Frank Ben-Eze, prominently mentioned in last week’s New York Times as the 6’10” basketball player Harvard had recruited despite the fact that he apparently fell below minimum academic standards, has announced that he has “reopened his recruitment.”

The announcement was actually made by Rob Jackson, a former coach of Ben-Eze’s; the player himself declined to comment.

Last week, I predicted that Ben-Eze, whom coach Tommy Amaker seemed to think would be accepted, would be hung out to dry in the wake of the bad publicity, and this may very well be what happened—that a player who was likely to get admitted was sacrificed in the wake of bad press.

Very bad press.

Consider, for example, famed basketball writer John Feinstein writing in the Washington Post:

…what has happened at Indiana this winter doesn’t even come close to being the saddest story in college basketball this season. That dubious honor belongs to Harvard.

Feinstein mentions Amaker’s recruitment of “six players whose basketball pedigree is far higher than that of past Harvard players,” then adds…..

The real culprit in this story, though, is the athletic director— just like at Indiana. Bob Scalise has a lot in common with [Rick] Greenspan: He’s arrogant and self-righteous and not nearly as smart as he thinks he is.

Feinstein is not gentle on Scalise—or Harvard.

Now, having been outed by the Times, Harvard is trying to back-pedal….

A Harvard flak named Alan J. Stone told Thamel: “We can say that any statement about someone being admitted to Harvard who is not qualified would be absolutely inaccurate, as is any suggestion that standards have been lowered for basketball. Harvard’s admissions criteria are — and remain — very high. They have not changed at all.”

Stone’s last sentence must be a lie—unless Scalise was lying when he told [Times reporter Pete] Thamel that Harvard was willing to lower academic standards for Amaker.

….Amaker didn’t speak to Thamel. He hid behind a statement, which is embarrassing.

Downright Harwellian, you might say.

To be fair, it’s possible that, regarding the specific case of Frank Ben-Eze, Amaker was treating Ben-Eze’s admission as if it was definite when it wasn’t, or that Ben-Eze just decided to go somewhere else where basketball was more valued.

It’s also possible that Hillary Clinton will run a clean, positive campaign for the next six weeks, and that the people of New York will decide that we don’t care how much he spent on prostitutes, Eliot’s our man!

For Harvard, the departure of Ben-Eze from the class could help raise its Academic Index, a complicated formula that establishes minimum standards for athletes to be admitted to Ivy League programs. Ben-Eze, a native of Nigeria who played for Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington, Va., has not attained the 171 index minimum.

No one at Harvard comments, though it’s not clear whether reporter Pete Thamel asked anyone at Harvard to do so (which is a little odd, frankly).

I’ll let Feinstein wrap it up:

But let’s tell the truth here. Harvard fired a good man [former coach Frank Sullivan] without just cause. The school is trying to claim it is still “Harvard,” when clearly it is not. It is rolling in the mud with everyone else in college athletics. And right now, it is not a pretty sight.

Well, let me actually pose a question here: Where is Drew Faust in the midst of all this mess? Still on her book tour?

Harvard has taken a big hit in this matter, and she has been as quiet as a country mouse. I guess her handlers have convinced her—did it take much?—that it’s more important to stay out of this mess, preserve her pristine reputation, than try to explain just how Harvard went so wrong here.

But as one ethical scandal after another hits Harvard, Faust will eventually have to say something. Right?