Several NCAA asst. basketball coaches arrested

[Ronin]

AP Top 25
@AP_Top25

Louisville meets with NCAA to appeal basketball sanctions (link: http://apne.ws/L1dxiur) apne.ws/L1dxiur

 

[Ronin]

Nathan Fenno‏Verified account@nathanfenno
Attorneys for three defendants in the college basketball bribery case -- Christian Dawkins, Merl Code and Jim Gatto -- have filed a motion to dismiss the government's indictment against them. The motion covers one of the three pending cases in the matter.

Nathan Fenno‏Verified account@nathanfenno 23m23 minutes ago
The motion says payments the defendants allegedly made to steer three high school players to Louisville and Miami weren't illegal: "It is not against the law to offer a financial incentive to a family ... to send their son or daughter to a particular college."

Nathan Fenno‏Verified account@nathanfenno 21m21 minutes ago
The three defendants didn't defraud or injure the universities, the motion said, because they sought to help, not harm the schools by directing talented players to them.

Nathan Fenno‏Verified account@nathanfenno 17m17 minutes ago
The motion accuses of the government of attempting to criminalize NCAA rules violations and notes universities have committed "thousands of violations" over the decades "which often involved conduct identical to -- or far worse than -- Defendants' here."

 

[Russ Smith]

Nathan Fenno‏Verified account@nathanfenno
Attorneys for three defendants in the college basketball bribery case -- Christian Dawkins, Merl Code and Jim Gatto -- have filed a motion to dismiss the government's indictment against them. The motion covers one of the three pending cases in the matter.

Nathan Fenno‏Verified account@nathanfenno 23m23 minutes ago
The motion says payments the defendants allegedly made to steer three high school players to Louisville and Miami weren't illegal: "It is not against the law to offer a financial incentive to a family ... to send their son or daughter to a particular college."

Nathan Fenno‏Verified account@nathanfenno 21m21 minutes ago
The three defendants didn't defraud or injure the universities, the motion said, because they sought to help, not harm the schools by directing talented players to them.

Nathan Fenno‏Verified account@nathanfenno 17m17 minutes ago
The motion accuses of the government of attempting to criminalize NCAA rules violations and notes universities have committed "thousands of violations" over the decades "which often involved conduct identical to -- or far worse than -- Defendants' here."

My understanding is that essentially the FBI said the coaches were defrauding the universities by delivering recruits who were ineligible because they'd violated amateurism rules.Just because the schools didn't KNOW they were ineligible doesn't make that ok is the argument. And again, the FBI isn't naive they aren't really saying these schools were the victims, they know perfectly well the schools are complicit in the steering of players, they're just using it as a means to an end, in order to prove a federal crime was committed they have to show the defendants acted "corruptly" and the fraud angle accomplishes that.

Tony Bland's attorney made a similar argument that doesn't seem to have helped him at all I expect that will be the same outcome with these ones.

The last part is just silly, everyone else does it so why should these guys get punished, that's just nonsensical, if I were the FBI and I was at all inclined to go easy on them, seeing that in a filing would tick me off

 

[Russ Smith]

Adding to the story about lawyers asking charges be dropped against 3 men. The claim is the FBI turned over the tapes of phone calls to the lawyers, they were recording 5 phone numbers over a total of 330 days and have intercepted and recorded over 4000 calls!

The assumption is those phone numbers included Dawkins and Sood but you really wonder who the other 3 were? Was it Gatto and the Adidas people, was it the coaches(Book, Bland etc).

The article also again points out that Arizona is the ONLY school involved in the FBI scandal that had specific players mentioned(but not identified) that has not suspended any players.

LA Times just said today they have a source claiming Taeshon Cherry, who just dropped his verbal to USC, was in fact player #8 named in the FBI scandal that committed to USC. His family denies it and insists they decommitted because USC backed off him out of fear since Tony Bland had recruited him. THey didn't mention that he also bailed on signing his NLI to USC, 3 days before he was scheduled to sign it.

This is such a fascinating story because there's so many involved and so many possible outcomes but the Arizona angle is by far the most interesting. Every single school who had reason to believe a player on their roster was involved, suspended the player, except for Arizona, who has 3. They either know something about their case that none of the other schools know in theirs, or they're rolling the dice.

 

[Russ Smith]

Adding to the story about lawyers asking charges be dropped against 3 men. The claim is the FBI turned over the tapes of phone calls to the lawyers, they were recording 5 phone numbers over a total of 330 days and have intercepted and recorded over 4000 calls!

