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Pumps out of coaching search business
By Charles Robinson and Jason King, Yahoo! Sports
Jul 23, 9:51 am EDT
ShareretweetEmailPrintYou can follow Charles Robinson on Twitter at @WindyCityScribe
The NCAA has thrown up another road block for college basketball power brokers Dana and David Pump, recently adopting legislation that has shut down the brothers’ coaching search firm.
New rules make it an NCAA violation to hire search firms that are also associated in some fashion with college basketball prospects. That change effectively undercuts ChampSearch, the Pump brothers’ consulting firm that has helped schools fill at least 17 head coaching vacancies since 2005. The NCAA has warned member institutions about retaining the firm due to the Pumps’ financing of elite summer prep basketball teams.
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“What are Dana and I supposed to do?” David Pump said. “They just changed these rules. You should ask the NCAA because I don’t know. Of course I’m very disappointed. Dana and I work our whole life to build our business, and people are doing things like this. Don’t you think they’re being a little unfair?”
“I never knew Dana and David Pump were big fish. All we want to do is help people, have a good time, and that’s it.”
According to the NCAA’s latest revisions, “It is not permissible for an institution or a men’s basketball staff member to provide a consulting fee to an individual associated with a prospective student-athlete or to a consulting firm in which an individual associated with a prospective student-athlete has a proprietary or financial interest.”
That change stemmed from what the NCAA saw as a significant conflict of interest. Specifically, the potential for a college to pay a fee to a consulting company and then turn around and recruit prep players that are also financed by the owners of that same company.
It’s a scenario that actually took place at least once with the Pumps, shortly after ChampSearch was hired by the University of Tennessee to help sort through men’s basketball candidates. The Pump brothers’ firm – which was being paid $25,000 for its services – recommended Bruce Pearl for the position, and he was hired shortly thereafter. A few months later, Pearl received a commitment from nationally ranked forward Wayne Chism, who had previously starred for the Pump brothers Pump-N-Run team in Memphis.
There was never an allegation of impropriety involving Chism, nor an allegation the Pumps played any part in his decision. However, the forward’s commitment to the Volunteers – only months after Tennessee paid the Pumps $25,000 for their coaching search – remains a glaring example of the conflicts of interest the NCAA is hoping to eliminate in the recruiting process.
That was made clear in a recent meeting of Southestern Conference coaches, which was attended by the NCAA’s basketball enforcement director LuAnn Humphrey. The use of ChampSearch was raised, and Humphrey made it clear: the tie to prospects won’t be tolerated for any business drawing a paycheck from a university.
“We are going to be concerned about the structure of any business who would potentially meet that definition [of being associated with prospects],” Humphrey told Yahoo! Sports. “If you have a consulting firm that is in some way tied to prospects – some of the benefits or the monies could be going to prospects – there is that conflict of interest. Is the person being hired because they have a connection to prospects? Or are they being hired because they are a search firm?”
That’s a question the NCAA doesn’t want to deal with, particularly in the nebulous world of summer basketball, where coaches are always wary of schools using underhanded methods to gain a recruiting advantage.
“It doesn’t bother me at all,” North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams said of the NCAA’s moves to better police recruiting. “[Dana and David Pump] have influence. The only time I’ve ever been around them, they’ve done very good things. There are a lot of stories about them doing other things, but I’ve never seen those things. Again though, this is a scenario where people are trying to become influential with another group of people. I’ve never been in favor of that.”
For their part, the Pumps said they aren’t fazed by the decision, despite the firm appearing to gain some traction over the past five years. What seems clear is the brothers do not want to give up their role in grassroots basketball. If that means sacrificing ChampSearch, the brothers appear ready to do it.
“The searches, that’s no big deal,” Dana Pump said. “I understand. We fall under that rule. We’re moving on. … My love and passions for basketball and grassroots and everything, [the search firm] wasn’t really a passion of mine. I just thought we could bring very good value. We have a pretty good feel of coaches and right fits and guys we feel would do a good job.”
It’s not the first time the NCAA has taken a stance that has impacted the Pumps’ ability to do business. In 2002, the Pumps were roundly criticized by the association for their involvement in Final Four ticket scalping. A Yahoo! Sports investigation published in May found that the brothers played a role in a basketball ticket scandal at Kansas. In 2004, the NCAA adopted a rule change that eliminated the Pumps’ ability to field profitable preseason exhibition squads, which they toured against college teams.
More recently, the NCAA declared college coaches could not attend charity events for the Harold Pump Foundation after 2010, also due to potential conflicts of interest. The Pumps are currently looking into a compromise that would allow coaches to attend the charity functions without violating NCAA guidelines. They are also hoping to gain an audience with the NCAA in September.
“It’s always easier to understand people when you get in front of them,” Dana Pump said of the potential meeting. “When you have perception and hearsay, it’s good when you meet people.”
Added David Pump, “There are a lot of conflicts of interest in college athletics. All I would like to do is meet with them, and if they talk to us and say ‘This is a conflict,’ then Dana and I have to change. I understand that. But it’s not always the Pump brothers. It’s millions of people out there.”
