PenneyKoslan
30.03.2011., srijeda
Fiesta Bowl boss fired after investigation
|
The Fiesta Bowl will be asked to justify its inclusion in the BCS after organizers for the Arizona game fired president and CEO John Junker for "an apparent scheme" to reimburse employees for political contributions and "an apparent conspiracy" to cover it up. The Fiesta Bowl released a scathing internal report Tuesday. The reimbursements, listed as at least $46,539 US, are an apparent violation of state campaign finance laws and the charter that allows the Fiesta Bowl its non-profit status. The Arizona attorney general's office is conducting a probe of the matter. The BCS reacted swiftly, saying it would undertake an investigation of its own to "consider whether the Fiesta Bowl should remain a BCS bowl game or other appropriate sanctions."  The Fiesta board of directors voted unanimously to fire Junker "for his improper and inappropriate activities documented" in the report. "The entire Fiesta Bowl family is angered and disappointed by what we've seen in the report and by the actions of Mr. Junker," Fiesta Bowl board chairman Duane Woods told reporters at the event's headquarters in downtown Scottsdale. "The Fiesta Bowl is greater than a few individuals, and the lesson here really is that we placed too much trust in a single individual." Woods did not take questions. Junker, in his ubiquitous bright yellow Fiesta Bowl sports jacket, had been the face of the event for three decades, leading it from an upstart event to one of the BCS giants. With an annual salary of about $600,000, he had been on paid administrative lead since Feb. 4 after, the board said, he failed to comply with two written directives to co-operate with the investigation. The phone at Junker's home was busy and there was no immediate response to emails sent to the two lawyers representing him. The board said the probe also uncovered "excessive compensation, nonbusiness and inappropriate expenditures and inappropriate gifts." Junker's lawyer, Steve Dichter, said via email that his client did not have access to the report before it was made public. He said the document was being studied before it was determined whether Junker would have a comment on it. The 276-page report of an investigation that conducted by Fiesta Bowl board members and a retired Arizona state Supreme Court justice, was published on the bowl's Web site fiestabowl.org. The investigators said it found the "apparent scheme" to reimburse at least $46,539 for employees' political contributions. The probe also found "an apparent conspiracy to conceal the reimbursement scheme from the bowl's Board of Directors and state officials," according to the news release accompanying the report. The BCS issued a statement from executive director Bill Hancock and Penn State University President Graham Spanier, chair of the presidential oversight committee. 'Deeply disappointed' "We are deeply disappointed and troubled to learn of these findings related to the Fiesta Bowl," the statement said. "Unprofessional, unethical or improper behaviour is unacceptable. There is no place for such activities in higher education or in collegiate sports. It is expected that all parties contracted with the BCS will live up to the highest standards. We do not wish to be associated with entities that believe otherwise. " BCS leaders said they will appoint a task force to evaluate the bowl's findings and its recommendations. They have also "asked the bowl to demonstrate why it should remain a BCS bowl game. The task force will evaluate the bowl's response, along with the full slate of reforms instituted by the bowl." And if the bowl remains a part of the BCS, its handling of this matter will be closely monitored going forward. Bowl officials said the initial, brief investigation of the reimbursements allegations was "flawed." That probe found no evidence of any such wrongdoing. Woods, head of Waste Management Inc. for the Western Region, played a major role in saving the PGA's Phoenix Open. Now he's got a far bigger cleanup effort. He said the actions of Junker "unfortunately, have tainted the stellar reputation that the Fiesta Bowl has worked so hard to maintain for more than 40 years. The Fiesta Bowl, however, is greater than a few individuals; it is the product of thousands of dedicated volunteers and exemplary employees who work tirelessly and care so deeply about the Fiesta Bowl and all it does for the state of Arizona." 'Flawed' report Woods outlined the time line that began with a report in The Arizona Republic in December, 2009, that five former or current Fiesta Bowl employees had been reimbursed for political donations they were encouraged to make. A brief investigation by former Arizona attorney general Grant Woods, no relation to the board chairman, led the board to conclude there was no credible evidence to support the allegations. Now, the board says that report was "flawed." Duane Woods said that last September, an employee — identified in the report as Junker's executive assistant Kelly Keough -- came to his office and told him that indeed the reimbursements had been made. That led to the lengthy probe that resulted in Tuesday's report. Retired state Supreme Court justice Ruth McGregor, one of the three-member investigative panel, said the trio was given full access to everything related to the probe without any resistance from the board. "We are confident that our report is thorough and accurate," she said. "Although the findings are deeply disturbing, I am gratified that the Fiesta Bowl Board of Directors is moving forward with affirmative and concrete steps to address its problems." The reimbursements go back to at least 2002, the report concluded. The political donations, mostly to Republican candidates and causes, were not required but strongly suggested, several employees told the investigators. According to the report, when the initial investigation was made following The Republic's story, lobbyist