By PETE THAMEL,
NY TimesCHICAGO — In late March, after the University of Tennessee fired Coach Bruce Pearl, a talented high school guard from the Atlanta area named Kevin Ware decided to rescind his commitment to the Volunteers. Considered one of the nation’s top 100 high school players, Ware drew interest from high-profile suitors like Georgia, Louisville and U.C.L.A.
Ware ended up picking the University of Central Florida, which has never won an N.C.A.A. tournament game and plays in a second-tier league, Conference USA.
Central Florida, it turns out, had an ally in its recruitment of Ware: Kenneth Caldwell, a Chicago man with a substantial criminal record and apparent ties to a prominent sports agency. Ware said Caldwell called him repeatedly to talk up Central Florida, traveled to Atlanta to meet with his family and even arranged joint phone conversations with the university’s basketball coach, Donnie Jones, and his staff — contact prohibited by the N.C.A.A.
“He was pushing for U.C.F.,” Ware said of Caldwell in a telephone interview Thursday.
Informed of Caldwell’s background, Ware on Thursday said he would not attend Central Florida.
Ware is one of three highly regarded recruits who had some dealings with Caldwell and who then decided in recent months to commit to Central Florida, a degree of recruiting success that baffled many people involved in college sports.
Caldwell, interviewed at length this week, said he did not regard himself as formally recruiting for Central Florida, and he denied being affiliated with any sports agent. He said he had merely become impressed by Central Florida and was doing nothing more than promoting its advantages.
“If telling someone about a place is a crime,” Caldwell said, “lock me up.”
Central Florida officials have largely been silent on Caldwell and the potential N.C.A.A. violations, declining to address specific questions on Caldwell’s connection to university officials and his role in recruiting. Jones and Central Florida’s athletic director, Keith Tribble, both of whom have listed Caldwell as a person they follow on Twitter, declined multiple calls and text messages seeking comment.
“N.C.A.A. rules identify permissible recruiters,” Joe Hornstein, Central Florida’s associate director for athletics, said in a statement. “If there is information that indicates that other individuals are involved in recruiting activities, we will take corrective action.”
Ware and his family said coaches at Central Florida acknowledged to them during the recruitment process that they had known Caldwell for about a year. But the coaches told the family they had no direct affiliation with Caldwell.
Ware and his family, then, are still wondering exactly what Caldwell does, whom he works for and how he came to be involved in selling the virtues of Central Florida.
Caldwell, based on interviews and a review of records, inhabits a murky but expanding corner of the college recruiting world. It is a place teeming with talented young athletes, agents eager to ingratiate themselves with those athletes, and a variety of characters, some known as runners, who often act as middlemen, moving between agents, universities and athletes.
Caldwell, based on interviews and a review of records, appears to fit the profile of a runner. He denies being a runner, but said if he were he would be “the best in the country, and you could not stop me.”
Caldwell’s LinkedIn page, which he admitted creating, says he is a recruiter of potential N.B.A. players for ASM Sports, a prominent agency based in New Jersey and run by Andy Miller, an agent with a history of questionable practices in procuring clients.
Darryl Woods, who is listed on ASM’s Web site as an associate with the agency, said of Caldwell in a phone interview on Wednesday, “He works for us.”
Oliver Purnell, the basketball coach at DePaul, said Caldwell introduced himself to him as someone who “worked with Andy Miller” and talked with him extensively about at least two of Miller’s clients.
Miller, for his part, insisted that Caldwell has no relationship with him or his agency, and that Woods was unauthorized to speak for ASM Sports.
“In this business, there’s a lot of people who claim an association,” Miller said of Caldwell.
Ware’s mother, Lisa Mack, when told of Caldwell’s background and affiliations, was angry at the entire recruitment process, and in particular the coaches at Central Florida.
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