“Loaner car” charade at OSU; Parking “issues” extend to UNC basketball? UNC athletes keep on Tweeting(updated)

I thought Yahoo’s Dan Wentzel wrote an excellent column today on the shenanigans at Ohio State:

Link to full article.

Just as things were quieting down, the Dispatch reported on Jan. 2 that Pryor had been pulled over by police three times in the last three years driving “loaner” cars from a local used car dealer, Auto Direct. Pryor told the paper he only borrowed the cars when his own car (currently a Dodge Charger) was in the shop with repairs.

Ohio State said it was aware of two of the incidents and would look into the third. If we’re led to believe the borrowing of cars were again isolated incidents, then Pryor has some bad luck with local cops. He seemingly gets pulled over every time he receives a nice loaner. Either that or he drives them all the time, of course.

The car dealer did tell the newspaper that he also allowed Pryor, in 2008, to drive a Dodge SUV back to Pryor’s home in Pennsylvania. “I wanted advice from some of my family and friends I trusted to see if it would be a good vehicle for me to maybe buy,” Pryor said.

Unsupervised, out-of-state test drivers of used cars are common practice, correct?

Oops.

Pryor didn’t buy the car, of course. Ohio State, quite naturally, declared everything on the up and up. How? Well, they just did. This wasn’t a violation of NCAA rules.

The issue of student-athletes receiving tickets has been brought up in the current scandal in Chapel Hill as there is currently a law suit brought by different media organizations to force UNC to release parking ticket information on several UNC football players. The reason the tickets are an important piece of the puzzle is that the makes, models, license plates, etc…would all be on those tickets which would then allow those in the media to determine if the vehicles were in fact being driven in compliance with NCAA rules (At least that is how I see it.) UNC has already said they investigated the parking issues and found no violations. Nothing to see here. Move Along. You know…the Carolina Way?

Interestingly enough, parking ticket issues may not be limited to only football players. This picture was posted recently on Twitter by Dexter Strickland:

That appears to be UNC basketball player John Henson with what looks like a parking ticket/official document in hand at the front of a a minivan/SUV/truck looking vehicle with a boot on the front left tire.

Can anyone figure out the make of that car from the picture? Alert Statefansnation poster Alex_01 has already come up with a great guess to the make and model of this car. He determined this as a 2009 or 2010 Infinity QX56 and not an Armada made by Nissan based on:

7 spoke chrome wheels, different headlight assembly, and the running board shape.

Look at the 2010 Infinity QX56 pictured below — it sure looks like the same model as the one the UNC basketball player is posing beside with what looks like a parking ticket in his hand. (But with different spokes?)

Here is another with the correct spoke situation:

If you go here, you can get a more in-depth look at this make and model.  There you will see that the MSRP of this vehicle is $56,700-$59,800.  Maybe this was a more affordable option like:

Per edmunds:
2009 QX56
Used TMV from $37,815

2010 QX56
Used TMV from $45,480

2010 New QX56
MSRP from $56,050

I don’t know about you, but the car I drove as an undergraduate was worth far less than that.  These UNC-CH athletes sure do seem to have very high standards of living.  Good for them.

However, one would have to wonder how Roy Williams would feel about one of his players posting this picture considering all of the issues on Twitter for UNC over the last 9 months. If you want a refresher on social networking websites and UNC, then go here and read about how the “experts” in Chapel Hill were hosting a symposium on social networking websites vs. institutional control while the NCAA was breathing down their neck:

A symposium in April of 2010 on the exact problem that eventually led to Agentgate and Nannygate? The trips and tweets that led to the NCAA investigation occurred in March, April, and May of 2010, yet right in the middle of these shenanigans UNC’s Associate Athletic Director Steve Kirschner is hosting a panel discussion on the exact topic that was about to start this mess? You can’t be serious? Instead of participating on this panel, Kirschner should have been hunkered down in his office scouring Twitter to fend off the NCAA.

Regardless, I sure do appreciate the stupidity of Dexter Strickland giving us some new material to start the year. Thanks Dexter!!!

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9:51 am update

Thanks to Packman97 for doing some additional research on this story:

I tried to folowup on the post on the home page but I think I put in too many links and my message got blocked as spam and I tried a few times, so I think my account got blocked or something…

John’s parents can legitimately afford this type of ride. I think trying to bark up the tree of is John Henson’s ride legit is a dead end.

John Henson’s Dad played at Norfolk State
http://tarheelblue.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/henson_john00.html

Norfolk State’s listing of prominent alumni, listing Matt Henson.
http://alumni.nsu.edu/?page=ProminentAlumni

Article mentioning Henson’s parents moving to Round Rock (as listed in NSU’s alumni page)
http://www.tampabay.com/sports/basketball/preps/article988187.ece

Link to his employer, OSI (owners of
http://www.osirestaurantpartners.com/insidethecompany.asp
Today, our portfolio of brands consists of Outback Steakhouse units throughout the U.S., as well as Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill, Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar and Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine. We are now one of the largest casual dining restaurant companies in the world. We operate in all 50 states and our Outback Steakhouse restaurants are also open in 21 countries around the world.

So Henson actually owning/driving this vehicle seems perfectly legitimate. Like we said, this was most likely no big deal. We still wonder how Roy Williams feels about Dexter posting this picture considering he has attempted to control his players participation on social networking sites. Additionally, we wonder why can’t someone who obviously has the means to pay measly fines like parking tickets can’t also be responsible enough to actually do so and avoid getting a fine vehicle like the one in the picture booted?