Gary Husk helped guide Woods away from those who had actually been given reimbursements and groomed others who were interviewed on what to say. The Husk Brothers lobbying firm was paid $286,000 by the Fiesta Bowl in 2009, according reports filed by the IRS.balklänning The board announced a series of steps to reform its operations and operate transparently to prevent any repeat of such problems. That includes hiring a chief financial officer and a general counsel/compliance officer. The bowl has three years left on its four-year contract BCS contract. That could give it enough time to clean up its problems in the face of a possible challenge from the Cotton Bowl, which long has coveted a return to elite bowl status and now has a big, new stadium to bolster its case.bröllopsklänning Cotton Bowl President Rick Baker declined comment through a bowl spokesman. Among the many expenditures questioned by the report was the 50th birthday celebration for Junker paid for by the Fiesta Bowl at a cost of $33,0000 at Pebble Beach, Calif.;, his car allowance and paid membership in four elite private golf clubs. There also was a $1,200 trip for Junker and two others to a Phoenix strip club. The Fiesta, which also operates the Insight Bowl and many other smaller events, staged the highly anticipated matchup between Auburn and Oregon for the national championship this year. The seven-member BCS task force investigating the matter will be headed by Spanier and includes Northern Illinois president John Peters, Big East commissioner John Marinatto, Sun Belt commissioner Wright Waters, and athletic directors Jeremy Foley of Florida, Bob Bowlsby of Stanford and Richard Giannani of Southern Mississippi. |
23.03.2011., srijeda
Frazier focusing on mental aptitude of QBs
|
NEW ORLEANS -- As Minnesota Vikings officials arrived Sunday to the NFL owners meeting, they found themselves at about the midway point of their offseason project to draft a franchise quarterback. Vice president of player personnel Rick Spielman suggested the team will devote multiple visits to at least six quarterbacks, and coach Leslie Frazier said he is starting to get "a feel" for how the team will stack its draft board. balklänningar online Through various reports, five of those quarterbacks have been revealed: Missouri's Blaine Gabbert, Auburn's Cam Newton, TCU's Andy Dalton, Washington's Jake Locker and Arkansas' Ryan Mallett.  "I'm trying to be open minded until we finish some of these private workouts," Frazier said. "But it's hard not to [get enamored midway through the process] when you watch a certain tape and go, 'Oh man, this is the guy.' Then you put on another tape and go, 'Wait a minute. This guy...' So you have to be careful and just go through the process. But each one of them, they all have good qualities of some kind. I do have to catch myself sometimes not getting biased before we finish this process." The Vikings are using the private workouts mostly to make social observations and to give Frazier and other coaches a chance for more personal conversation that can reveal character and leadership insights. To understand how important that facet of the scouting process is, look no further than the Vikings' experience over the past four years with quarterback Tarvaris Jackson -- an excellent athlete with a rocket arm who was more comfortable in a secondary locker-room role than as a leader. "For me," Frazier said, "the communication and getting to know them -- sometimes in their environment, sometimes if it's at the combine or if we're going to bring them to our facility -- that to me is as important as the mechanics and so on. I think we've got good people that are going to help them [in] their fundamentals and get them from a technique standpoint. But I've got to feel good that they've got the leadership qualities and can mesh with some of my thoughts on the quarterback position. My one-on-one time with them, and just being around them is as important to me as what they can do from a pro day or workouts. "Sometimes you have to be careful about being too enamored with a pro day or that combine workout. ... So I have to have a good feel for that person. The quarterback position is unlike any other person on the team. That guy, his mental is as important as his athletic ability. More important, in a lot of ways. Good athletes at quarterback don't always become franchise quarterbacks. For us, we're looking and hoping to find a franchise quarterback. For us, that's what we're looking to find. So my time with him is as important or more important than what we see on tape." I'm not sure if there is much to read into Frazier's comments, although it might help explain why neither he nor Spielman attended Newton's pro day. There aren't many questions about Newton's ability to throw or run; it's his football savvy and leadership abilities that the Vikings no doubt want to investigate further. My thoughts on this situation haven't changed much since last week, when I suggested the Vikings aren't likely to have either Newton or Gabbert available to them at No. 12 overall. They'll have to decide whether they want to pay a steep price to trade up for one of them, or if they feel comfortable taking Locker at No. 12 or if they will target another quarterback lower in the draft. I asked Frazier if he was far enough in the process to feel confident the Vikings will be able to draft one of the quarterbacks they like in this draft. billiga balklänningar "I have a feel for it," he said. "You're guessing a little bit on what people ahead of you are going to do so you think you have a feel. But ... you know [things] can change in a hurry. All of a sudden somebody you think wasn't looking at quarterbacks jumps up to a spot and you go like, 'Uh, oh.'" The Vikings' goal over the next five weeks? Ensuring that "uh-oh" never gets uttered in their draft room. |
16.03.2011., srijeda
NCAA Bracker 2011 Prediction: Can Tu Holloway, Xavier Topple Big East Giants?
