't? It was the Komara deal.

Bledsoe is from Birmingham(Parker High) and played aau for the Birmingham Ice which from the research I've done is not affiliated with Komara. I'm not sure the whole Komara deal would have been an issue. I think basically we didnt recruit him because we knew we couldnt get him.

[Mikey 16,751]

The Bledsoe kid from Huntsville that's lighting it up at Kentucky expressed ire at Auburn for not recruiting him. Guess why we didn't? It was the Komara deal.

Bledsoe is from Birmingham(Parker High) and played aau for the Birmingham Ice which from the research I've done is not affiliated with Komara. I'm not sure the whole Komara deal would have been an issue. I think basically we didnt recruit him because we knew we couldnt get him.

Well then, I stand corrected. I sure did think that player came from Huntsville!