I've always thought way too much was made of the recruiting ban Auburn has had on going after kids who play for Mark Komara. I mean, people act like Auburn basketball was so hurt because we can't get his players, as if he send 30-40 top recruits to major programs every year. Sure, some quality kids have played for him, but come on, we're talking about a hand full of players that have gone to MSU, NC State, Texas, and Manhattan. It's not like this guy is filling out rosters at all SEC programs.
Where does Alabama get their players? Where does Tennessee get theirs? Where does Florida get theirs? Exactly. Facilities or not, the fact is Lebo is just not a dynamic personality. He's not a natural born recruiter. The fact that we shoot 31% from 3pt range, yet we take the most 3's in the SEC also makes me wonder about his coaching philosophy too, but that's a different conversation. I don't think there's much debate that he's not a recruiter.
From today....
So far, so close became the motto of Jeff Lebo’s Auburn tenure long before another no-cigar defeat at Florida.
His Tigers were so close to taking him to the NCAA Tournament last year for the first time in his head coaching career.
Last weekend, they were so close to winning at Mississippi State and putting themselves in actual contention in the woebegone SEC West.
And then Romero Osby dunked and completed a three-point play to erase Auburn’s final lead and best hope in regulation.
Why was that moment more significant than any other big play gone wrong for the Tigers?
Osby played for the Southeast Elite AAU program based in Huntsville. Southeast Elite has alumni playing key roles throughout college basketball.
Just not at Auburn.
That may have something to do with two true facts.
The director of Southeast Elite is Mark Komara, the key figure in Auburn’s 2004 NCAA infractions case, and Auburn still won’t go through Komara to recruit his program’s players.
Never mind that the NCAA ban on Auburn’s recruiting contact with Komara ended in 2006.
"It’s not that they can’t recruit our players," Komara said. "They won’t go through me.
"That’s perfectly fine with me for any college coaches. I’d rather they go through the high school coaches and the parents.
"I don’t want to get involved in any recruiting. I’m 100 percent out of it."
Auburn got hit with NCAA probation six years ago, right after Lebo accepted the job knowing he was about to inherit sanctions not of his making.
The key and controversial issue: The previous Auburn staff’s recruiting of two Komara players who signed with other schools. The NCAA Infractions Committee declared Komara a representative of Auburn’s athletics interests.
The committee chairman said Komara was the first so-called AAU coach or team sponsor deemed a booster. That ruling didn’t seem to fit the evidence, which was a lot of phone calls between Auburn coaches and Komara, the kind of calls college coaches make to AAU coaches all the time.
Still, Auburn self-imposed a ban on recruiting through Komara, and the NCAA extended it to April 26, 2006, the official end of the school’s probation.
Auburn has continued that ban to this day.
Give Lebo credit for taking the high road, too often the road less taken in major college recruiting, and give Auburn credit for being smart.
Sure, the NCAA ban ended in 2006. But if the Infractions Committee declared Komara an Auburn rep once, what would stop that bunch from doing it again?
Komara has closer ties to the school now. His son Anthony, a freshman student at Auburn, helps the basketball program’s video coordinator as an unpaid volunteer.
Komara himself considers Lebo "a friend.''
"Any kid that asks me about Auburn, I tell them to listen to Coach Lebo," Komara said. "I think the world of Jeff Lebo. He’s a class act."
That hasn’t helped Lebo recruit this state. Only two of Auburn’s current scholarship players — sophomore Frankie Sullivan and senior Johnnie Lett — and none of Auburn’s six fall signees are Alabama natives.
Meanwhile, look at some of Komara’s former players.
Osby comes off the bench for Mississippi State. Courtney Fortson leads Arkansas in scoring. Rico Pickett, who started his college career at Alabama and then transferred to Miami-Dade Community College, leads his Manhattan team and the entire Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in scoring.
Varez Ward was starting at point guard for Texas before a ruptured quad tendon ended his season after three games.
Two more recent Southeast Elite players are major recruits right now. Big Luke Cothron, a Huntsville native playing at a North Carolina prep school, commited to North Carolina State, but is still being pursued by the likes of Kentucky and Alabama.
Butler High junior guard Trevor Lacey, whose season ended almost two weeks ago with a torn knee ligament, is one of the more highly regarded prospects in the class of 2011.
I asked Auburn if Lebo would comment about Komara and recruiting, and I got this statement from Auburn associate AD Rich McGlynn: "Because of previous NCAA issues, we cannot comment."
Komara said Auburn coaches are "more visible in gyms in north Alabama in the last two years than ever," which is nice, but I wonder.
At least in part because of previous NCAA issues, can Auburn basketball recruit in this state?
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