On Tuesday, Baylor issued a press release stating that assistant coach Jennifer Roberts had been named one of the top ten recruiting assistants in the country.

Roberts, in her sixth season at Baylor, was selected as a result of a poll conducted by www.womenshoopscoop.net, one of the foremost magazines/websites devoted to women's college basketball.

Yesterday, the Waco Trib picked up the same story. It cited information about the poll that was posted on the website: "The online poll included more than 2,000 votes from college, high school and junior college coaches and administrators, AAU coaches and parents."

But the poll looked a little fishy.

It was apparently limited to "up and coming" programs, thus excluding the likes of UConn and Tennessee. But how do Baylor, Maryland, and New Mexico qualify as "up and coming"?

Who is Jody Hensen, and how did she make the list at # 7?

Turns out: Hensen was until recently the head coach at D-II Anchorage. After three years marked by numerous player departures and a losing record, Hensen resigned last week. Is it really plausible that she's one of the ten best recruiters in women's basketball?

These questions led to bigger questions. Womenshoopscoop.net didn't exist until very recently, and there was nothing on its site dated before April 10. (There used to be a site called Womenshoopscoop.com, but that disappeared a couple years ago.)

If the site just started a few days ago, how did it get over 2,000 responses to its poll? Was there really ever such a poll conducted, or did the webmaster just make it up?

And who is the webmaster? An email to me signed by "Henrietta Hoops" said: "We the 3 of are former major college coaches with over 35 years of combined experience." On rebkell, the webmaster posted under the name "buddyjack" and claimed to have been "a Recruiting Coordinator in the SEC/ACC and Big East."

(In an earlier thread, buddyjack asked if anyone knew where Jody Hensen ended up, and praised her as "outstanding.")

None of it made much sense. I emailed Baylor and the Waco Trib to ask them if they had checked into the poll before running with it. Neither responded.

And then Stever the Great uncovered the truth. Apparently the site is registered to a Kyle Lingerfelt of Anchorage. Kyle Lingerfelt is apparently no stranger to Coach Hensen: this article from the Anchorage Daily News in 2003 said that Lingerfelt was coach Hensen's fiance.

(Unclear if this Kyle Lingerfelt, former football recruiting coordinator, is the same guy.)

Now Kyle/Henrietta/buddyjack says that I'm just trying to tear down the legitimacy of his site.

No, friend, you've taken care of that all by yourself.

UPDATE: See above.

Also, the "Best Recruiting Assistants" poll, and all of the information about the poll, has been taken off the Women's Hoop Scoop site.

ANOTHER UPDATE: K-State taken too.

ANOTHER UPDATE: the site has been taken down altogether.