Does Bruce Weber Have a New Friend?

Illinois head basketball coach Bruce Weber's recruiting woes are well documented. Although he's widely considered an outstanding game coach and a good guy, Weber has never been able to convince top level high school basketball players to matriculate to Champaign. In fact, it's gotten so bad that in the last two or three years Weber's inability to recruit elite talent has become something of a legend.

That could change.

More here.

For background on the disparity between Bruce Weber's coaching prowess vs. his struggles on the recruiting trail, read Dave Parker in today's Joliet (IL) Herald News.

CBS Sportsline on Mayo, Rose & Recruiting

In preparation for tonight's USC v. Memphis game, CBS Sportsline's Gary Parrish talks about the respective recruitment of USC freshman O.J. Mayo and Memphis freshman Derrick Rose.

Key lines:

"If you don't have a mentor, uncle, friend, cousin or AAU coach of some kind working for you with an elite prospect you are just wasting your time recruiting," one high-major assistant told me recently. "Without somebody working for you, you have no shot at that prospect. Absolutely none."

Manistream Media Discovers "World Wide Wes"

As Drive and Dish has noted several times, William "World Wide Wes" Wesley is, arguably, the most powerful man in the game of basketball. He exerts tremendous amounts of influence on every level of organized basketball, from the highest reaches of the NBA down to high school and the AAU circuit. World Wide Wes is tight with NBA executives, NBA GM's, NBA coaches, NBA players, sports agents, college basketball coaches, college basketball players, high school players, AAU coaches, entertainment executives, rappers, corporate CEO's, politicians, former Presidents of the United States, etc.

He was on the floor at last Thursday's NBA draft, congratulating lottery picks, Greg Oden, Kevin Durant, Al Horford, etc.

But nobody knows exactly what he does. Despite his undeniable power, he remains a mysterious, shadowy figure.

Alex French investigates Mr. Wesley in the current edition of GQ.


Edit:

Although Mr. Wesley appears to be shady, it isn't really Drive and Dish's intent to hate on him. Look, basketball is a ruthless, shady business. There are all kinds of questionable characters on the periphery of the game (not that there arent plenty of shady characters who are front and center in the game too).

And I should state that although I've never had any contact with the mysterious Mr. Wesley, we do share some mutual acquaintances. However, I've never actually discussed "World Wide Wes" with any of those individuals.

That said, I'm not at all surprised that a guy like World Wide Wes exists. I'm just curious as to what exactly it is that he does, and how it is that he wields so much clout (it looks -- at least from afar -- like he's the NBA's "fixer"). But don't confuse that with hatin' ... I could use a hook up like this guy.

"World Wide" Wes, International Man of Mystery

William Wesley (left) with LeBron James


William Wesley (center) sits courtside, with the
son of Detroit Pistons' GM Joe Dumars, at the
Palace in Auburn Hills, MI (photos: AP).


This week, ESPN's Pat Forde wrote an article about college basketball recruiting and the influence wielded by the mysterious William Wesley. The article ran on Monday. I posted a link to Forde's ESPN piece here at Drive & Dish the same day.

Wesley is, no doubt, an intriguing figure.

I've long felt that professional and big time college basketball operates as a shady underworld industry. Fans see the sanitized product on the court, but are largely unaware of the (let's just say) questionable world that exists behind the scenes. Men like Sonny Vaccaro and William Wesley are true power-brokers: their clout allows them to enforce tremendous influence on the games of college and professional basketball.

Wesley's influence often helps determine which college a high school basketball star will attend, and with which agent and shoe company a professional or prospective professional player will sign.

Read all about William "World Wide Wes" Wesley:

ESPN.com -Pat Forde

Wikipedia.org -William Wesley

True Hoop.com -- Gregory Dole: My Summer With William Wesley.

Basketball Voice.ch -World Wide Wes (scroll down the page- William Wesley material is on middle of page)

Edit:

This Drive and Dish post originally appeared on 3/28/07. In the time since it was posted, Drive and Dish has posted more material on William "World Wide Wes" Wesley.

