Royce White on Going to UK
- Thread starter Random UK Fan
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If he hadn't had that fear of flying, he could have been a decent NBA player.
Would have been a great player for UK without the phobia.
We've had so many "what ifs" in our history.
Would have been a great player for UK without the phobia.
We've had so many "what ifs" in our history.
Royce White is not proven to be believable in any aspect of his life. As someone who knows many of the people who have coached/mentored him and had him in their school, let's just say he's not stable and should be very thankful his family has a lot of pull/power in the State High School League. To echo Celticat's comment--this is one that UK is very fortunate to have avoided bringing to Lexington. Talented guy on the court....but would've brought several off the court issues with him none of which were shared in his one on one interview.
His fear of flying was that moment in time's reasoning.
One of the few game plans in Cal’s tenure where he had a really smart approach. Loved watching them let Royce run himself into the ground while absolutely shutting down everyone else. Went from a game I’d been worried about to a fun and relaxing beat down.
Yea idgaf about the politics, but White put on one of the better performances I've seen in person during the NCAA Tournament at the Yum! Center in 2012...pretty sure it was right before UK played. Guy was legit. Had severe problems with anxiety if I remember right
I heard once from an Iowa State fan that they had to assign an athletic department employee to literally babysit him and to keep him from doing stupid things and actually go to class. And he had the same problems in high school but just had the good fortune of being really great at basketball so people just justified his behavior.
Actually his behavior wasn't justified in HS-he was kicked out of DeLaSalle which is a perennial power (Reid Travis alma mater) for repeatedly cheating academically and only thing that was allowed was a cover up because Royce's family has deep ties to MN State HS League and a lot of Twin Cities public figures. That got him to Hopkins another power and all was well as he was part of one of the most talented HS teams in State history. I once saw Rene Pulley kick Royce out of a Twin Cities Pro Am game when he was in HS due to his behavior as well and Howard Pulley was using that as a tune up for the Peach Jam but his behavior was so intolerable that they had to kick him out of the gym. University of Minnesota had to kick him off the team for repeatedly shop lifting and then eventually he assaulted the security at Mall of America after being confronted/caught.
His family excuses and ignores his behavior and refuses to accept any fault he may have in any incident as well.
If you want a more interesting story regarding Cal's initial recruiting at UK--Darnell Dodson/Trevor Mbakwe incident in Junior College (forget but thought it was Miami Dade but could be wrong on the JC). Cover up for a sexual assault that allowed Dodson to get to UK. That story has some interesting angles.
Dayum, you've really got an axe to grind with him don't you. What'd he ever do to you?
Don't have an axe to grind, but when you have factual information about someone and know what was going on, it'll be shared in a topic about them. Never said he sucked as a basketball player.
Cal was involved with him and Trevor Mbakwe who were both MN kids when he first took over the job. White was bad news as shared and Mbakwe helped cover for a JC teammate to get Darnell Dodson to Kentucky in a sexual assault cover up. This is known by people up here. If you'd like to not have factual information about someone in a topic, just add that to the thread, and gladly will not post because it bothers some people to hear the truth.
I wouldn't be doubting/questioning a thing Ralph is telling you. I'll leave it at that.
Lol... I thought it was widely known Royce was a horrible person.
Apparently not-but when you can respond with facts about someone when people were interested to create/discuss someone, thought it may contribute and be worthy of discussion. Apparently not. Not sure if someone just likes him because he's pretending to be a Republican or pretending to have certain phobias but that interview he provided was a litany of lies. Nothing wrong with mistakes being made-we all do that. But if you knowingly choose to continue to mislead/lie that's a choice not a mistake.
Who cares about this guy. His presence on UK would not have led to anymore wins and probably would have cost us some.
I’m a bit confused on Dodson. Are you saying he had something shady things go down before getting to UK?
BS. There have been stories about his behavior since he was in high school - WAY before politics came into play.
Yes. There was a cover up for an incident he had at Juco involving a woman to make sure he didn't lose his opportunity at Kentucky.
I’m a conservative and RW is a nutjob. He’s a nut job now and he was a nutjob when he threw away a NBA career
Hey Ralph now that Cal is gone you gotta any good gossip about Cal? Was he as shady in the beginning as rival fans always claimed?
Cal's not much different then rest of the top coaches/programs. He was just very well connected and those who are loyal to him help him a great deal. If you want to believe UK was clean while he was here, that's fine to keep that memory. He never changed, but the opinion of him by media good and bad did due to him being at Kentucky. All that has changed is the things that programs/coaches were doing in the past is now allowed in college athletics.
