Former Rick Stansbury recruit admits family received money while at Mississippi State

One of Western Kentucky Coach Rick Stansbury’s top recruits while he was a Mississippi State admitted his family received money while he was with the Bulldogs in a podcast interview released Thursday.

“I was getting money,” Sidney told Jeff Goodman on his Good N’ Plenty podcast. “I don’t know how much. They weren’t giving it to me. They were giving it to my mom.”

Renardo Sidney was one of the top prospects in the class of 2009, but his career at Mississippi State was marred by eligibility questions that cost him his entire freshman year and part of his sophomore season.

“I knew we were getting a lot of free stuff,” Sidney said of the time he was being recruited and his family was living in a $1.4 million home in Los Angeles, according to Goodman. “But at the time, I couldn’t tell my dad and my mom what to do. I was 14, 15, 16 years old.”

Sidney’s mother denied ever getting money from Stansbury, and Sidney said his father never wanted him to go to Mississippi State.

Sidney, a 6-foot-10 forward, never panned out as an NBA prospect and went undrafted following his junior year in 2012. Stansbury announced his intention to retire from coaching and left Mississippi State the same year.

Goodman posted the podcast Thursday and wrote a story on the interview for WatchStadium.com on Friday.

The admission by Sidney comes two days after three men affiliated with a major shoe company were convicted in federal court on charges related to paying college recruits.