McCaffery describes encounter with Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore as 'innocent'

IOWA CITY - Iowa men's basketball coach Fran McCaffery said Wednesday that media accounts of his program earning a secondary recruiting violation was "blown way out of proportion."

The NCAA contacted Iowa officials after media outlets reported an encounter between two prospective basketball recruits and celebrities Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore during the recruits' campus visit on Sept. 11 in a football luxury suite. The recruits - Cedar Rapids Washington senior Josh Oglesby and Linn-Mar junior Marcus Paige - also met former Iowa players Reggie Evans and Dean Oliver following a basketball scrimmage.

The NCAA considers the former players and celebrities as agents of the institution that could aid in recruiting.

McCaffery, who is in his first season at Iowa, described the situation as "innocent" and the encounter lasted around four minutes.

"I'll be honest with you, I feel bad for (Kutcher and Moore) because they could not have been more delightful," McCaffery said. "When they come to an event, they just can't sit in the stands. So where do they sit? Well, they stand on the sidelines for a while; Demi doesn't want to stand for four hours. So they have to put them somewhere.

"They asked if they could sit in my box; I'm not going to say no. 'If you want to sit in my box, absolutely. We made it very comfortable for them. They could not have been nicer to anyone that came in to say hello to meet them. I think that's what's unfortunate.

"It was as innocent and unprepared as it could possibly be. I don't want anybody to think anything negative; the kids certainly did nothing wrong."

McCaffery said he has had one other recruiting violation in his career while he coached at North Carolina-Greensboro.

"I'll tell you this story: If any of you have been looking into my background, you'll know that I had one other secondary violation in my coaching career," he said. "We sent a recruiting mailout in color on plain-white paper. If it was on letterhead, it would have been legal. If it was in black-and-white on plain white paper, it would been legal. But because it was color on plain-white paper, it was a violation, which we self-reported. That's the extent of my transgressions with the NCAA. But it gives you an idea of what we do."