Cliff Alexander is rated one of the top five, maybe top three, prospects in the next college basketball recruiting class. He’s down to his own personal Final Four in terms of potential schools: Kansas, Illinois, DePaul and Memphis. There was a rumor Cliff Alexander had narrowed it down to just DPU and the Illini, the two homestate schools for the Curie high school product.
That rumor has been totally discredited.
Truth is, it’s likely down to either the Illini or Kansas for Cliff Alexander, a prospect hailing from the southwest side of Chicago.
Another false rumor circulated about Cliff Alexander today, this one is much worse, and a true disgrace to the field of journalism; as it was started by someone with an axe to grind against the competitors within his business.
Prep Bulls Eye has an inferiority complex to Scout and Rivals; the Coca-Cola and PepsiCo of the recruiting world. Prep Bulls Eye might be the Faygo Cola. They’ve been public about their grudges for awhile. There’s a CSN story where they, Brothers Harv and Roy Schmidt, rant about Fox Sports Next/Scout.
And of course, anytime you have grown men following around high school kids for a living, and obsessing over film of those kids…well, this is one of the many reasons I hate recruiting, recruiting news, preps, preps specific websites etc. It’s a revolting world that I want no part of and I only pay attention to it when people absolutely shove it in my face.
Also and at times like today that take on a bigger meaning. Because this isn’t just a recruiting story. It’s a business story. And it’s about crooked business, the only type of business stories anyone wants to read.
Taylor Rooks, a Fox Sports intern and Scout Illini reporter, was accused of having an improper relationship with Cliff Alexander by @prepbullseye.
It’s a Twitter account run by Roy Schmidt. They had a horseshit “report,” which has since been denied by both Taylor and Cliff himself. Alexander’s quotes discredit PBE’s smear campaign. The motive for the attack?
Simple.
Rooks has been consistently beating everyone, especially PBE, on the reporting of Alexander’s recruitment. PBE accused Taylor Rooks and Cliff Alexander of having a more than professional relationship via their Twitter account. (which is a protected account, SUCH A SMART DECISION FOR A MEDIA COMPANY TO DO THAT) They did not overtly say the two were having sex, but they pretty much implied it. Schmidt didn’t overtly say the two were sleeping together, but he all but said so.
So it’s really just sexist socially regressive drivel being tweeted by a bitter curmudgeon behaving poorly. Maybe if they were better at their job, they wouldn’t have time to groundlessly sling mud at those who outperform them.
He has since deleted the tweets. However,
@alioneye caught the tweets and re-posted them. As did Cliff Alexander
So far beyond disgusting that I don’t have words. Here’s another tweet from @prepbullseye pic.twitter.com/e2oC8b0jDl
— Robert (@ALionEye) November 4, 2013
Thank you very much Robert. That is ridiculous. I’ve seen him 3 times. ever. @ALionEye @prepbullseye
— Taylor Rooks Sports (@ImTaylorRooks) November 4, 2013
Been staying out of the Cliff tweets. But this tweet has me angry I have to call it out. Shame on @prepbullseye. pic.twitter.com/NV1jXaNkgo
— Robert (@ALionEye) November 4, 2013
So there you have it. Quotes from Rooks and Alexander themselves.
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also an analyst for news talk radio all across the world; with regular weekly segments on NBC and Fox Sports Radio. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) and RSS