The Floyd Street Tribune: Reading between the lines on the Milt Wagner hiring

Inside: Sifting through the intricacies of the Milt Wagner hiring and its impact on DJ Wagner. Plus, remember Courtney Ramey? Some buzz on Emoni Bates?

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One medium thought: The many factors in the Milt Wagner/DJ Wagner saga

Well … all of us were wrong. We were all mistakenly under the impression — for weeks bleeding into months — that in order for Louisville coach Kenny Payne to hire Milt Wagner to his staff and still recruit and sign DJ Wagner, Milt’s grandson and the top prospect in the 2023 class, NCAA rules dictated that Milt had to be an on-the-floor assistant coach. But the rules actually allow for some wiggle room in special circumstances.

When Louisville announced the hiring of Milt Wagner to Payne’s staff as the director of player development and alumni relations, an athletics department position, the assumption was that the school had already resolved that the NCAA would be OK with it — that Payne and his staff could still recruit DJ after hiring his grandfather. U of L didn’t resolve anything with the NCAA, though The Courier-Journal previously has reported there were “preliminary conversations” on the subject. Instead, U of L has stocked up on its research. And with the wiggle room allowed in this circumstance — wiggle room I’ll explain in a second — U of L felt confident enough in its hand that it pushed its chips to the middle of the table.