The assumption is those phone numbers included Dawkins and Sood but you really wonder who the other 3 were? Was it Gatto and the Adidas people, was it the coaches(Book, Bland etc).

The article also again points out that Arizona is the ONLY school involved in the FBI scandal that had specific players mentioned(but not identified) that has not suspended any players.

LA Times just said today they have a source claiming Taeshon Cherry, who just dropped his verbal to USC, was in fact player #8 named in the FBI scandal that committed to USC. His family denies it and insists they decommitted because USC backed off him out of fear since Tony Bland had recruited him. THey didn't mention that he also bailed on signing his NLI to USC, 3 days before he was scheduled to sign it.

This is such a fascinating story because there's so many involved and so many possible outcomes but the Arizona angle is by far the most interesting. Every single school who had reason to believe a player on their roster was involved, suspended the player, except for Arizona, who has 3. They either know something about their case that none of the other schools know in theirs, or they're rolling the dice.

Forgot to add if you read the story recently about Brian Bowen the kid who got paid to go to Louisville, he says emphatically he didn't know, is an innocent victim, and that he told Sean Miller and Arizona he was going to Zona if either Alkins or Trier turned pro, neither did, so he went to Louisville. The problem with his story is in his own words in late April, he had a list of 5 schools that did NOT include Louisville, they were not a school he had any involvement with. about 4 weeks later he signed with Louisville in early June. Trier had announced he was staying in early April, and Alkins announced in late May, a full month after Bowen listed his teams and didn't mention Louisville at all. he's now saying Louisville was his 2nd choice all along he was just waiting on Trier and Alkins. Pitino made it clear when he was contacted to ask about any interest in Bowen, and it was literally days before Alkins announced he was staying at ARizona.

So the timeline doesn't fit what Bowen says happened at all. I do believe he was going to Arizona if either Alkins or Trier went pro, that part is true, but it appears what happened is when those 2 players stayed, he suddenly opened up and Louisville jumped in because Pitino apparently asked Adidas to go get a kid who was a Nike kid.

 

[Russ Smith]

Brian Bowen committed to USC and will apply for immediate reinstatement by the NCAA. Oh yeah, South Carolina USC not Southern California USC.

And speaking of USC, LA TImes is reporting DeAnthony melton's status the rest of the season should be determined any day now by USC. In addition to allegations family friend Dave Elliott got 5K from the agent in the FBI scandal, in investigating that claim USC apparently unearthed evidence he may have taken all sorts of additional benefits when travelling to Las Vegas allegedly to meet with the agent. USC apparently suspected the agent paid for his airfare, hotel etc.

The lawyer for Melton said they expect resolution soon but they don't know what way USC is going to rule, they have no idea if he's going to be allowed to play or not.

 

[Ronin]

Kyle Bonagura
@BonaguraESPN

USC announced sophomore guard De'Anthony Melton will be held out the rest of the season after an internal investigation determined a family friend received an extra benefit. Melton will have the option to remain at USC on scholarship and could... (link: http://www.espn.com/espn/now?nowId=21-40015256-4) espn.com/espn/now?nowId…

 

[Russ Smith]

Kyle Bonagura
@BonaguraESPN

USC announced sophomore guard De'Anthony Melton will be held out the rest of the season after an internal investigation determined a family friend received an extra benefit. Melton will have the option to remain at USC on scholarship and could... (link: http://www.espn.com/espn/now?nowId=21-40015256-4) espn.com/espn/now?nowId…

It's a weird story, the family apparently told the LA Times that USC told them they hope by holding him out this year it enhances his chances of playing next year.I have no idea if he plans on coming back or not but that seems to imply they think if he sits out a whole year, when the NCAA gets info from the FBI, they'll take this year as time served for Melton.

If what's public is all he did, I think 18 games is enough and they should play him, the fact that they're not makes me suspect they found more that they haven't made public.

 

[Russ Smith]

This story is now baffling to me. Last night in the Colorado/ Arizona game PJC slammed into the Colorado PG going for a steal, the ref didn't call it, and then after a missed shot, Tad Boyle screamed at the ref and got a T. THe ARizona fans started chanting and holding up signs blasting Boyle, and then to my astonishment Casey Jacobsen on tv made a comment about Boyle's comments after they beat ARizona the first game being unfortunate and "he's normally a very classy guy if you know him".

