7. THE BOTTOM LINE. In these situations, there are three kinds of information: Things that are alleged, things you know, things that can be proved.
The first two are good for the gossip press and talk shows. The second kind is good for opinion pieces and the like, but the third is what matters most, especially where the NCAA is concerned.
This book has a lot of the first. It alleges a great many things that, when paired with the circumstantial evidence it presents, looks plausible.
Everyone I see asks me what I think. I think the truth lies somewhere in between likely embellishments in the book and the initial skepticism from U of L coach Rick Pitino and athletic director Tom Jurich.
It’s hard to conclude that some kind of relationship didn’t exist between Powell and McGee. If these text messages are legitimate, at a minimum, he arranged for strippers to entertain U of L basketball recruits.
That’s a problem.
But as I cautioned in my first column on these allegations, this is only the beginning. The process will be long. What happens from here?
U of L will compile its own preliminary report and submit it to the NCAA. It’ll be interesting to see if the school is willing to concede any of the allegations, or fights them entirely across the board. And, it’ll be interesting to see what the response from fans will be if it does find that it must concede some of this.
Is it possible that the majority of this is made up? I suppose. Powell says in the book that she has in mind that one day she will write these things. She appears to have tried to hang onto text messages, and kept a journal toward that end.
If you were taking this to court, you wouldn’t have a whole lot to hang your case on. But the NCAA is a different story, and how much the fan base is willing to accept is different still.
The book is choppy, not particularly well-written and fairly hastily put together. McGee is described as a four-year starter at Louisville, for instance. While he did start games in four seasons, he started less than half the games he played in at U of L, and only two games a sophomore. Small things like that slip through the cracks occasionally, making it appear as if the book was put together in a bit of a hurry. (This is kind of hilarious that he is using McGee's status as a starter to discredit her)
Every time something like this happens, anymore, some of the first words to cross my mind are "Duke lacrosse." In the end, we're all served by letting every side make its case.
If the publishers failed to dot any i’s or cross any t’s on the factual material, they’re going to have a problem.
But if even just the material that is presented from the text message portions of this book is true, it paints not just an unsavory picture, but an unacceptable picture.
![[laughing]](http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/img/emoticons/classic/laugh.r191677.gif "Laughing [laughing]")
@ PTI. I'm going to wear that Mark Richt ass out Monday. You better just pretend like you're busy at work or something. Take the Yolo out for a spin. Read up on Nawlins common law policy. Anything but talk about football. The beat Bama, at home, and they have 1 ranked opponent left until SECCG. Like always they do just enough to almost get there. Except they got steam rolled by Bama. ![[roll]](http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/img/emoticons/classic/roll.r191677.gif "roll [roll]")
@UL hiring hookers for recruits... that they didn't land. They're going to get f*cked for hiring hooker for 4 recruits that played at other schools. 
![[cheers]](https://ct.yimg.com/mr/uploads/891/5628.gif "Cheers [cheers]")