More here. And here (although it doesn't adress "World Wide Wes," the Seattle Post Intelligencer link contains fascinating information on Kurtis Townsend and the influence that he has wielded on the recruiting front).

Update (4/6/08):

The New York Times had an expose on William "World Wide Wes" Wesley on Sunday, April 5, 2008 (I figured that all of those hits that this Drive and Dish post got from the New York Times' office last week couldn't have been completely random).

It's Not What You Know, It's Who You Know

Over the weekend, sixteen basketball teams battled for the chance to be part of college basketball's Final Four. Florida, Georgetown, Ohio State and UCLA are packing for Atlanta. Butler, Kansas, Pittsburgh, Memphis, Southern Illinois, Tennessee, Texas A&M, UNLV, USC and Vanderbilt had to pack up and go home.

This year's Sweet Sixteen was one of the most exciting in recent memory. There were enough close games and comeback wins to keep even casual sports fans glued to their televisions.

But for all the on court drama, the real action in college basketball goes on behind the scenes. NCAA Division I basketball is a ruthless business. The following articles touch on the recruitment of prospective student athletes. Read and enjoy (note that four programs which were Sweet Sixteen participants receive mention):

ESPN-Pat Forde

Seattle Post Intelligencer



Edit: (3:45am)

Man, I knew that the old media i.e., newspapers, magazines and the big three television networks (CBS, NBC, ABC)- were losing market share (just today Life magazine announced that it's folding shop: thanks, largely, to new media "punks" like us), but damn! The Seattle Post Intelligencer must really be being pinched. Apparently, they can no longer afford to employ copy editors. In the above linked article, the author mistakenly refers to Michigan's early 1990's basketball teams as the "Fab Four." The 1992 and '93 Michigan Wolverines were called the "Fab Five." Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Ray Jackson and Jimmy King = five guys. "Fab Four?" The "Fab Four" were the seminal sixties pop/rock act, the Beatles. I probably couldn't name five Beatles songs, but I still know the difference between John, Paul, Ringo & George and Chris, Jalen, Juwan, Ray and Jimmy.

Not only is this guy culturally illiterate, he's (apparently) lazy. Here's a tip: If you don't KNOW something for sure, look the sh*# up, bro.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not trying to hate on the writer. And the information contained in the article is top notch. That's why I dug it up from the Seattle PI's archives.

The thing that really got me was the author's apparent ignorance of the rules of basic (middle school/junior high school) grammar. Sentences should not end in prepositions. A competent writer would never end a sentence by referring to where something is "at."

And, although it may seem like nitpicking, there is no such word as "lastly." There's "last" and there's "finally." But the combination of those two words into "lastly" is a rookie error.

It would be one thing for these types of errors to appear in some schmuck's blog. But this guy is a journalist who writes for a major American newspaper. The guy is a PROFESSIONAL WRITER. I'm not a big fan of the widespread use by internet writers/posters/commenters of the abbreviated term WTF?! But in this instance, WTF!?! seems appropriate.

It's just amazing to see how far the bar has been lowered. This guy is writing for one of the nation's premier newspapers. And he appears to be a good reporter. But his sloppy writing causes me to wonder why someone didn't catch and correct his errors (not to mention how someone whose writing leaves so much to be desired could land a gig at the Post Intelligencer).

Abraham Lincoln didn't have much formal "schoolin,'" but he wrote the Gettysburg Address. Hemingway didn't go to college, but he was one of the greatest writers who ever lived. Hell, my grandmother didn't get to go to college, but she'd never make the kind of errors that this cat made.

I knew that the American schools were getting worse, but I guess I didn't appreciate just how bad they actually are.

Note: This "edit" was done at 3:45 am when I was, admittedly, not exactly on top of my game (and had just returned from socializing in a few Windy City speakeasies). But still, the Seattle Post Intelligencer is slacking.