In a case of basketball gone bad, longtime Wisconsin powerhouse Milwaukee Rufus King has been banned from the 2009 WIAA state tournament. Outside "recruits" at open gyms and doctored or incomplete admissions documentation were the reasons. I'm surprised they're still eligible for the Milwaukee City Conference title. Thankfully this doesn't appear to involve longtime head coach Jim Gosz.
I'm surprised they got only a 1 year ban and still get to go play out-state games. After all, there have been complaints to the WIAA that the outstate games the Milwaukee teams play give them a recruiting advantage. Hence the new Wisconsin rule this year that you get to play 22 games if you play all your games in-state or in neighboring states (MN, IA, MI, IL). Otherwise you can only play 20 games (the previous limit).
If I'm running a high school association, I come down much harder as this cannot be tolerated. Considering there are always accusations about the top teams recruiting (and that's true here in the metro) and no charges, this would have been a great time to send a strong message. Especially with a premier program like King's. Granted it appears the coach in question is taking the brunt of the punishment rather than the kids which is good, but I think more punishment should have been handed down to the school. Along the lines of what the NCAA would term "lack of institutional control".
Read the entire Wishoops.net article here.
The preps writer who wrote about my high school back in the day wrote this for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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