Kentucky Sports Radio
[Moderated by Matt Jones, Drew Franklin and Tyler Thompson]
[Moderated by Matt Jones, Drew Franklin and Tyler Thompson]
See the guys above? Those guys are the notorious (in AAU circles) Pump Brothers and they are at the center of a brewing scandal at Kansas involving basketball tickets and overall shady practices. The story is best summarized in this great article on Yahoo Sports, but it basically comes down to this. A number of individuals in the Kansas Athletic Department and Basketball Office worked to get tickets for the NCAA Tournament and Big 12 Tournament that were then sold to the Pump Brothers for higher sums of money and scalped (or given away) by the brothers Pump. In exchange, the Pump Brothers AAU programs were potentially helped and the players on those programs (which include the children of Coach Bill Self and Danny Manning) were likely told favorable things about Kansas. The last is just an implication, but one would think that in addition to the money that changed hands for tickets, some advantage for KU basketball would have been expected.
While nothing huge is likely to come from this event (although a number of Kansas staffers have already resigned) it showcases the seedy underbelly of AAU basketball and its effect on college sports. Guys like the brothers Pump (who run teams that are called “Pump & Run”, which was has made me laugh every time I have seen it at any basketball event and is likely the favorite team of Antoine Walker) are everywhere in AAU basketball and their power is great. Media types and Kentucky rivals’ fans all focus on World Wide Wes and what evil things he might be doing, but they have no clue how the real system works. Every school, or at least most every school, has guys like the Pump Brothers, who have relationships with the University in some unofficial capacity and help in the recruiting process. Go to a big AAU tournament and you will see these guys and if you are at a Final Four somewhere, they will be seeping out of every pore in the city. Add these guys to the scalping of tickets (which is a dirty secret that involves officials and assistant coaches at MANY schools) and you have a recipe for a scandal.
The hard reality for Kansas however may be this. When the “We Want to Pump…You Up” Brothers got involved in the ticket scalping business with the Jayhawk staff, they will become the fall guys for a much more systemic problem. Samantha Ryan…care to comment?
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May 26th, 2010 at 11:37 am
Uh-O! The Jayhawks are in trouble!
May 26th, 2010 at 11:38 am
Samantha Ryan commenting on the Pump Brothers=instant YouTube sensation.
May 26th, 2010 at 11:38 am
haeheheeh, Run and “Pump”
May 26th, 2010 at 11:43 am
HANZ and FRANZ PUMP indeed
May 26th, 2010 at 11:44 am
there go those jayhawks trying to be like uk again. get your own scandal
May 26th, 2010 at 11:44 am
1)The Jayhawks are in trouble? Shoot, they were on probation when the won the title two years ago. But no, Cal is the one running rogue in the NCAA. Of course KU being on probation wasn’t mentioned two years ago, was it? Nah, I thought not.
May 26th, 2010 at 11:44 am
read the article last night. Very long, with a ton of details. Something better come of this
May 26th, 2010 at 11:45 am
there go those jayhawks trying to be like uk again. get your own scandal…you know hit somebody in the face with a hairbrush or somethin
May 26th, 2010 at 11:46 am
they look constipated.
May 26th, 2010 at 11:48 am
Are those the twins from “Good Morning Vietnam?”
May 26th, 2010 at 11:48 am
guy holding the ball looks like he just cut a s.b.d.
May 26th, 2010 at 11:52 am
picture taken directly after the question: what’s it like having such a positive impact on young men’s lives
May 26th, 2010 at 11:55 am
8. I like the idea…maybe they can really make it interesting:
Rent a car in, say, Illinois, drive it to Kansas for new years. Pick up the Pumps and a guy named Melvin blaze a few and throw back a 40. After that they can hold somebody up with a hairbrush while the Pumps sell tickets to a certain UofL assistant coach. And if they get caught, they may get tazed…twice, but oh well its ok, Ricky can offer up a few stacks for “healthcare” if you get injured, or maybe someone will refer you to Samantha Ryan’s lawyer
Feel free to add to this amazing night
May 26th, 2010 at 11:57 am
1. I can’t believe two bloated gingers have this much pull in AAU.
2. Pump & Run either sounds like a gas station you’d never want to patronize or the nickname of the skank at your high school
May 26th, 2010 at 11:58 am
Please tell me they have another team called “Wham Bam, thank you ma’am!”…
May 26th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
When looking at that picture, I see the Jersey shore kids as grown ups…..
May 26th, 2010 at 12:07 pm
(14) your first comment had me almost falling out of my chair with laughter
May 26th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
I believe this story just highlights something that has gone out of control with the rise of technology and the internet. I remember when you couldn’t get tix to UK basketball unless you were a student, or related to the governor. Now-a-days, as long as you are willing to pay the price, you can go to stubhub, ebay, or dozens of other websites and get tix to any game you want to see.
May 26th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
couple of mouth breathers!
May 26th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
Its seems as if every team does this. But everyone is just targeting the big schools first. Not suprised, but I am relieved that we’re not the only program being thrown under the bus.
May 26th, 2010 at 12:18 pm
They’d be a cute double date with the bhullers.
May 26th, 2010 at 12:29 pm
If it is found that some members of the athletic staff were involved with illegally selling tickets and profitting personally from this, wouldn’t the NCAA be very interested is this story?? Of all the other silly things the NCAA stand against, it would seem like there would be major sanctions and penalties coming for that kind of behavior. So you can’t give a student/athlete a free trip home to visit a sick and dieing family member, but you can illegally sell tickets and profit from it. If that’s how it is, then there’s something wrong with that. I think the NCAA should stop spending most of its resources investigating which coach gave what recruit a free pair of shoes, and more resources on where all of these online sites are getting all of these tickets they are selling.
May 26th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
Does anyone else have a problem that, as of 12:30 p.m., ESPN has NOTHING posted on their site about this? I read the story on yahoo this morning and now on here – and yet NOTHING on ESPN (except for Andy Katz and Dana O’Neill do a brief mention on their twitter). If this was UK – it would be plastered all over the front page of the main and college basketball pages!
May 26th, 2010 at 12:47 pm
Is this Marc Maggard’s sponsor?
May 26th, 2010 at 12:50 pm
They even look like sleazeballs.
May 26th, 2010 at 12:52 pm
What? No ESPN Headlines,,,,not even on the ticker??? There must be a mistake. No Bob Knight, no Pat Forde commentary? How can this be?
May 26th, 2010 at 1:35 pm
25- same thing i thought, and to add, those two wouldnt get laid in free whorehouse.
May 26th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
Porcini = UofL’s “pump and run”
May 26th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
Speaking of tickets, I am trying to sell two UK Football season tickets. Good seats, Section 205, on about the 30 yard line, and in the “middle” deck under the overhang of the upper deck to keep you out of the weather. Post contact information here if interested or email to ukfootballtickets@hotmail.com
May 26th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Those guys are definitely “2 Pump Chumps”
May 26th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
This isnt a KU scandal, shoddy reporting to say the least. Kansas was basically robbed by its employees who took tix, resold them and kept the money.Read the report, the accused previously employed at OU and continued at KU with what they did to Oklahoma…robbed em blind.
http://media.lawrence.com/news/documents/2010/05/26/tickets_investigation_final_report.pdf