I was literally floored. Why in the hell is it not classy to ask a direct question about a program caught up, red handed, in an FBI scandal? Why is it ok for Sean Miller to keep refusing to even comment on questions about it but somehow Boyle is "not classy" answer the question honestly?

THe system is corrupt and kids get money, we all know that, but payments DIRECTLY from coaches are not normal. What Book and Bland and the other coaches did is completely outside the norm and that's why they got caught. For Casey Jacobsen to blast, on air, a coach for being honest about that is ridiculous IMO and it's part of the problem. This don't snitch mentality is stupid, everyone breaks rules but when you get caught doing it red handed by the Feds, you don't deserve any sympathy.

I think what Casey was trying to say is look players get paid and you're not supposed to talk about it.

 

[GatorAZ]

This story is now baffling to me. Last night in the Colorado/ Arizona game PJC slammed into the Colorado PG going for a steal, the ref didn't call it, and then after a missed shot, Tad Boyle screamed at the ref and got a T. THe ARizona fans started chanting and holding up signs blasting Boyle, and then to my astonishment Casey Jacobsen on tv made a comment about Boyle's comments after they beat ARizona the first game being unfortunate and "he's normally a very classy guy if you know him".

I was literally floored. Why in the hell is it not classy to ask a direct question about a program caught up, red handed, in an FBI scandal? Why is it ok for Sean Miller to keep refusing to even comment on questions about it but somehow Boyle is "not classy" answer the question honestly?

THe system is corrupt and kids get money, we all know that, but payments DIRECTLY from coaches are not normal. What Book and Bland and the other coaches did is completely outside the norm and that's why they got caught. For Casey Jacobsen to blast, on air, a coach for being honest about that is ridiculous IMO and it's part of the problem. This don't snitch mentality is stupid, everyone breaks rules but when you get caught doing it red handed by the Feds, you don't deserve any sympathy.

I think what Casey was trying to say is look players get paid and you're not supposed to talk about it.

I don't like Boyle but it had nothing to do with what he says. I wonder if the NCAA makes a quicker decision now that there's a lot crazy stuff coming out of other programs that they need to get to.

 

[Russ Smith]

I don't like Boyle but it had nothing to do with what he says. I wonder if the NCAA makes a quicker decision now that there's a lot crazy stuff coming out of other programs that they need to get to.

I don't think they can until the FBI tells them it's ok to investigate and gives them the info.

The booing and taunting of Boyle was clearly connected to his earlier comment the fans were holding up signs directly related to it.

I have no problem with fans doing it, that's what fans do. I'm actually surprised fans on the road aren't chanting FBI everytime Arizona or USC play there.

But for an announcer like Jacobsen, an ex player, to essentially apologize for what Boyle said it right up there with Carmelo's infamous appearance in that "don't snitch" video a few years ago.

Boyle was asked a direct question and responded honestly, he didn't go after Miller unsolicited, he didn't even really mention Miller beyond saying he respected him.

Jacobsen acted like he'd gone out of his way to insult Miller and that it was not classy. I can understand fans of those teams not liking it but an announcer and ex player acting like what he said was somehow wrong I just didn't get. I would have got it had it been Muehlbach but Casey as near as I can tell has no Arizona ties.

 

[Russ Smith]

Pete Thamel reporting that Jahvon Quinerly, player 5 in the FBI case, will quietly commit to Villanova this week. Nova has thoroughly reviewed the case and thinks there's a good chance the NCAA will allow him to play. They said it depends if the NCAA rules it extra benefits where he might not play, or preferential treatment where he probably would play. Thamel says the belief is it will be preferential treatment since he wasn't yet in college, and since he's not signing with the school that allegedly paid him.

Based on what's out there I can't see why his situation would be a can't play at all. He didn't get enough money to get suspended for a season, they've already reinstated Sexton after 1 game for agreeing to hire an agent, so my guess is at most he'd miss 9 games and then be allowed to play. The only way it would be worse is if the NCAA decides by the time they are allowed to do anything about the kids already in college, many of them will have turned pro, so the only way they can send a message is by going after kids like Quinerly who haven't played in college yet. I see that as highly unlikely, I think his case will be the same as Taeshon Cherry where by committing to a school that didn't pay him, he probably will eventually be allowed to play.

 

[Dback Jon]

https://sports.yahoo.com/sources-co...hes-top-programs-lottery-picks-224417174.html

What would happen if the information under protective order were to be released before the NCAA selection show on March 11?

A source who has been briefed on the case laughed: “You might see Tennessee-Chattanooga as a No. 2 seed.”

