Two days after the NCAA denied BYU’s appeal and vacated 47 Cougar men’s basketball victories as part of the penalties it imposed from the Nick Emery scandal, the former BYU guard emerged on Twitter late Friday to rip new BYU coach Mark Pope and his staff to a BYU recruit.
In a tweet directed at Wasatch Academy prospect Manny Sissoko, one of the nation’s top boys basketball recruits, Emery tweeted:
“Honest tweet — you would be playing with some of the greatest dudes and have great teammates at BYU ... but playing for those coaches would be an absolute disaster. They are not what they portray and are super sketchy and dishonest! Good luck with the decision bro!”
Emery later deleted the tweet, but it was captured via screenshot.
Screen grab courtesy of Nate Carlisle | Nick Emery's Friday night tweet bashing the Cougar men's basketball staff to a BYU prospect.
A BYU men’s basketball spokesperson said Saturday that Pope would have no response to Emery’s comments.
Many Cougar fans on Twitter replied to Emery with disgust. Then on Saturday morning, Emery posted a new tweet expressing appreciation for BYU.
“Twitter, I was hacked by Antonio Brown last night,” Emery wrote, referring to the NFL wide receiver the Oakland Raiders released earlier Saturday. "Super sorry. Kidding.
“In reality, I just love basketball and I have some things to work out to get to a peaceful place again. I’ll grow up. Thanks for holding me accountable, it’s working. Much love to cougar nation.”
Emery announced his departure from the BYU program in late July, after a junior season in which he averaged 6.1 points per game and saw diminished playing time. His exit came amid rumblings that he and Pope — who replaced the retiring Dave Rose last spring — did not see eye to eye.
Emery returned to the team last December after serving a nine-game suspension for his role in accepting improper benefits from BYU boosters, including the use of a car, cash, vacations and golf outings. In addition to being forced to vacate the 47 wins, the program was put on probation and had recruiting and scholarship restrictions placed on it.
Emery stepped away from the team in October, 2017 for what he described as personal reasons, including a divorce, as the scandal became public. He had averaged 16.1 point per game as a freshman and 13.1 points as a sophomore, but was reduced to a backup role last season.
BYU, which reported Emery’s improper benefits to the NCAA, accepted most of the penalties that were levied, but appealed the decision to vacate the victories — BYU wins that occurred when Emery played as an ineligible athlete. The penalties were announced in November when the NCAA also summarized its findings in the investigation into then-guard Nick Emery’s interactions with boosters.
BYU, in a Thursday news release, called the NCAA’s decision to uphold the vacated victories "truly unprecedented for a case in which the institution had no knowledge of or involvement in the infractions,” BYU said in a news release.
On Twitter, Emery called the NCAA’s decision “absolutely ridiculous.”
“The NCAA is a corrupt organization!" he added.
Jackson Emery, Nick’s older brother and a former BYU guard himself, weighed in on his brother’s Twitter post Saturday morning.
