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Did you know Bobby Knight created a fake basketball recruit to expose "recruiting experts"?

quickfeet

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From wiki-
In January 1993, Knight mentioned the recruiting of Ivan Renko, a fictitious Yugoslavian player he had created. Knight created Renko in an attempt to expose disreputable basketball recruiting experts. Even though Renko was completely fictitious, several recruiting services started listing him as a prospect with in-depth descriptions of his potential and game style. Some of the more reputable recruiting gurus claimed to have never heard of Renko, whereas some other "experts" even claimed to possess or to see film of him actually playing basketball.[76]

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A lot of people have forgotten Ivan Renko, one of the great Eurasian prospects that did not make it in college basketball or the pros.

In 1993, Ivan Renko was considered a serious prospect for both college and pro ball.

Bob Knight reputedly created Ivan Renko out of his imagination to expose recruiting experts for being something less than their informal titles suggest.

Knight’s wiki page indicated Knight told the media about a new player he was recruiting named Ivan Renko.

Note: Ivan Renko was not supposed to be a relative of one time KU quarterback and basketball backup Steve Renko.

Ivan Renko wash reputely subsequently listed on several recruiting lists of several recruiting experts as a noteworthy prospect…despite not existing.

Ivan Renko did not go onto D1 success.

Renko was also never drafted.

Renko’s potential went completely untapped.

Ivan Renko did not go back to European Ball.

He never married.

He never had children.

Renko never became a big man coach in Euro Ball.

He never returned to Europe at all.

He never returned anywhere.

Ivan Renko remains in the basketball ethers of what never was.

And the greatest irony of all is that we cannot even be absolutely sure that Bob Knight ever even actually made up the fiction about him, since wikipedia is hardly definitive, is it?
 

Hoosier in Mad Town

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Bob Knight was a genius. His disdain for reporters who attempted to display some sort of knowledge/expertise re: the game of basketball, when most of them never played, was a leading indicator of the difference between the academic and working class. The fact he was playing out this battle in "academia" was hilarious in and of itself.

I can't help but see similarities between Knight and Mike Leach. The styles were different, but the ultimate objective was not.
 

GatorOK

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Watch this stuff everyday in baseball. Recruiting services have become tens of million dollar businesses.
 

shiv

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This recruiting analyst in the 90s (I think) created a fictional recruit to see who was just stealing his content. He called him Montego Powers with ideal size, speed, etc.

All of sudden Montego gets pub everywhere and college coaches even start trying to visit Montego.
We created a guy on Alabama high school Internet forums back when I was in high school. His name was Vladimir P Adkins and he was a monster that trained by pushing blocks of ice up the hill
 

ttyh

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We had Gotch Yarbrough in Texas recruiting circles. He was a can't miss 5 star edge rusher from Canada who was made up to expose David Garvin, a recruiting analyst at the time. Someone made up the story on an old austin360 Texas bulletin board and Garvin ran with it on his (900) call in service line.

If you separate out his name, it comes out to Gotcha Brough. Trying to find a link to the story.

Scroll down on this link about halfway and the story is there. Poor David Garvin never survived and disappeared from the recruiting landscape.

https://collegefootballcrazy.com/page/77/
 

quickfeet

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We had Gotch Yarbrough in Texas recruiting circles. He was a can't miss 5 star edge rusher from Canada who was made up to expose David Garvin, a recruiting analyst at the time. Someone made up the story on an old austin360 Texas bulletin board and Garvin ran with it on his (900) call in service line.

If you separate out his name, it comes out to Gotcha Brough. Trying to find a link to the story.

Scroll down on this link about halfway and the story is there. Poor David Garvin never survived and disappeared from the recruiting landscape.

https://collegefootballcrazy.com/page/77/
He probably manages a Dairy Queen in the middle of no where now
 
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