 

[Russ Smith]

https://sports.yahoo.com/sources-co...hes-top-programs-lottery-picks-224417174.html

What would happen if the information under protective order were to be released before the NCAA selection show on March 11?

A source who has been briefed on the case laughed: “You might see Tennessee-Chattanooga as a No. 2 seed.”

Code, Gatto and Dawkins all have trial dates of Oct 1 2018 now, the rest of the trials including Bland and Book are in 2019. Not clear if that's good or bad, if their recruiting is off because of uncertainty, does another year of waiting help that or harm that not clear to me. If the schools can convince kids it's the coaches we fired not us, we're ok, then it helps them they can get a class or two of recruits before the salacious stuff is public in court. If they can't convince kids they're not going to get nailed, the delay might submarine another recruiting class.

The judge threw out the request to dismiss the charges against Gatto, Code and Dawkins and set the court date so they are going after them.

The big thing in Thamel's story is the revelation they expect to have Andy Miller's bank records and he was the guy funding Dawkins(not Adidas or Nike). Given that Miller has not been indicted yet, to my knowledge, one wonders is he cooperating, or are they just waiting because he's one of the "big fish" and they're getting all the dirt they can on him>

 

[Russ Smith]

Lynn Swann announces an internal USC investigation found no evidence that there was a problem at the institutional level, that Tony Bland acted completely on his own, outside the program, and was completely a rogue coach. And for all those rumors the last 4 years that USC's new staff was cheating, apparently USC never heard them?

It is interesting that USC was allowed to conduct such a thorough investigation since we've been told that the FBI told the NCAA not to investigate until the FBI is done, and the NCAA told Arizona not to investigate until the FBI tells the NCAA it's allowed.

Makes you wonder what's different about the 2 cases, is one coach cooperating and one isn't, and if so, which is which?

 

[Ronin]

Jeff Goodman
@GoodmanESPN

USC's Melton withdraws from school. Was involved in FBI probe.

 

[Ronin]

https://mobile.twitter.com/JeffEisenberg

Jeff Eisenberg

@JeffEisenberg

Rick Pitino urges Louisville to take the NCAA to court over taking the 2013 national title banner down.

 

[Ronin]

Jeff Eisenberg

@JeffEisenberg

Rick Pitino is vacillating between his assigned talking point of taking full responsibility for making the wrong hires and the fact that he clearly still views himself as a victim in all this.

 

[Russ Smith]

Jeff Goodman
@GoodmanESPN

USC's Melton withdraws from school. Was involved in FBI probe.

Wonder if he just thinks time to go pro, or if he has reason to believe the NCAA won't reinstate him to play next year so he has no point staying.

 

[GatorAZ]

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[Russ Smith]

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

Yeah he literally quotes one person saying if your school has had a #1 pick in the last 3 years, you should be worried.

Ifit's that blatant, and Thamel says there's a spreadsheet that says how much was paid, to whom etc, it kind of works better for teams involved since it will be a more level playing field if they're all getting hit.

This is why people keep saying schools like UK and Duke should be very concerned, they've had LOTS of 1st round picks in that timeframe, if the implication is most 1st rounders will be on this spreadsheet, if you're UCLA I think it's 2 players(Lonzo and Leaf) if you are Duke or UK it is quite a bit more than that so the assumption would be unless in both their cases they are among the coaches didn't know category(and I don't buy that for a second) they're going to get hit harder because they did it more frequently I'd assume.

Andy Miller is the guy who was funding Christian Dawkins and it's not clear if the scheme that Book and Bland got caught up in was new, or they were just expanding their operation. It sure appears that there's a direct link between Miller being raided(Andy) and the raiding of EYBL which would make me very nervous if I were a Duke or UK fan.

UCLA may have had 3 I'm blanking on what year Looney came out but I think he's in the 3 years too. None of UCLA's kids were in the EYBL but it's pretty apparent that Adidas was doing this too since they were more involved in the original FBI story than Nike was.

 

[Russ Smith]

John Wall puts this into perfect perspective on how the players see this stuff. Wall was asked about and said he thinks it's naive to assume UK is going to get hit harder because they have had so many lottery picks saying put it this way if you were about to get rich in the NBA in a few months would you risk all that for a small payment now? The implication being the high lottery picks don't get paid it's the ones below, like Bowen, who get paid.

