Two Guys You Need To Know: David and Dana Pump
To understand how coaching searches work, this is a SFN must read. David and Dana Pump were one of the big drivers of getting John Calipari to take a long look at NC state.
29 Responses to “Two Guys You Need To Know: David and Dana Pump”
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Yuuckkk…I feel dirty just reading the article…these guys symbolize to me everything that is wrong with college basketball these days. I’m telling you, this shoe company/AAU coach/”consultant” mess stinks to high heaven…Politics isn’t the only arena of endeavor where “pay to play” is alive and well…
Ditto ’89.
What a couple of slimeballs. They sound like they think they are bigger than the game of basketball itself.
Wish I hadn’t read it…some things I guess the average fan shouldn’t really know about.
I don’t know why I’m communicating through movie quotes now, but:
“Show me the money!” -Tom Cruise in “Jerry Maguire”
They look like really fat and slimy versions of Corch.
I can almost hear two, non-stop, mouths running 24/7 just by looking at that picture. Glorified used car salesmen.
That’s the type of people that who have wormed they way in and now supposedly wield the power in “amateur” athletics these days? What a crock o’ pooh.
It’s a snapshot of people who profit greatly from nothing but continually running their mouths. I’d almost be willing to bet that Lee Fowler considers them family.
I don’t know why all these great players—legends of the game—and Division I coaches would associate with them if they were slimeballs. The article makes them seem that way, but perhaps the article is unfair and intentionally or unintentionally casts them in a bad light.
I was thinking the entire time I was reading this that this kind of exposure could really hurt their business. In this kind of work, public scrutiny is not what they need. If I was a college president or AD I would be less likely to use them to find a coach after reading this. Especially when they bad mouthed the coaching jobs at the two PAC 10 schools just because they didn’t hire them.
First post (89′s) said at all … I’ve seen various articles on the Pumps before – they typify what college athletics has been for some time now: a big money grab.
College sports are big business (basketball / football), and it will stay that way … People like the Pumps will always be around
How do the Pumps relate to ACC teams coaches, recuits, summer camps and/or apparel deals?
I have seen pictures of the Wear twins, UNC commits, wearing “Team Double Pump” gear. That is these slime-ball’s AAU team, correct? Don’t they “run” the southern California AAU scene?
“How do the Pumps relate to ACC teams coaches, recuits, summer camps and/or apparel deals?”
Well, as far as the apparel dealings, I don’t really think the Pumps go well with too much of anything. I only wear them on rare occasions myself.
Pumps are the Enron of the NCAA.
slime + poop = 2 pumps
Reminds me of this article I read about William Wesley, a mysterious NBA power broker who apparently has more juice than anyone:
http://men.style.com/gq/features/landing?id=content_5735
I’m a little surprised the Pumps allowed this writer access for a story. Do you think Ben Howland is thrilled that its public knowledge now that he hung out with these guys during the middle of the NCAAs?
I took two showers after reading this and still feel dirty.
They are one of the reason colleage basketball is headed in the direction it is.MONEY, MONEY, MONEY IS THAT ALL PEOPLE CARE ABOUT???
Its all horsesh&%,people like that can screwup the game I love.
I know what kind of pump they need and I don’t mean a shot glass.
I agree they do seem shady, but I can see richdail’s point in his post. I imagine all these guys in the “sports consulting” biz are a little slimy; it’s part of the job description. They remind me of politicians, and I can only think of a handful of those I would even want to be in the same room with! But schmoozing and double-talk comes with the territory.
I will say I have always considered Robert Montgomery Knight some kind of incorruptible paragon of ethics when it comes to this sort of thing. If he’s on good terms with them, they can’t be all bad …
They sound like name-dropping showoffs. Maybe they’re trying to compensate for something.
There is a story in the N&O today that Duke’s AD Alleva is being considered for the same position at LSU. Recently he was also considered for the head job at Miami. Certainly we provide a better overall position to springboard a competent AD to “bigger” and “better” jobs than a freaking tiny private school. I remember when Fowler was pumping Sendek as the best young coach in the country after his awful years but yet the true indicator, the market, disagreed and showed so by zero interest in luring Sendek away.
What is it about this situation that the NCSU administration is missing?????
“MONEY, MONEY, MONEY IS THAT ALL PEOPLE CARE ABOUT???”
Heh. Um. Yes.
Welcome to earth, by the way.
So if we don’t want our AD handling a coaching search and want to use a search firm, will those guys really be any different than the Pumps? Is the search firm that got us Tom O’Brien significantly different than the Pumps?
When you’re as um…”slick”…as these guys and you’re one vowel away from “pimps,” you have to wonder if they have the self-awareness to realize how disgusting they appear.
I think everyone has had the unfortunate experience of meeting people like this. They are the ones who spend every waking moment of every day looking for the angle in every single situation. I usually have to restrain myself from pushing these people out of windows.
Look at the baseball card story…the cops try to do something nice for kids and all they do is exploit, exploit, exploit. And then they brag about how smart they are.
It’s borderline sociopathic behavior.
My wife is a corporate recruiter. She doesn’t something similar…
Never having been in corporate America (thankfully) I had no clue the business of smoozing people to get other people jobs was such a big market. No clue. Clearly it goes into all areas of the business world. In that respect, this doesn’t surprise me.
Further, with nincompoops like Lee Fowler heading up some of these searches it’s clear to me there is not only a market for this type of service, but without the sleaze maybe even a need.
Is this why Lee and his entourage looked so whipped when they got off Murphy’s plane from dealing with Calipari? Situational ethics at its finest. YUCK!
I started reading but stopped. I disliked what I was reading. I’d rather the university not associate itself with the Pumps. The fact they were pushing Calipari on us is telling.