I'm sure you remember Eric Prisbell, the Washington Post reporter who wrote the three part series on Gary Williams' supposed decline, and followed that up two weeks later with an "exposé" of Lance Stephenson's Under Armor factory visit. You probably know that he received massive negative feedback for it, and was able to call off the dogs for awhile with a statement about a piece over the summer on the state of AAU. This is from his blog post directly after the Lance story hit:
As I have said before, I plan to do extensive coverage of AAU-related issues this spring and summer (as soon as the Final Four is over). There is nothing more I would like to do than examine the recruiting practices and AAU-shoe company ties at several other top college programs in the country.
Now, I'm not out to get Prisbell, but correct me if this is anything other than bold-faced lying. It's been four months since the Final Four ended. Prisbell, meanwhile, hasn't done anything for the Washington Post since May. That, of course, means there has been no AAU piece, and certainly not "extensive coverage".
He definitely had the ammo, too. The Josh Selby issue by itself is worth an article. There was the Lance Stephenson issue, which extended ridiculously late and may or may not've had anything to do with shoes, and the Renardo Sidney issue, which blew up lately. The Wall Street Journal even had a piece on how bad AAU is.
Who knows, something could be on its way, and if it is, consider this post moot. Like I mentioned earlier, I'm not out to get Prisbell. That said, I think it's fair to say that he should live up to his promises, especially when they came in light of a major controversy. Maryland fans everywhere soured on the Post after those articles came out, and this does nothing to help the (perhaps perceived, perhaps real) anti-Maryland sentiment at the company.
I just thought this should be brought back across the readers' minds for when Prisbell becomes active again.
[Note by bbroman, 08/08/09 10:15 PM EDT]: Looks like a piece is still in the works, from emails in the comments from a week or two ago. If so, kudos to Prisbell to living up to it, and consider this entire post moot, though I am expecting something pretty good considering the amount of time taken.
[Note by bbroman, 08/09/09 10:48 AM EDT ] Yep, they're apparently on their way. Serve up the crow.