Since Young filed for an appeal in the spring, his father, and University of Houston Director of Basketball Operations, Michael Young has taken every opportunity to vent through various Houston media outlets, while none of these reporters were able (allowed?) to get word from the young man himself.
“My family is disappointed right now,” Joe Young told the Journal. Apparently.
He added, “I’m fine. I’m good. It makes me stronger and makes me want to get in the gym and work harder...I’m praying to God that everything works out in the end.”
While Joe Young was measured in his response to this decision, his father sounded off yet again, as he took on the NLI system, Keno Davis, and Providence College, “The NLI system is crap… there’s no chance in hell that Joseph would ever go to Providence.”
Michael Young continued by calling Davis “a bad guy” and adding “Keno Davis and Providence had no sympathy for this situation. Keno said he doesn’t care who is ill.
“Anytime you deny a kid from something he has worked so hard for all of these years and kids are very emotional about situations like this.”
Sounds like the adult is a lot more emotional than the kid, no?
Forgive Friar fans for being skeptical of a man who said the following after his son committed to Providence:
"Do I want my son to play here (Houston)? Man, do I want him to play here. My heart is really, really broken right now. I'm trying to get this decision turned. There's still time. I'm trying to get him to have a change of mind and really look at the whole situation.
"I'm really ashamed," Young added. "I'm really ashamed for me to be a basketball coach here, and my son is a good basketball player, and he's not coming here."
I’m trying to get this decision turned.
A few weeks later Michael Young changed his tune, "Things came out down here and I had to put the fire out," he said. "I'm sure fans at Providence weren't really sure what was being said. But now I am happy Joseph is a Friar."
What “fire” did he have to put out? Fire he was getting from fans and alumni? Fire from his head coach and AD? And yes, Providence fans knew exactly what was being said. They've heard plenty from Michael Young.
Was part of putting that fire out publicly stating that he was ashamed and would try to change his son’s mind? If this is what he was saying to reporters, what did Joe Young hear behind closed doors?
Is it possible that fire was turned back up when a new head coach, James Dickey, came aboard?
Not familiar with James Dickey? He was the head man at Texas Tech from 1991-2001. He led Tech to the NCAA Tournament in both 1993 and ’96.
The ’96 team went 30-2 and made it all the way to the Sweet 16. The following year Tech looked primed to make a run in the first ever Big 12 Tournament. They lost their first game in the Big 12 Tournament and announced afterwards that they were withdrawing from consideration from the postseason and forfeiting all conference wins because two of their players were academically ineligible.
An investigation of the program followed and resulted in Texas Tech being stripped of its tournament wins in 1996 and the loss of nine scholarships over four years. Dickey never recovered.
Dickey was also an assistant for Eddie Sutton at Kentucky. Sutton’s Kentucky tenure nearly led to one of the most storied basketball programs in college basketball history being shut down, and infamously ended with three years of probation, a two year ban from postseason play, and a ban from live television for a year. Dickey was on staff throughout Sutton’s entire tenure with the Wildcats.
Probation at Kentucky in 1989 and probation at Tech in 1997 - that’s a lot of trouble in an eight year span.
Dickey gets hired at Houston in early April and the appeal is sent within weeks. Forgive Keno Davis, Bob Driscoll, and Providence College for being skeptical. I know I am.
It would have been easy for Davis and Driscoll, on the heels of a PR nightmare of an offseason, to let Young walk and move on. They knew this would get messy and have to be eager to move on from last season when Young’s appeal was one of the biggest blows of the spring. Instead they stood by their principles, knowing that it would lead to the coach, athletic department, and college being disparaged in doing so.
The shame in this saga is that Joe Young seems to be almost a secondary character. He’s a 19 year old kid who has been publicly ridiculed by his own father, stood by quietly while this all played out very publicly, and has had the illness of a loved one widely broadcast. That’s more than any 19 year old should have to deal with.
Joseph Young told Kevin McNamara that this experience is teaching him a lot about the world. Indeed it is.
For more on the recruiting violations on Texas Tech click here.
For more on the recruiting violations at Kentucky click here.
For more on the recruiting violations on Texas Tech click here.
For more on the recruiting violations at Kentucky click here.
