Tennessee basketball being investigated

Reports are swirling that the Tennessee basketball program has joined the football program in being investigated by the NCAA.

While no notice of inquiry has been received by the Tennessee athletic department just yet, a source told the Knoxville News-Sentinel that

the NCAA has interviewed coach Bruce Pearl and associate head coach Tony Jones over the matter of potential violations. The NCAA investigation involves phone calls and contacts made with recruits outside the parameters of NCAA rules.

Now, illegal phone calls and text messages are not anything new in college basketball these days. Just ask Kelvin Sampson or Jim Calhoun. And with our world getting increasingly digitized and the prevalence of things like texting and emailing, as well as facebook and twitter, for the most basic communication, I can understand how someone can accidentally go over their allotted contacts with one recruit.

How many times have you gone over your minutes or limited number of texts on your phone in a month? It happens.

But the quote that caught my eye came from the post that Chris Low and Dana O'Neil had up on ESPN.com:

NCAA representatives are checking, in part, excessive telephone calls and the use of unauthorized phones to contact recruits. (Our emphasis added)

What I've always wondered when I hear about coaches getting in trouble for contacting recruits is why these guys just don't get another phone. Maybe a prepaid, or register it to a different name, or pay the bill in cash, or something. I'm not exactly up on the specifics on covering my tracks when it comes to cellular usage, but there has to be a way. Plenty of people with a lot more to lose than a monthly recruiting hours can do it. I've seen The Wire. It can be done.

And if I'm interpreting that quote correctly, than were the Tennessee coaches caught using an extra phone?

Speculation aside, the one interesting thing to note is that besides Bruce Pearl, is appears assistant coach Tony Jones is being investigated as well. The same Tony Jones who is on record as saying, after Josh Selby decommitted from Tennessee, "I'm not going to comment on any specific player, because I am not allowed to do that," Jones said. "I'll just say something smells right now."

Is Jones now the one being investigated for illegally recruiting Selby?

If that's true, that is irony at its finest.

Anyhow, officially, nothing has really happened. We'll see where this story goes.