Report- Tape shows Crudup yelling, cursing

RAYTOWN, Mo. -- The firing of former Missouri basketball star Jevon Crudup from a high school coaching job followed the secret taping of him yelling and cursing at his players, sources told The Kansas City Star.

Crudup, 30, was coaching the sophomore team at Raytown South High School, where he played before going to Missouri. He was first suspended, then fired from the job.

The Star said sources told it that a player's parent made the recording last month, putting it on a compact disc and giving it, with an 11-page transcript, to school and district administrators.

The newspaper said that according to the transcript, Crudup told players they were "going to pay," and one was told he needed "a pacifier and a diaper."

Phil Duncan, a volunteer assistant coach at the school and a friend of Crudup, said it was nothing out of the ordinary for a coach to say.

The Star also said several witnesses reported that Crudup and a player's father had to be restrained from each other by the school principal last week. The player wasn't taken to an away game because he didn't have his shooting shirt, and his father went to the game and confronted Crudup during warmups.

Crudup acknowledged for the first time Thursday that he had been terminated. He had planned to talk about his side of the story, but said an attorney told him to keep quiet.

One player, Stanton Simmons, 15, said Crudup's language was sometimes coarse, but not "anything we hadn't heard before or say ourselves."

"It's not like our practices were rated XXX," he said. "I didn't like him at all at the beginning of the year, but I like him a lot now. Basically, I found out why he was riding me so hard."

Bud Lathrop, the Raytown South varsity coach who has won four state championships in his 41 years at the school, was suspended for a week, ending Friday for what said was use of foul language.

Crudup was a member of his team that won the 1990 state championship and the coach called him a hard worker.

"He's kind of like me," Lathrop said. "Did he make a mistake? Yeah. Is he a good person? Yeah. Is he a good coach? Yeah. Did he say some wrong things? Yeah."

Lathrop also acknowledged this week that he had used a wooden paddle in disciplining players, but said he wouldn't do it again.

"If I'm going to coach, I'm not going to swear and I'm not going to use a board," the coach said.