OT: FBI has reportedly arrested several NCAA basketball assistant coaches.

[Penfield]

Because Nike has been able to turn Kentucky into the glorified Harlem Globetrotters. You put your highest level talent all in one place, create a singular focus on them and Nike, and elevate the players' brand and popularity (which is what you are paying for as a shoe company when you sign a player). Plus, you have all of your elite assets focused in one place that is run by your hand picked Nike-Gigalo (Calipari) who is owned by Nike and will protect their interests with all of the players and make sure they don't get swooped up by rivals.

Makes sense. What doesn't makes sense is why all the other Nike schools just go along with it.

 

[CL82]

Kinda saddens me, don't like to see widespread corruption and I don't wish such harm on any fan-base

If these bribes are being offered to top recruits, how can the programs that land ALL the top players NOT be involved?

When people say "UConn cheats", I always point out we're NOT the program landing multiple top ten recruits year in and year out. Hell we only land a handful of top 50 recruits, we must not be paying enough. And no, I'm not complaining about our recruits, I love our system.

As a mitigating factor, if bribes truly are being offered to players, how can more players have NOT come forward outing some schools over the years? Especially those who need money now.

Our greatest crime was accurately reporting our APR scores and being the victim of rule being retroactively applied to us.

When you compare that to the Syracuse, UNC and Louisvilles of the world, it is pretty hard to call us "cheaters."

 

[temery]

We will see what comes out, but my guess is that UK, Duke, KU and UNC probably don't need to do this. What I see are programs that are hungry to step up or join the bigger names, or in the case of UL, catch UK. I doubt we will see much for football either, because one or two players won't have much of an impact. But with basketball, a nothing school that grabs a 5 star and uses him to bring in a couple of other good players is suddenly a strong, ranked team.

Anecdotally, I know an assistant coach at a private academy/basketball factory school. He knows I hate Calipari, but says that the guy is down to earth and charming, and the HS coaches love him. I think it's safe to say that our view of him is colored by our history, all the way back to UMass.

Once upon a time Charles Manson was a fun guy to invite to a party.

Our view of Calipari is colored by his history.

 

[2Infinity]

Jurich has arrived on the UofL campus and just went into a meeting with Postel. Wonder if anything will come of it.

 

[UConnSportsGuy]

Makes sense. What doesn't makes sense is why all the other Nike schools just go along with it.

1. What other choice do they have?
2. $$$ -- Other Nike schools are still getting ridiculous money from NIKE (Louisville just got a $160MM contract from Nike a couple of months ago I believe).

 

[Penfield]

1. What other choice do they have?
2. $$$ -- Other Nike schools are still getting ridiculous money from NIKE (Louisville just got a $160MM contract from Nike a couple of months ago I believe).

Flip to Adidas

 

[UConnSwag11]

This is what I was referring to with Ollie calling out other coaches recruiting other teams players.

　Q. Could you talk about the changing landscape of college basketball, transfers, etc., and how UConn can keep up?

　"I wouldn't say unfortunate, but we didn't want none of our guys to leave. We wanted to have Steve back. We wanted to have Juwan back. I can't say that, emphasize that enough. We wanted Vance back. But at the end of the day, it's their opinion of what fits for them. They have to make a business decision what fits for them. It's part of the college landscape. It's also the expectations that are put on these student-athletes at an early age. You have these media [recruiting] rankings. You have social media. Also, it's the coaches. We can't go around recruiting players who are on somebody else's team. That's happened. That's a big epidemic, too. It's not just the guys transferring. It's other college coaches also. I'm not afraid to speak on it.

Q And A With Kevin Ollie On All The Changes At UConn

 

[HuskiesAllDay]

Nassir Little is "Player-12" in the Gatto complaint. Arizona is "University-4." Miami is "University-7."

Gatto was recorded saying Arizona/Nike will pay Little $150k if Miami didn’t step up first. Next thing you know he’s about to commit to Arizona. I always wondered why we never really pushed with Little after offering because I loved his game. Well, this explains that...

Some thought player 12 was Quickley, so I figured I’d put that out there.

I've seen other posters reference the same thing. That out of the blue we stopped recruiting kids, who were likely offered money.

if this is true, then that means that KO and staff openly knew that other schools were offering these kids money? Why didn't we say anything? Why didn't any coach this happened to say anything?

 

[CL82]

The IRS has the power to take your money and keep making you live in the real world. The FBI can take away your freedom, but at least you get three hots and a cot on the inside.

There are criminal sanctions in the IRS Code and an entire division dedicated to putting people in jail. Ever hear of Leona Helmsley?

 

[UConnSportsGuy]

Flip to Adidas

What does that accomplish? You are still never going to compete with Kentucky/Nike for the elite players. And you are likely to get less money than you are getting from Nike. So it doesn't change anything.

 

[Penfield]

I've seen other posters reference the same thing. That out of the blue we stopped recruiting kids, who were likely offered money.

if this is true, then that means that KO and staff openly knew that other schools were offering these kids money? Why didn't we say anything? Why didn't any coach this happened to say anything?

They have assistant coaches on record openly discussing the need to outbid other schools for a player's services. Everyone knew how the game worked and there must have been an incentive to keep your mouth shut. You were either in on the con, or you didn't want to black ball yourself from future employment opportunities/ shoe money.