Contact Yahoo! Sports investigative reporter Charles Robinson at [email protected]
Pumps out of coaching search business
By Charles Robinson and Jason King, Yahoo! Sports
Jul 23, 9:51 am EDT
ShareretweetEmailPrintYou can follow Charles Robinson on Twitter at @WindyCityScribe
The NCAA has thrown up another road block for college basketball power brokers Dana and David Pump, recently adopting legislation that has shut down the brothers’ coaching search firm.
New rules make it an NCAA violation to hire search firms that are also associated in some fashion with college basketball prospects. That change effectively undercuts ChampSearch, the Pump brothers’ consulting firm that has helped schools fill at least 17 head coaching vacancies since 2005. The NCAA has warned member institutions about retaining the firm due to the Pumps’ financing of elite summer prep basketball teams.
ADVERTISEMENT
“What are Dana and I supposed to do?” David Pump said. “They just changed these rules. You should ask the NCAA because I don’t know. Of course I’m very disappointed. Dana and I work our whole life to build our business, and people are doing things like this. Don’t you think they’re being a little unfair?”
“I never knew Dana and David Pump were big fish. All we want to do is help people, have a good time, and that’s it.”
According to the NCAA’s latest revisions, “It is not permissible for an institution or a men’s basketball staff member to provide a consulting fee to an individual associated with a prospective student-athlete or to a consulting firm in which an individual associated with a prospective student-athlete has a proprietary or financial interest.”
That change stemmed from what the NCAA saw as a significant conflict of interest. Specifically, the potential for a college to pay a fee to a consulting company and then turn around and recruit prep players that are also financed by the owners of that same company.
It’s a scenario that actually took place at least once with the Pumps, shortly after ChampSearch was hired by the University of Tennessee to help sort through men’s basketball candidates. The Pump brothers’ firm – which was being paid $25,000 for its services – recommended Bruce Pearl for the position, and he was hired shortly thereafter. A few months later, Pearl received a commitment from nationally ranked forward Wayne Chism, who had previously starred for the Pump brothers Pump-N-Run team in Memphis.
There was never an allegation of impropriety involving Chism, nor an allegation the Pumps played any part in his decision. However, the forward’s commitment to the Volunteers – only months after Tennessee paid the Pumps $25,000 for their coaching search – remains a glaring example of the conflicts of interest the NCAA is hoping to eliminate in the recruiting process.
That was made clear in a recent meeting of Southestern Conference coaches, which was attended by the NCAA’s basketball enforcement director LuAnn Humphrey. The use of ChampSearch was raised, and Humphrey made it clear: the tie to prospects won’t be tolerated for any business drawing a paycheck from a university.
“We are going to be concerned about the structure of any business who would potentially meet that definition [of being associated with prospects],” Humphrey told Yahoo! Sports. “If you have a consulting firm that is in some way tied to prospects – some of the benefits or the monies could be going to prospects – there is that conflict of interest. Is the person being hired because they have a connection to prospects? Or are they being hired because they are a search firm?”
That’s a question the NCAA doesn’t want to deal with, particularly in the nebulous world of summer basketball, where coaches are always wary of schools using underhanded methods to gain a recruiting advantage.
“It doesn’t bother me at all,” North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams said of the NCAA’s moves to better police recruiting. “[Dana and David Pump] have influence. The only time I’ve ever been around them, they’ve done very good things. There are a lot of stories about them doing other things, but I’ve never seen those things. Again though, this is a scenario where people are trying to become influential with another group of people. I’ve never been in favor of that.”
For their part, the Pumps said they aren’t fazed by the decision, despite the firm appearing to gain some traction over the past five years. What seems clear is the brothers do not want to give up their role in grassroots basketball. If that means sacrificing ChampSearch, the brothers appear ready to do it.
“The searches, that’s no big deal,” Dana Pump said. “I understand. We fall under that rule. We’re moving on. … My love and passions for basketball and grassroots and everything, [the search firm] wasn’t really a passion of mine. I just thought we could bring very good value. We have a pretty good feel of coaches and right fits and guys we feel would do a good job.”
It’s not the first time the NCAA has taken a stance that has impacted the Pumps’ ability to do business. In 2002, the Pumps were roundly criticized by the association for their involvement in Final Four ticket scalping. A Yahoo! Sports investigation published in May found that the brothers played a role in a basketball ticket scandal at Kansas. In 2004, the NCAA adopted a rule change that eliminated the Pumps’ ability to field profitable preseason exhibition squads, which they toured against college teams.
More recently, the NCAA declared college coaches could not attend charity events for the Harold Pump Foundation after 2010, also due to potential conflicts of interest. The Pumps are currently looking into a compromise that would allow coaches to attend the charity functions without violating NCAA guidelines. They are also hoping to gain an audience with the NCAA in September.
“It’s always easier to understand people when you get in front of them,” Dana Pump said of the potential meeting. “When you have perception and hearsay, it’s good when you meet people.”
Added David Pump, “There are a lot of conflicts of interest in college athletics. All I would like to do is meet with them, and if they talk to us and say ‘This is a conflict,’ then Dana and I have to change. I understand that. But it’s not always the Pump brothers. It’s millions of people out there.”
Contact Yahoo! Sports investigative reporter Charles Robinson at [email protected]
