A Criminal, and a Bad Teammate. Yeah, Let's Sign Him!

Rick Majerus, coach of St. Louis University, is one of several coaches recruiting Anthony DiLoreto. As Gary Parrish of CBSSports.com reports,

"Saint Louis has offered," DiLoreto told me after he helped a summer basketball team called Net Gain Sports to a win in the Adidas Super 64 tournament this weekend. "There's some Big Ten, some West Coast Conference schools [also showing interest]."

On one hand, that's not a huge surprise... DiLoreto is a seven-foot center, and those are in short supply. And while he's not the most highly-regarded prospect in his class -- he initially signed with Cal Poly -- it's not that rare for a player's stock to improve in a year. Here's the tricky part: DiLoreto is facing felony charges stemming from his involvement in a bank robbery.

Really. A bank robbery.

(Note to Rick Majerus: you work for a Catholic college now. It might be time to brush up on the Ten Commandments.)

As the story goes, one of DiLoreto's friends entered a bank intending to do his best Willie Sutton impression, while DiLoreto waited in the car -- the getaway driver. Unfortunately for his friend, DiLoreto got cold feet when he heard police sirens and took off. The friend was arrested and, unsurprisingly, gave up DiLoreto, who was arrested a little while later.

As Parrish rightly points out -- criminality aside, the premature departure doesn't really speak well of his qualities as a teammate, does it?

The most surprising aspect of the story is that DiLoreto's standing as a prospect has apparently improved since last summer's arrest. He was supposed to have enrolled at Cal Poly last fall; instead, he continued working on his game -- and with his lawyers, on a plea deal. Now, he apparently has an offer from St. Louis -- not a basketball power, but an A-10 school and significant step up from Cal Poly -- and seems to be drawing interest from major conferences.

A hearing is scheduled for August 7th, at which point DiLoreto's immediate future could become clearer.

Personally, I have no objection to DiLoreto getting a scholarship to play basketball somewhere... after he serves his time. Offering him a scholarship while multiple felony charges are pending? Doesn't sit right with me... just reinforces the notion that college coaches will overlook anything, so long as a kid is seven-foot tall, or has an outstanding crossover dribble.