BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Two years ago, Eric Bledsoe was a star point guard without the grades to meet the N.C.A.A.’s minimum standards and needing to find a new high school. He solved both problems by moving to A. H. Parker High School and now, after one season at the University of Kentucky, he is awaiting a lucrative payday in next month’s N.B.A. draft.
The changes in Bledsoe’s academic and athletic prospects have attracted the attention of the N.C.A.A., which has sent investigators to at least three places in Alabama to ask about him. The N.C.A.A. does not talk about its investigations, and the scope of this one is unknown.
But Bledsoe’s academic makeover and the extra benefits he apparently received could be another blow to Kentucky Coach John Calipari, who led teams at Massachusetts and Memphis that had their records and Final Four appearances expunged after rules violations were found under his watch.
Interviews with those connected with Bledsoe’s life in Birmingham revealed potential violations.
¶Brenda Axle, the landlord for the house where Bledsoe and his mother moved for his senior year of high school, said that Bledsoe’s high school coach paid her at least three months’ rent, or $1,200. By moving there, Bledsoe was eligible to play for Parker, which he led to the Alabama Class 5A title game. Maurice Ford, the coach, denied paying the money.
¶A copy of Bledsoe’s high school transcript from his first three years reveals that it would have taken an improbable academic makeover — a jump from about a 1.9 grade point average in core courses to just under a 2.5 during his senior year — for Bledsoe to achieve minimum N.C.A.A. standards to qualify for a scholarship.
¶A college coach who recruited Bledsoe said that Ford explicitly told his coaching staff that he needed a specific amount of money to let Bledsoe sign with that university. The coach, who did not want to be named out of fear of repercussions when recruiting in Birmingham, said Ford told him and his staff that he was asking for money because he was helping pay rent for Bledsoe and his mother. Ford denied this, saying, “I don’t prostitute my kids.”
He said he had done nothing wrong, adding: “I’m a poor black man. And when one black man tries to help another black man, there’s always something wrong.”
Calipari did not return a telephone call and text message seeking comment. A Kentucky spokesman said he was tending to his ill mother.
That Bledsoe — a 6-foot-1, 190-pound point guard — is on the verge of living out his N.B.A. dream would have been hard to envision in the spring of 2008. Bledsoe had lived an itinerant life for much of his high school years, often staying with friends or relatives, while his mother held jobs such as working at an adult book store and doing custodial work at a hospital.
By the end of his junior year, Bledsoe had attracted a solid list of college suitors, but the question of where he would play his senior year lingered.
Most of Bledsoe’s teammates at Carol W. Hayes High School, which was closing at the end of the school year, were transferring to Woodlawn, another local public school. But Steve Ward, his former coach at Hayes, had concerns about Bledsoe’s shaky grades and directed him to a local private school, Central Park Christian, where Ward thought Bledsoe would receive the academic attention he needed.
Bledsoe met with Levan Parker, Central Park Christian’s headmaster and former basketball coach; showed him a transcript; and picked up an application. The next day, though, Bledsoe’s mother, Maureen Reddick, called Central Park and said her son was going to attend school in California. Not long after, he enrolled at Parker.
Initially, the Alabama High School Athletic Association ruled that Bledsoe was ineligible to play at Parker, based on its transfer rule, but in November 2008 it cleared him to play, said Steve Savarese, the executive director of the A.H.S.A.A.
The A.H.S.A.A., the Birmingham City Schools Athletic Department and Ward were asked about Bledsoe by the N.C.A.A. assistant directors of enforcement Kristen Matha and Abigail Grantstein. They asked about everything from Bledsoe’s grades to his car to the circumstances surrounding his transfer, according to those who were interviewed by the enforcement officers.
“Definitely it was suspicious,” Ward said of the transfer. “He was in Woodlawn’s zone when Hayes shut down. His mom is bouncing around because she doesn’t have a steady job, so he moves to Parker’s zone. Of course I think it was a little suspicious.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/29/sports/ncaabasketball/29recruit.html?ref=sports
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