Is the NCAA really that dumb?

Oh wait, Myles Brand is in charge... of course they are that dumb.

If you haven't heard, after 7 months, and a season suspension of Randolph Morris at Kentucky, a mystery fax appeared on Tubby Smith's desk that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Morris didn't intend to hire an agent, and surprise, surprise, Myles Brand jumped in and shortened Morris' suspension to 14 games... which just so happens to make Morris eligible the first game of the SEC season this year.

Here is a copy of the 'fax'.



Do you see anything missing from this fax? Please tell me UK and the NCAA aren't that stupid as to forget the fax identifier with date from the top of the fax? What I see here isn't a fax... I want to see the fax.

A few articles about the subject...

NCAA reduces Morris' suspension to 14 games - espn.com

Kentucky provided the NCAA the original fax sent by Morris to Smith, notifying the coach of his plans to enter the draft. In the one-paragraph fax -- released by the university Thursday -- Morris told Smith that "my intent is not to obtain an agent so as to maintain my collegiate eligibility."

Smith said he had misplaced the fax and found it only last week.

Morris will miss all of Kentucky's nonconference games, including a showdown with No. 4 Louisville on Saturday, but he will be available for the Southeastern Conference opener Jan. 10 against Vanderbilt.

Misplaced the fax and only found it last week. Hmmm... if the fax contained information important enough to reinstate Kentucky's best player, why was it lost in Tubby's office for 7 months? Wouldn't someone have looked for it? Wouldn't Tubby have torn his office apart? Or did it really exist? I'm thinking the later... it wasn't until the NCAA told Kentucky that Morris was being suspended 'because they didn't have any proof of his intent' that mysteriously a fax appeared.

Smith finds fax; Morris will return Jan. 10 - espn.com

According to Kentucky, the fax was misplaced. Smith found it while rifling through his desk this week.

"I had lost papers on a plane and I have been looking for them for some time. If I would have known how important those papers were I would have held on to them more tightly," Smith said. "Somebody must have realized what was in the papers and sent them back to us. If you travel as much as I do you can sometimes loose papers when you travel. [Kentucky compliance director] Sandy Bell told me if I could find those papers that it would really help. I went back found them last week. Thank God I found the papers and we were able to work things out."

What??? Yeah and Bob Knight put the money in the infamous Fed-Ex package. It just blows me away what Kentucky does and in this case that the NCAA is falling for it.

What other goodies lurk on Tubby's desk? - espn.com

Here's the big issue: What else does Tubby have lying around on that desk?

That's why I'm in here right now. OK, let's examine this stack of papers...

Whooooaaaaa! Look at this!

National Letter of Intent, November 2001.

I, J.J. Redick, hereby commit to an athletic scholarship at the University of Kentucky...

Unbelievable! Tubby must have misplaced it four years ago. Maybe he can send this to the NCAA and get Redick in a UK uniform by January.

What else do we have here? Let's read the sticky note on this videotape:

Dear Tubby: I love the Cats and I've been breaking in to Assembly Hall all week to film Indiana's practices. If you watch this tape, you'll see that they're going to start A.J. Ratliff for the first time this year, and they're working hard with Marco Killingsworth to pass out of double-teams to the perimeter for 3-point shots. With this scouting report, you shouldn't have any trouble against the Hoosiers.

Dang. Looks like Tubby misplaced that, too. Could've used it last week, before the Wildcats were pounded by 26 in the RCA Dome.

OK, what's this? Ew. A half-eaten sandwich. Nice. What else?

To-do list, December 2003:

• Follow up on phone call from Dee Brown. Says he's looking to transfer from Illinois to Kentucky.

• Get back in touch with NBC about its $9 million-a-year offer to "make Kentucky its own Notre Dame deal."

• Return e-mails from American Express. They want me to shoot a series of commercials that could really help recruiting.

• Check out tape of some kid named LeBron. Keeps sending us video, saying he wants to come here. Not sure we need him. We've already got Bernard Cote.

Now that is some funny stuff from Pat Forde.