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Off-season proves turbulent for Big 12
By Jeey Berlin jberlin@kansan.com Kansan sportswriter
When the 2002-03 NCAA basketball season ended in April, Patrick Dennehy, Larry Eustachy and Ricky Clemons weren't household names. The three were familiar to fans of Big 12 Conference basketball, but most fans across the nation would have been hard-pressed to identify them.
Four months and hundreds of headlines later, all three men are nationally known — but not
Clemons
Bliss
in ways they or Big 12 officials would have preferred.
in jail, he's the subject of investigations by both the NCAA and the FBI.
Dennehy was killed, and the investigation of his murder uncovered revelations that threaten Baylor's basketball program. Eustachy, Iowa State's former coach, is out of a job. And not only is Clemons, a former Missouri guard, both off the team ap-
Eustachy had been Iowa State's basketball coach since 1998, leading the Cyclones to back-to-back conference titles in 2000 and 2001.
But in April, photographs of Eustachy at a party with University of Missouri students appeared on the Internet. The photos depicted Eustachy drinking beer and kissing women on the cheek. It was later revealed Eustachy also attended a party at Kansas State
Eustachy said he was an alcoholic and promised to seek treatment. He also said he wouldn't resign. But Iowa State and Eustachy reached an agreement on a contract buyout May 5. Iowa State promoted assistant coach Wayne Morgan to take over Eustachy's job.
Jon Fleming, an Iowa State booster and resident of Ames, Iowa, said the Eustachy scandal was an emotional issue for Iowa
State's fan base.
"It clearly just ripped apart the fans and the community on both sides of the issue," Fleming said. "I think the majority have moved on and are ready to bury the hatchet, support the new staff and go forward."
Fleming said he didn't think Eustachy's actions merited a firing.
"My bias is, it was a couple of nights of indiscretion," he said. "But I don't know the whole story, and 99 percent of the people don't know the whole story."
"I don't think any of the fans are qualified to make that decision without all of the information."
The Clemons saga began in January, after the Missouri guard was arrested and charged with abusing his girlfriend, Jessica Bunge. Clemons pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and was sentenced to 60 days in jail, but was allowed to participate in a work-release program. He then violated the terms of his release when he was injured in an all-terrain vehicle accident during a party at the home of Missouri's president, Elson Floyd. After that embarrassing incident, Clemons headed to prison. He was later removed from the basketball team.
Now the NCAA is investigating whether Clemons received illegal gifts and improper academic help at Missouri. Bunge reportedly told NCAA investigators Clemons received money and clothing from Missouri's coaching staff and cheated on exams. In a deposition, coach Quin Snyder said he remembered giving Clemons clothing, which he said "probably" constituted an NCAA violation.
The FBI is investigating Clemons for unspecified reasons. This week, the bureau seized 28 hours of telephone calls made and received by Clemons in prison.
But none of those troubles compared to the situation at Baylor. Dennehy, a forward who sat out last season after transferring from New Mexico, disappeared in mid-June. Former Baylor player Carlton Dotson, a close friend of Dennehy, was arrested and charged with his murder July 21. Four days later, authorities found Dennehy's body in a field outside
"It clearly just ripped apart the fans and the community on both sides of the issue."
Jon Fleming
 Iowa State booster
 and Ames, Iowa, resident
Waco, Texas. An autopsy report revealed Dennehy was shot twice in the head.
Just as the drama at Baylor seemed to be ending, more turmoil hit the athletics department. Coach Dave Bliss and Tom Stanton, athletics director, resigned Aug. 8 after a school investigation discovered evidence of NCAA infractions in the basketball program, including illegal payments to players.
Then Baylor assistant coach Abar Rouse gave the Fort Worth Star Telegram a tape recording of a conversation he had with Bliss. On the tape Bliss reportedly attempted to convince Rouse to help him fabricate a story that Dennehye was a drug dealer, a ruse meant to cover for Bliss' illegal payments to the player.
player.
The NCAA announced this week that it would waive its transfer rules for Baylor players, meaning any player who wants to play at another school can begin doing so immediately without sitting out a year. Several players have already announced an intent to transfer.
Some observers and newspaper columnists have speculated that Baylor could be removed from the conference. Big 12 assistant commissioner Bo Carter said ousting a school from the Big 12 would require a conference vote at an emergency meeting, with nine schools voting in favor of removal. But Carter said that isn't being considered yet.
"At this point, Baylor is staying in the Big 12." Carter said.
Even so, as the investigations at Missouri and Baylor continue, so do nonstop rumors and speculation. The Big 12 basketball world has been spun upside down since the last time any of its members played a game — and the spinning doesn't appear to be over yet.
- Edited by Andy Marso
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