Money, Lies, and the FBI Investigation on College Basketball

Money%2C+Lies%2C+and+the+FBI+Investigation+on+College+Basketball

Cole Thomas, Reporter

An FBI probe looking into alleged recruiting violations committed by at least 36 division 1 programs has rocked the college basketball world.

According to Daniel Rapaport of SI.com, the US Attorney’s office of the Southern District of New York made the findings of an FBI investigation public last month. The investigation uncovered several acts of bribery and corruption, which occurred beginning on September 29th of last year. The investigation found top programs, such as Louisville, Arizona, and USC, among many others, to have committed these violations in their recruitment of the country’s top high school players.

The investigation has hit each program hard, but none has had a rougher stretch than the University of Louisville. two years ago, the Cardinals cast a self-implicated post season ban on themselves, meaning they voluntarily did not participate in the ACC or NCAA postseason tournaments.

The allegations made against the Louisville men’s basketball program seemed to be some of the worst ever made against a college sports program. Allegedly, along with paying recruits and their families money to attend the University, Louisville paid for and had prostitutes seduce recruits on visits to the school. Now former head coach Rick Pitino said he had “absolutely no knowledge” of these incidents. The scandal, which proved to be inconclusive, eventually passed and the Cardinals found themselves back in the NCAA tournament the next year. But, the darkest days were ahead for the program.

The FBI investigation uncovered Louisville and Adidas paying one of the top high school recruits roughly $ 100,000 to  attend the University. After this came out, Louisville head coach Rick Pitino and Louisville Athletic Director Tom Jurich were relieved of their positions. The NCAA also stripped Louisville of their 2013 national title.

Out west, University of Arizona assistant coach Emmanuel Richardson was arrested on federal bribery charges last September, according to Caitlin Schmidt of Tucson.com. Richardson was caught bribing recruits with money he acquired from a well-known sports agent. When confronted by the FBI on the matter, Richardson lied, saying he had no knowledge of illegal recruiting tactics committed by himself or other members of the Arizona men’s basketball staff. Lying to an FBI agent in an open investigation is a federal crime, and if found guilty of all charges against him, Richardson could face 60 years in prison.

According to the same source, Sean Miller, the former head coach of the Arizona men’s basketball team, had discussed paying then super recruit and current freshman sensation Deandre Ayton $ 100,000 to attend the University. Ayton, originally from the Bahamas, was a highly sought after recruit due to his 7’ 1”, 250 pound frame, which is a nice compliment to his extraordinary athleticism. Millers talks of paying Ayton came to light when the FBI wiretapped Miller’s phone. The University of Arizona immediately terminated Miller. Arizona is currently a top 25 program in the country with their eyes set on the NCAA tournament later this month, but talks of a self imposed postseason ban have been swirling due to the looming sanctions that’ll be put down in the near future. If this self implicated ban does indeed happen, it’ll be a lobbying point for the University when the NCAA puts sanctions on the program.

Several other schools have also been accused of the play for pay scandal. According to Mitch Sherman of ESPN, Christian Dawkins, who is a sports agent and former tournament director for AAU basketball, conspired with other agents accused in the probe of arranging payments to assistant coaches of several programs. The payments to the coaches, such as Arizona’s Emmanuel Richardson,  was the same cash the coaches used to bribe recruits and their families.

In the same article by Schmidt, he includes that schools that have current or former players who have admitted to having attended meeting with Dawkins include Alabama, Creighton, Duke, Iowa State, Kentucky, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Texas, Vanderbilt, and Virginia.

Dawkins also sought reimbursement from schools, according to his expense report. These schools, which are Clemson, Kansas, Louisville, Michigan State, South Carolina, Texas, USC, Utah, Wichita State, and Xavier had players to whom Dawkins distributed money to while they were still in high school.

Similar to Richardson at Arizona, several other programs have had assistant coaches arrested by the FBI for lying to an agent when accused of taking money from agents and bribing recruits. Schools and coaches included on this alongside Richardson list include Lamont Evans, (associate coach, Oklahoma State Men’s Basketball), Chuck Person, (associate coach, Auburn Men’s Basketball), and Tony Bland (associate coach, University of Southern California Men’s Basketball).

All four men now face federal charges, according to Lauren Thomas of CNBC.

With two premier programs in Louisville and Arizona being brought down by disgusting recruiting tactics, college basketball has fallen into a dark pit. Not to mention the several other schools who have had coaches and players accused of taking money. This monumental scandal will no doubt cast a dark shadow over the upcoming NCAA tournament, and with so many unanswered questions and accusations not yet acted on, an already unfortunate situation has the ability to become much worse for all those involved.