|
Sometimes, a mid-major team sounds like a good team to go with, even if they're against a major team. Such is the case with 6th seed Xavier, who faces 11th seed Marquette in the opening round. If they win that matchup, they will likely face Syracuse. Xavier's tournament life will likely rest on the shoulders of junior guard Tu Holloway, one of the few players in the nation averaging over 20 points a game this season. Holloway had emerged as a driving force in the Atlantic 10, and a 33 point performance in a win over Richmond shows he can have big games.  Holloway can do a lot for his legacy, as well as Xavier's, with a win not only against Marquette but against Syracuse as well. It's not likely to happen, since Xavier and Marquette seem evenly matched while Syracuse is superior to both, but you cannot discount them at the same time. Some mid-major teams manage to make it deep into the tournament; Xavier could very well be that team is Holloway gets hot this year. Even if they don't get far, then they have a great foundation set for next year, and they could be dangerous then. University of Northern Colorado Head Coach B.J. Hill has written an article on being a potential cinderella team. Find out what he has to say here. A bracket for March Madness can also be printed here. For all the latest on the Tournament, see here. |
10.03.2011., četvrtak
Big East Tournament: Georgetown's dispirited loss to U-Conn. is a bad sign
|
This isn't a slump by Georgetown. It's a cave-in. It's one thing for the Hoyas to lose four straight games, but quite another to lose so dispiritedly. Sure, they miss point guard Chris Wright, but to be this easily destroyed, so undone by his broken left hand, suggests they weren't very tough to begin with. Enough with the wallowing in dejection. It was still lunchtime when the Hoyas were out of the Big East tournament. They trailed ninth-seeded U-Conn. by 15 with 3 minutes 41 seconds left in the first half of their noon quarterfinal at Madison Square Garden, and were never able to get it under double digits after that, losing, 79-62. Without Wright they didn't just lack organization and confidence, they seemed to lack enthusiasm. Even the school band sounded flat, off key and out of time.  At the buzzer Julian Vaughn sat on the bench, staring at the towel in his hands, while next to him Henry Sims chewed his thumbnail, both yanked by Coach John Thompson III for not producing. Nearby the injured Wright was somber in a charcoal suit, with a black wrap on that busted left hand. "It is what it is but we miss Chris, absolutely, 100 percent both ends of the court and in every way," Thompson said. "That being said, the group that's playing right now, that played today, has to be better, has to be better. Better than we've been showing." balklänningar It's been exactly two weeks since Wright fractured his third metacarpal diving after a ball. In that time the Hoyas have gone from a senior-laden team that looked like it had the potential to be a No.2 seed in the NCAA tournament, to one that looks like it hardly belongs in the field. Without a doubt, it's hard thing to lose your senior leader, who averaged 13.1 points and 5.1 assists. But there's something more than just a personnel issue troubling the Hoyas. Wright shouldn't be the sole emotional engine of the team. And if they don't find another one, fast, their next game will be their last of the season. Wright's absence showed in a basic lack of crispness and intensity in everything the Hoyas did against the Huskies. Their passes floated. They drifted instead of cut. They waved instead of defended. The contrast with the young, hard-rebounding, fast-breaking Huskies, led by the kinetic Kemba Walker, couldn't have been starker. In fairness to the Hoyas, perhaps no one can match Walker's darting quickness. His ability to tie an opponent in knots, to skitter through, up, under and over the defense was good for 28 points. But as much as anything, Walker simply brought energy, and that's what ultimately separated the two teams. It was like watching a spoon try to fend off a knife. The Hoyas got beat repeatedly by a variety of Huskies, not just Walker, despite the fact that they were mostly freshmen and sophomores. There was Jeremy Lamb going 4-for-8. There was Jamal Coombs-McDaniel, going 5-for-10, and Shabazz Napier going 2-for-3. While the Hoyas played like they were swimming with boots on, the Huskies played like they were showing off. The Hoyas lacked the same indefinable edge on offense. They gave up 16 turnovers, not so much with bad passes but with butterfingers, a fumbling and bumbling that bespoke a lack of alertness. "Going to our teammate and them bobbling it and it going out of bounds," as Austin Freeman described it. At least they mustered 62 points against the Huskies, a big improvement over the 48 they had been averaging without Wright. That was largely thanks to the 23 dropped in by Jason Clark. There is nothing overtly wrong with their offense: they move the ball around dutifully, make the right reads and the obligatory four passes on every possession. It's just that not enough happens - they had only six assists. If the Hoyas expect to survive for long in the NCAAs, there has to be a collective stepping up. The U-Conn. loss exposed a lack of leadership: the simple fact is that such a veteran team should never have been so flatly whipped. Even if Wright manages to return for the first round, they must still solve the mystery of their dramatic fall off. Vaughn's total disappearance, for instance, is baffling: he is 0-12 from the field since Wright's injury. It's not enough for Freeman to score 20, either, while contributing just three rebounds, no assists and absolutely no emotional fire. Freeman has always radiated lethargy with his body language, and never has it seemed more contagious. In the first half Freeman made an effort to bark at his teammates, but then he seemed to sink into his usual outward apathy. During warm-ups for the second half, Freeman sat on the bench with his legs splayed, chewing idly on his mouthpiece, as he usually does. It's long been Freeman's habit to skip the second half warm-up. But it hardly sends a message of urgency. And matters are getting urgent for the Hoyas. |
