Crimson Red Sports

The defendants include coaches at top U.S. college basketball programs, one agent, one financial adviser and a former referee. The coaches are Lamont Evans, an assistant at Oklahoma State University, Emanuel Richardson, an assistant for the Arizona Wildcats, and Chuck Person, associate head coach at Auburn University.

The FBI claims Jim Gatto, the Director of Global Marketing for Adidas Basketball -- paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to funnel top prospects to Adidas sponsored colleges including Louisville.

Does this mean Chuck Person has his jersey removed from their arena? Plus, is Bruce Pearl now in deep do-do?



 :dunno:

The worst-kept secret in college basketball is how coaches, sneaker executives, sports agents, travel-team coaches and financial advisers, often through under-the-table payments, steer top high school talent first to NCAA programs and later to apparel brands and professional representation once they enter the NBA.

One case among many in the three complaints, which total nearly 200 pages, states adidas’ Gatto, financial planner Munish Sood and agent Christian Dawkins “conspired to illicitly funnel approximately $100,000 from company-1 to the family of Player-10, an All-American high school basketball player; to assist one or more coaches at University-6, a school sponsored by Company-1, and to further ensure that Player-6 ultimately retained the services of Dawkins and Sood and signed with Company-1 upon entering the NBA.

Auburn basketball likely is headed for an NCAA investigation of massive proportion that could prove far more difficult to weather than that 13-month colonoscopy into the football program that resulted in no major charges.

How many scandals can happen on one man's watch before that man is relieved of his duties? For Auburn Athletics Director Jay Jacobs, this should be one scandal too many.

The NCAA death penalty, the much-discussed but 30-years-dormant nuclear option of college sports, is about to make a comeback.

Louisville basketball, one of the most successful in history on the court and for decades the most lucrative hoops program in America, prepare for your demise.

The program should be shut down, if the bombshell allegations announcement of allegations Tuesday prove to be true. If that doesn’t happen, the NCAA is useless.

Furthermore, the feds allege that in a July 27 meeting in a Las Vegas hotel, a Louisville assistant was part of a discussion to pay a player from the class of 2019 to commit to the Cardinals. Part of the discussion was to note that the involved school “was already on probation with the NCAA” and that “they would have to be particularly careful with how they passed money” to the player.

Oklahoma State assistant Lamont Evans: Evans allegedly accepted $22,000 in bribes to steer athletes at South Carolina and then Oklahoma State to become clients of Dawkins and Sood. He coached at South Carolina for four seasons before leaving in 2016 to join Brad Underwood’s staff at Oklahoma State.

The South Carolina Gamecocks, aka “University-2:” Evans’ former employer.

The Miami Hurricanes, aka “University-7:” The school is alleged to have had an assistant coach work with Adidas executive James Gatto to arrange a payment of $150,000 to a potential 2018 recruit. Gatto and the coach were reportedly worried the recruit would take another bribe for approximately just as much from a rival school and rival apparel company.

Any investigation involving fraud in college basketball that doesn't include Kentucky is in itself fraudulent! Just my opinion.

Any investigation involving fraud in college basketball that doesn't include Kentucky is in itself fraudulent! Just my opinion.

Alabama announced an internal review of its basketball program. Athletics director Greg Byrne also announced the resignation of basketball staffer Kobie Baker.

"Our review has not identified any NCAA or SEC rules violations nor the involvement of any other coach or staff member," Byrne said in a news release distributed Wednesday evening. "We have notified both of the governing bodies of the actions we have taken. As always, we will continue to be proactive in our compliance efforts."

Alabama may be involved. This does not look good.


http://www.al.com/alabamabasketball/index.ssf/2017/09/alabama_basketball_staffer_res.html

Alabama may be involved. This does not look good.


http://www.al.com/alabamabasketball/index.ssf/2017/09/alabama_basketball_staffer_res.html

"Our review has not identified any NCAA or SEC rules violations nor the involvement of any other coach or staff member," Byrne said in a news release distributed Wednesday evening. "We have notified both of the governing bodies of the actions we have taken. As always, we will continue to be proactive in our compliance efforts."

Alabama may be involved. This does not look good.


http://www.al.com/alabamabasketball/index.ssf/2017/09/alabama_basketball_staffer_res.html

I heard this on the radio earlier. The statement from the AD makes no sense. No rules violations but he resigns? This doesn't smell right.




 ???




(https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/looneytunes/images/7/7a/Pepe-le-pew.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110212211406)

We've not had CAJ here long enough to have problems have we? I also thought he was running a very clean program. RTR!

The NCAA won't skate on this one. Their ineptness has been exposed and they will be forced to bring down the hammer. Collateral damage will come to UNC and Ole Miss in their unrelated messes, as the NCAA will try to save face, and will make an example of those 2 schools. If they are involved in any of this, Katie bar the door.

you mean ... the ncaa will drop the hammer like they do on Alabama ? 

