The NCAA has a lot of rules as to what is "cheating" in recruitment, but there's still a lot of gray. It's cheating to put $100k in the pocket of a player or their parents, but its not cheating to give a parent a high-paying job at the university? It's cheating for a booster to give a nice car to a kid, but it's not cheating to hook that kid up with a "borrowed" car from a former player?
Bottom line: college basketball/football is, unfortunately, a shady business. If we want to succeed, we've got to play the same game, and work the same angles, as other programs. I'm fine with that just as long as we stay in the gray.
It's rumored that we have passed on recruits (or they have passed on us) because their parents demanded $$$. Don't know if it's true, but it wouldn't surprise me at all.