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The main question that college coaches would ask me after detailing, in November 2017, the major violations committed by Ron BellHere's what Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner has long described as a close friend: why in the world did Pastner let this guy get close to his program?
This is obviously a good question.
My response has always been that, above all, I believed that Pastner's friendship with Bell was initially rooted in a good place and aroused by good intentions. Bell had acknowledged that Pastner had helped solve a prescription drug problem in January 2016, at a time when they both needed what the other could provide. Bell wanted a goal that turned out to be the opportunity to participate in a college basketball program. And Pastner, who lived his last months in Memphis, was looking for someone, whoever, who would encourage and support him because, at that time, Overwhelming majority of Memphis fans, and by extension the city had returned it in an ugly manner.
Bell needed Pastner.
And Pastner needed Bell.
So both started to spend a lot time together – and Bell was part of the Memphis program for the remainder of the 2015-16 season. Then, when Pastner saw Georgia Tech's post in April 2016, and Memphis paid him $ 1.255 million, Bell quickly became a staple of the Georgia Tech program and used unusual access. provided by Pastner to build relationships with several turned improper.
And now, Pastner is paying a price.
The NCAA announced Thursday that it had Georgia Tech banned from the 2019-20 playoffs, put the school on probation for four years, imposed staffing restrictions on staff, forced the program to cancel his earnings and fined the ACC institution an indeterminate fine. This is not the death sentence, obviously. And it's fair to note that Georgia Tech's chances of winning the NCAA 2020 tournament are slim anyway – so who cares about banning a post-season? But it's still not good and an undeniable spot on Pastner's career.
(Note: this is also not favorable for Kansas, which has been accused by the NCAA of more serious violations than Georgia Tech earlier this week.) If the NCAA is consistent, it is reasonable to assume that KU will obtain at least what Georgia Technology has just received – and probably more – unless it can be argued that Adidas consultant TJ Gassnola was not a reminder of Kansas – good luck, as they say, with that.)
When my story was published in November 2017 and that it details for the first time Bell's involvement in major violationssome were quick to dismiss him as a mad criminal whose speech could not be trusted. But my argument was still the same: a crazy criminal with receipts and texting is not very different from a saint minded saint with receipts and texting. In other words, Bell, no matter what you think of him as a human being, had undeniable proof that he was very close to Pastner, deeply ingrained in the program and guilty of having committed major violations. So, once he appealed to Pastner and presented his evidence, what happened Thursday was always going to happen. The only thing to debate was how much Pastner knew about Bell's behavior – and reasonable minds might disagree about it. However, it should be noted that the NCAA did not hit Pastner as accurately as theoretically if she would have accused him of not having supervised her close friend. That would probably have triggered a suspension in season for Pastner. So the NCAA does not go there is a quiet win for the troubled coach who has not led his team to the NCAA tournament in the past five years.
Anyway, what a mess.
Whether Josh Pastner is just a nice person trying to give a goal to a troubled man or a coach who uses an obsessed friend to help break the rules, or both, is something I'll leave at the bulletin boards. Whatever the case may be, it is clear that Pastner's motivation, whatever it may be, was erroneous and costly. Allowing a person such as Ron Bell to have the type of access allowed was always odd and, by definition, risky. It was a puzzle of the jump that ended up becoming a headache. And it's now at the heart of an NCAA affair that is costing student-athletes who have nothing to do with the opportunity to compete this season to fulfill the dream of every college basketball player. .
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