I would note this is the same John Wall who started his college career at UK SUSPENDED by the NCAA for taking money from his AAU coach! The way it was quoted it would appear John Wall either didn't think anybody else would remember, or didn't remember himself that HE took money and got suspended over it. That's the mentality of the players here everyone is doing it, we ought to be getting paid, so we're taking the money. I don't necessarily fault them for it mind you, but trying to defend it now by suggesting the high lottery kids aren't getting paid is going to be tough to sell, especially when we know for a fact he took money himself.

 

[BW52]

Jeff Eisenberg

@JeffEisenberg

Rick Pitino urges Louisville to take the NCAA to court over taking the 2013 national title banner down.

I totally agree.The NCAA `s punishment was way overboard .The reason was to make the NCAA look like they had some balls after looking like limpwristed ******** by letting North Carolina get away with academic fraud for 18-20 years and for the Head of the NCAAa (Emmert) knowing about the Michigan State sex abuse situation since 2010 and doing nothing about that.So in order to look like the NCAA grew some balls they hammered Louisville beyond what was fair.Louisville also cooperated fully and self-imposed penalties and screwed themselves by cooperating with a vindictive bunch of people (NCAA) who refuse to touch certain schools (Kentucky,Duke,Alabama,Auburn etc while other schools get hammered.Very strange that the people that heard Louisville`s appeal and denied it are from ( U of Texas,Vandy,SEC conference chair and others) since the SEC is the standard for recruiting integrity and honesty.I also oint out that the horsehit about prostitution is simply garbage..A grand jury also investigated and decided there was no evidence for an conviction and the bitch that wrote the book (sponsered by a prominent INdiana University booster and a former member of the Lexington KY chamber of Commerce) was sued by the women named in the book and had to settle out of court and pay damages.Pitino failed to moniter a assistant closely enough (andre McGee) and it cost him big time.Plus Pitino and Tom Jurich battled with several Board of Trustees member (Pizza boy Schnatter -Pappa Johns Pizza) and Jurich lost his job for basically being loyal to Pitino.The interim President and several BOT members apointted by our jackass Governor Matt Bevin are Kentucky graduates (Louisville big instate rival) so many think the BOTs main interest is not justice and fairness from the NCAA but keeping the reimbursement money from the NCAA tourneys UL received down to a minimum.

 

[BW52]

John Wall puts this into perfect perspective on how the players see this stuff. Wall was asked about and said he thinks it's naive to assume UK is going to get hit harder because they have had so many lottery picks saying put it this way if you were about to get rich in the NBA in a few months would you risk all that for a small payment now? The implication being the high lottery picks don't get paid it's the ones below, like Bowen, who get paid.

I would note this is the same John Wall who started his college career at UK SUSPENDED by the NCAA for taking money from his AAU coach! The way it was quoted it would appear John Wall either didn't think anybody else would remember, or didn't remember himself that HE took money and got suspended over it. That's the mentality of the players here everyone is doing it, we ought to be getting paid, so we're taking the money. I don't necessarily fault them for it mind you, but trying to defend it now by suggesting the high lottery kids aren't getting paid is going to be tough to sell, especially when we know for a fact he took money himself.

The NCAA will do nothing to Kentucky.Kentucky has one of the most rabid (crazy,insane) fans anywhere and they will follow UK to hell and to watch the games.That means dollars into the register and if anything about the NCAA is consistent (besides its lack of intelligence,integrity ,and failure to enforce the rules equally and fairly.Some schools are Teflon coated (UK,Duke,Alabama,etc while others get unfairly hammered.The NCAA is simply a money ***** run by a bunch of greedy people making money off the work of others .

 

[Russ Smith]

The NCAA will do nothing to Kentucky.Kentucky has one of the most rabid (crazy,insane) fans anywhere and they will follow UK to hell and to watch the games.That means dollars into the register and if anything about the NCAA is consistent (besides its lack of intelligence,integrity ,and failure to enforce the rules equally and fairly.Some schools are Teflon coated (UK,Duke,Alabama,etc while others get unfairly hammered.The NCAA is simply a money ***** run by a bunch of greedy people making money off the work of others .

IMO it depends on what the NCAA gets from the FBI. If they literally give them a spreadsheet with names of players who got paid, and it's clear that UK and Duke had the most kids, which seems logical based on recruiting results, then how is the NCAA going to look the other way? This list would presumably get I can't imagine the FBI is going to not make this public for privacy reasons they're outing the whole bunch of them.

I'm not going to blame the kids, the system exists because agents, AAU coaches, college coaches, boosters etc that are all crooked and trying to take a shortcut to win more games, the players are just taking advantage of that corrupt system.