 :lol3:

A con man named Louis Martin "Marty" Blazer III may have failed in his scheme to make low-budget movies with money swiped from pro athletes, but he has now succeeded in stealing part of the spotlight in a scandal that has shaken college basketball to its core.

Federal authorities revealed this week that Blazer was the wily informant — referred to in criminal complaints only as CW-1 "cooperating witness-1" — who played a central role in a federal bribery investigation of assistant coaches at four top-tier basketball schools.

After switching sides, Blazer's work as a cooperator in the basketball case included recording and videotaping a meeting with former NBA star and Auburn assistant Chuck Person and others in late 2016 at a restaurant near the university in which Person agreed to accept $50,000 in bribes to steer college athletes to his firm, court papers said. The documents describe how a few weeks later, the pair exchanged chummy text messages about whether Person was being wired $5,000 or $10,000 as an installment.

Auburn president Steven Leath said in a statement Tuesday that the university was "saddened, angry and disappointed" in associate head basketball coach Chuck Person in wake of his arrest by the FBI and the allegations leveled against the former Auburn great.

It was interesting to see SEC commissioner Greg Sankey release a statement on Wednesday that essentially cheered for the federal government to come in and accomplish what endless NCAA working groups could never do – clean up the sport: “I find encouragement, however, in the federal government’s willingness to utilize the powerful tools at its unique disposal to hold responsible parties accountable.”

Alabama opened basketball practice yesterday and all 15 roster players practiced including Collin Sexton.

Yeah, Jamos said he watched it.  Hopefully he can give us some insights.

One thing he mentioned was how good Sexton looked. 
And said he hadn't heard of any further surprises about Alabama being investigated.

Good to hear this feedback from J on the fed investigation.  Hope the good news holds.

The FBI has subpoenaed Auburn and Oklahoma State. They want to do more digging at those schools. Meanwhile, at Bama CAJ made a statement yesterday that all Bama players will be eligible (including Sexton) unless something else is found which he does not expect.

Amid allegations of cheating and numerous ties to the ongoing college basketball trial, the NCAA has launched an investigation into the Arizona men's basketball program, a spokesman for the university confirmed to the Arizona Daily Star on Friday.

FBI recordings on Wednesday played in federal court added more damning evidence against Miller, who, according to a conversation between Dawkins and Richardson, discussed alleged payments he was making for two players at the school: Deandre Ayton and Rawle Alkins. Dawkins on FBI wiretap alleged Miller "was paying, or had promised to pay, $10,000 a month" for Ayton, according to Yahoo Sports.

The news that the NCAA is probing Arizona is no surprise. Yahoo Sports' Dan Wetzel, Pat Forde and Pete Thamel in February reported that an investigation into the program (and others) by the NCAA was ongoing, but until Friday, Arizona had not confirmed the probe. Plus, the inflammatory allegations brought to light in court over the last few weeks were always going to have ramifications with the NCAA

Good to see we don't need a new thread on this 2017 topic.   ;)

We're especially good at revisiting threads every 2 years.   :lol2: :lol2:

Especially when they're still on the first page.  :lol2:

An aspiring sports business manager and an amateur basketball coach were convicted of bribery conspiracy Wednesday at a trial that showed top college coaches were paid off to steer NBA-bound athletes to favored handlers.

Dawkins, 26, of Atlanta, and Code, 45, of Greer, South Carolina, were convicted on a conspiracy count, but acquitted of some other charges. Dawkins was also convicted of bribery.

Leaving court, Dawkins said he could have chosen to cooperate with prosecutors and identified coaches he knew were willing to funnel money to top athletes.

"I could have," he said. "Anybody who's paying players to me is a good guy. I think the whole case is B.S. so I wouldn't have cooperated.”

Some trial convictions today. This is the never-ending story.





https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ncaabk/2-convicted-in-college-basketball-corruption-trial/ar-AAB5KTV?li=BBnbfcL (https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ncaabk/2-convicted-in-college-basketball-corruption-trial/ar-AAB5KTV?li=BBnbfcL)

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said the trial marks the end of the prosecutions, but he suggested that government won't hesitate to start a new case against anyone "who might be tempted to engage in the sort of misconduct these prosecutions have only begun to expose."

So, this is the end of prosecutions, and anything else will have to be part of an NCAA investigation?

Something tells me this is not going away. The NCAA is already looking at Sean Miller & Arizona & probably Wade at LSU.

I'm doubting the NCAA can get more evidence than the FBI.   :unsure:

They have sworn testimony from federal court as their evidence to hammer LSU & Arizona, so they have all they need.