There's not as much juicy gossip as people want to imagine but there's also a way to get things done. The best story to sum up Cal is a 5 Star Camp one when he was a young and up and coming coach. He was working at 5 Star camp which you'd run stations during the day as well as have a team to coach for games, but the younger coach you were you'd have to make sure you were in charge of making sure the guys were at lunch, bed checks, etc......and Cal was close to home being at the camp and he set up a separate camp during the day to make some $ for him at local school and nobody could find him for a few days during certain period as he was hustling to make more $ at the camp he set up at local school. LOL
So did he do what he was told? No. Was it the worst thing in the world? No. Did it help him? I mean the rumors of him telling Bobby Martin and his family that Rollie Massimino was sick with Cancer to land him at Pitt after he'd committed to Villanova are historic to which everyone involved on Pitt side denies but Nova/Massimino swear that was being told to Martin and his family. You all know of the little Asian student who took Derrick Rose's Standardized Test Scores to get him to Memphis. Cal learned under Larry Brown and Larry Brown never got the job he coveted most (UNC) because of how he conducted himself and Dean Smith wouldn't give his blessing. Especially after he hired Ed Manning to bring Danny with him to Kansas (Mannings were in NC and UNC desperately wanted him as a recruit). So he aligned with that mindset over the normal and basic cheating. He wasn't afraid to get in the muck but he was/is loyal and has people who will do anything to help him as we've seen at UK while he wasn't as successful. He had help getting recruits when needed to just stay afloat.
The dirtiest recruitment that took place during Cal's tenure in UK's favor was Nerlens Noel. Chris Driscoll single handedly made sure that kid ended up a Wildcat and Georgetown was pulling their dirt (during the Thompson era, they'd get 1 guy they would be allowed to recruit like everyone else from administration- a Ewing, Mourning, Iverson, how Victor Page ever got into GTown is still folklore in recruiting) Syracuse had ASM (Andy Miller the Agent) and was doing all they could to land him. Thing was Driscoll who was a former Assistant at Providence under Keno Davis and well connected to BABC/New England area talent was like the fish who attaches to a great white. A friend of mine who is a huge Hoya fan told me every time he'd ask people connected with the recruitment if it was true he was leaning to Georgetown or Syracuse they'd say "Driscoll has that locked up for UK"--even when he was going to announce on TV the rumors were all GTown......he told me "He's going to play for Cal" and that was all tied to Driscoll. What stand out about this is I remember a GTown-Memphis game when Cal was in his last yr at Memphis and Hoya fans were all excited that MKG was taking a visit to watch that game in DC--but he was there to see Memphis and sat by WWW behind Memphis bench back in '09 game that was early season (so actually in '08 of '09 season) so you learned if Cal was involved, that kid was going to wherever he coached.
Now I'm sure there was major dirt done with Wall, AD (WWW ties and Rose Family with Meanstreets) and several others but the more Wes was involved--good luck finding the dirt. What's funny is how Wes is so connected/protected and nobody really talks about anything that he does. One thing I had never known was how connected he was to Jimmy Johnson/Miami and Dallas eras. Apparently Johnson was recruiting someone at Camden and Wes was a student and told him about Greg Mark who ended up being a great DE for the Canes in the '80's and they struck up a friendship which reached the point WWW had sideline passes to Canes games but also Dallas. Someone even mentioned that you can see him celebrate a play in the NFL Films recap of Cowboys beating Bills in Atlanta for last of Jimmy's back to back titles and last game he coached for Dallas. Know WWW was still tied to Canes when Erickson/Coker were coaching too-he was on sidelines at Rose Bowl for their last NC and also their "loss" against Ohio State a year later. By then he'd already struck his relationship with Michael Jordan as well which got him aligned with Nike.
So his dirt is known but details of how/how much/who did it, etc....are folklore more than proven stories like some of the others.
Plenty of other recruiting stories are out there and many know them-so if they are willing to share feel free but Cal era was how you'd have expected it to be. The thing is-many people think that guys who cheat are mean or evil or bad to interact with. That's all that changes. So when a media guy says "He's nothing like I expected" they have this idea that someone who is willing to cheat is some evil person. Thing is they justify it by saying "We are helping people" which technically they are, which is why you get the "Servant Leader" indoctrination with Cal. If we try hard enough we can all justify our sins and mistakes. Know I've done the same and still do it which sickens me when I pray for forgiveness but would be lying if I told you I've not done the same.
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There are "stories" about a lot of players, yet I don't see the same vitriol. Other than his plane flying phobia, I haven't heard much and every time I have seen him being interviewed, he seems like a class act.
Or, and this might sound crazy, most of us know he is and always has been a POS.
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