Could Kentucky Lose its Top Recruit?

Whenever you have the success that Kentucky has had you are bound to attract a little attention. Fans want to watch. Boosters want to donate money. Recruits want to play there.

And NCAA investigators like to poke around.

As far as the general public has been told, Kentucky is not under investigation by the NCAA, but one of the school's basketball recruits—that happens to be the top recruit in the entire nation—is.

There are not a whole lot of details available at this time. What we do know is that investigators have spoken with officials at Everett High School (MA) which Nerlens Noel attended for his freshman and sophomore years. Principal Louis Baldi has described the conversation as nice and not investigative in nature.

What will be interesting is what may transpire when the NCAA looks into a couple other relationships of Noel's, Chris Driscoll (a Providence assistant coach) and Errol Randolph (a former substitute teacher at Everett High School).

To make the long story short, the NCAA has not stated it, but they are looking into whether Noel has taken money (or anything) from agents or is being exploited by people in league with agents.

When you are a talent like Noel you are going to attract attention from not just colleges, but pro teams and hence agents as well. Agents know that the sooner they can sink their teeth into you the better. For many of them it is not important if the means is within NCAA rules or not.

Driscoll is not known to be associated with an agent, but he did study sports management in college. For some reason he had to be banned from the campus at Tilton School, where Noel has been attending since his junior year. The school has said they grew concerned that Driscoll did not have Noels best interest at heart (like possible agreeing to let him be his agent when he turns pro after his freshman year in college perhaps?).

Randolph had a link to ASM Sports, the agency for prominent basketball agent Andy Miller, on his LinkedIn page. He claims it was just a coincidence, but apparently the NCAA thinks differently.

Investigators will be checking out Noel's finances as well.

Hmmm…so we have a situation where people that don't make much money see a potential meal ticket in Noel if they can help a sports agency get its hooks into him.

Sadly, it wouldn't be the first time.

(Want to see Nerlen's announcement he was going to NBA U, I mean, Kentucky?)

Article by Travis Pulver