Last week, Big Blue Nation got whipped up into a frenzy when Pete Thamel of SI.com reported on the latest in the NCAA’s investigation into Nerlens Noel.
On Monday, it was Kevin McNamara of the Providence Journal who provided another glimpse into the background checks being done on Kentucky’s latest star center.
According to McNamara, the NCAA was looking into the relationship between a 21 year old named Ryan Sweeney. Sweeney is a high school graduate and a student at Florida Atlantic that still lives with his parents, but he happens to be friends with a number of the best players to come out of the New England area in recent years, including Noel.
From McNamara:Two weeks ago, representatives from the NCAA and the University of Kentucky visited Sweeney’s home to discuss his relationship with Noel, a 6-foot-10 center who enrolled last week as a freshman at UK. The officials met with Ryan Sweeney for nearly an hour, according to his father, Providence attorney Michael Sweeney. He would not comment when asked what was discussed but SI.com, the website for Sports Illustrated, reported earlier this last week that the NCAA also stopped at the Tilton (N.H.) School to further investigate potential eligibility issues regarding Noel.
“Nerlens has been at our house many times. He is Ryan’s friend,” said Michael Sweeney. “I’m not sure why the NCAA wanted to speak with Ryan but we cooperated, and I got the sense that everything was fine when the meeting was over.”
Asked if he’s ever provided money to Noel, Sweeney said: “Nerlens came to Florida with us once on vacation and he visited Ryan once at college (Florida Atlantic University) and we paid for his ticket. I will say we are not boosters of Kentucky.”
It doesn’t sound like there’s all that much there to implicate Noel.
But what about Ledo? The NCAA is currently looking into him as well, although his issues appear to be more of the academic variety than the amateur variety. Ryan has had a longstanding friendship with Ledo, who will play for Providence whenever he is cleared.
And while Michael Sweeney isn’t a booster for Kentucky, he is a booster for Providence. The NCAA has a rule in place that allows for “pre-existing relationships”, focusing on whether there was a change in “benefits” once the kid became a star athlete.
That will be the more intriguing storyline to follow over the coming weeks.
Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @robdauster.