This is about a tempest in a teapot, a condition found frequently in the silly bureaucracy of the NCAA.
Just before the start of this college basketball season, UCLA received a letter of inquiry from the NCAA, seeking information about possible illegal contact between a recruit and a person representing the interests of the university.
The recruit was Kevin Love, now the Bruins' star freshman center.
The person representing the interests of the university was John Wooden.
The NCAA has not disclosed who made the complaint.
Love and his family visited Wooden during his recruiting trip. They had a nice chat, Wooden teased the Loves' young daughter, Emily, for being so quiet, and a nice time was had by all.
Recently, Stan Love, Kevin's father, said that Kevin was so impressed when he had a chance to talk to Wooden that he considers him "the smartest man I've ever met."
That puts Kevin in a group of several million of us who know Wooden, have met him or had a chance to hear him speak.
The Kevin Love-Wooden connection got a little play in some publications, including this one, and that apparently prompted either a fan or an official of another school to send some sort of complaint to the NCAA.
Here's where it really gets fun. The NCAA, apparently shrugging off common sense and going with protocol, procedures and robot-ism, actually wrote a letter of inquiry to UCLA, requiring the school to investigate.
Conjure up images here of an empty room, a single table and three chairs, one good cop and one bad cop, each dressed in a blue suit and comfortable shoes, hovering over an aging man as he squints into a hot overhead spotlight.
"Awright, buddy," says Bad Cop, "we know you promised the kid weekly poem readings. Fess up."
Followed by Good Cop, turning down the spotlight and saying, "John, John. Ignore him. We know how these things happen. It's so easy to have those poem readings turn into promises to get him into that special psychology class. We know you can't help yourself."
UCLA's investigation, under the guidance of compliance director Rich Herczog, clearly didn't need to be that severe. Matter of fact, it was easy. Wooden, as a paid consultant to the school, is permitted to meet with recruits.
But let's say he had no official status with UCLA, other than being its greatest living example of humanity. Then the NCAA could have agreed that he was a person illegally representing the interests of the school in the recruitment of Love and actually penalize the Bruins.
