Monday, 8/11/97 Davis, Cotton under NCAA investigation
INVESTIGATION: Cars believed to be possible incentive for signing
with UCLA
By Traci Mack Daily Bruin Senior Staff Two Bruin basketball
recruits are under investigation by the NCAA, the Los Angeles Times
reported on Thursday. The subject of the investigation is believed
to be the students’ cars. It seems that the two incoming freshmen
both obtained their new cars from the same dealership, Ford of
Orange. NCAA officials are looking into whether the cars were
actually purchased by the families of the recruits or perhaps were
bought by a third party to influence the players’ decision to
attend UCLA. The identities of the players were not released by
UCLA sports-information officials, but the Times reported that
sources name the two as newly acquired recruits Baron Davis and
Schea Cotton. The late additions of Cotton and Davis to the Bruins’
1997 recruiting class turned what might have been a merely good
class into a phenomenal one. Both recruits are held in high regard
by the nation’s basketball experts, and both were widely sought
after by Division I schools. Davis, a point guard from Crossroads
High School in Santa Monica, had been the subject of earlier
controversy when a car formerly owned by ex-UCLA men’s basketball
coach Jim Harrick was sold to his sister, Lisa Hodoh. That
investigation prompted Davis, who had already verbally committed to
UCLA, to consider other schools, and was also a harbinger of
Harrick’s firing not long after. Davis’ car is a Ford Eddie Bauer
sport-utility vehicle. When the Times questioned Hodoh about the
origin of the automobile, she responded, "Baron doesn’t have a car.
It is my car." Cotton has been driving a 1997 Ford Explorer, a
truck which his parents emphatically say they bought for him.
Schea’s mother, Gaynell Cotton, told the Times that the NCAA had
asked her to prove that the vehicle was a gift from her and her
husband, and that they were cooperating with investigators’
inquiries. Officials have requested that the Cottons turn over
records showing whose name is on the car’s lease. The Times reports
that there seems to be some suspicion that Pat Bennett, a former
coach of both Davis and Cotton, helped them obtain their cars.
Previous Daily Bruin Stories: UCLA lands the Baron , 4/29/97