 

[Penfield]

What does that accomplish? You are still never going to compete with Kentucky/Nike for the elite players. And you are likely to get less money than you are getting from Nike. So it doesn't change anything.

Right so I would suspect the deal is you accept the fact that you are going to lose the Tier 1 players to UK, but that Nike is going to help you out with Tier 2.

 

[Jimdish255]

So if you do things the right way and fight like heck, you might get to be a top 25 team on a regular basis. But it sounds like with only a few exceptions, if you want to be seen as a top 10 program you had to play the game to get that talent year after year. A team can make a run in the tourney but that only takes you so far. This is looking like a massive conspiracy and it's hard to imagine NCAA/Emmert claiming they had no idea or that they suspected but never contacted appropriate agencies.

And a good point above as to why/whether anyone doing the right thing didn't say anything. I wonder if a few did and what the NCAA compliance response was. And it kind of makes you wonder what the price of winning the realignment sweepstakes was.

 

[UConnSwag11]

 

[nelsonmuntz]

So if you do things the right way and fight like heck, you might get to be a top 25 team on a regular basis. But it sounds like with only a few exceptions, if you want to be seen as a top 10 program you had to play the game to get that talent year after year. A team can make a run in the tourney but that only takes you so far. This is looking like a massive conspiracy and it's hard to imagine NCAA/Emmert claimimg they had no idea or that they suspected but never contacted appropriate agencies.

RICO

 

[2Infinity]

Joe Sonka ‏ @joesonka 3m3 minutes ago
The word on the street is that there will be an announcement "early afternoon"

 

[UConnSwag11]

 

[JeepCSC]

Right so I would suspect the deal is you accept the fact that you are going to lose the Tier 1 players to UK, but that Nike is going to help you out with Tier 2.

And adidas was apparently playing favs too, like Louisville.

 

[2Infinity]

Joe Sonka ‏ @joesonka 7m7 minutes ago
Replying to @joesonka
Postel says he'll comment later when asked if Jurich was fired. Back in conference room, word on street is Pitino may be coming in next.

 

[CL82]

I'll be interested in hearing UofL's statement after both are let go. They should save some time and embarrassment and fire Petrino as well.

 

[Fishy]

Joe Sonka ‏ @joesonka 7m7 minutes ago
Replying to @joesonka
Postel says he'll comment later when asked if Jurich was fired. Back in conference room, word on street is Pitino may be coming in next.

So yes, he was fired.

 

[The Funster]

I've seen other posters reference the same thing. That out of the blue we stopped recruiting kids, who were likely offered money.

if this is true, then that means that KO and staff openly knew that other schools were offering these kids money? Why didn't we say anything? Why didn't any coach this happened to say anything?

What are they going to say? It's all hearsay. Nothing can be proven. You hear a kid is taking cash, you walk away. Not sure what else a coach can do. You hear but you can't compel anyone to fess up about it.

 

[Husky25]

There are criminal sanctions in the IRS Code and an entire division dedicated to putting people in jail. Ever hear of Leona Helmsley?

I feel that we've been through this before...(Yup, we have)

Helmsley was convicted of Tax Evasion, which is a willful act. While it is true that the IRC has provisions for criminal offenses, one does not go to jail for simply owing an acknowledged tax liability. There is a difference and the IRS has the ability to garnish without consent a substantial portion of take-home pay, which could lead to a circumstance worse than jail time. That is why you don't fark around with the IRS.

 

[scoobydoo]

I'll be interested in hearing UofL's statement after both are let go. They should save some time and embarrassment and fire Petrino as well.

Yeah. I wonder about Petrino. He is another scandal eruption - you just don't when.

 

[HuskiesAllDay]

What are they going to say? It's all hearsay. Nothing can be proven. You hear a kid is taking cash, you walk away. Not sure what else a coach can do. You hear but you can't compel anyone to fess up about it.

yeah good point. nothing could be done; well i mean except getting the fbi involved.

 

[Kembacity]

It would be cool if some stories came out of small-name college basketball team's potential recruit and family tell him school X is offering them money, they decide we don't do that, good day be on your way, and then alert the NCAA and obviously they sit on it and do nothing.

I hope this has happened countless times and the NCAA repeatedly brushed it under the rug, and we can get all these submitted inquiries to come out and find out oh wow the NCAA did literally nothing to investigate the validity

 

[2Infinity]

So yes, he was fired.

Postel's response sure wasn't designed to counter that speculation...so the odds would seem to be stacked against TJ at this point.

 

[WrenchFan69]

Anyone think this might spread over to the women's side?

There was a lot of talk Louisville women paid $50k for Asia Durr, the #1 PG in the class of 15

 

[Paesano]

Nassir Little is "Player-12" in the Gatto complaint. Arizona is "University-4." Miami is "University-7."

Gatto was recorded saying Arizona/Nike will pay Little $150k if Miami didn’t step up first. Next thing you know he’s about to commit to Arizona. I always wondered why we never really pushed with Little after offering because I loved his game. Well, this explains that...

Some thought player 12 was Quickley, so I figured I’d put that out there.

And I just have to reiterate that MANY people on this board said we were losing players to Arizona because of their hot coeds, not cheating. I never said that wasn't a factor but I think $150K is a much bigger factor!!! The signs have been there all along. And that goes for several (many?...most?) other schools and coaches as well. But, no, not every school and coach.

 

[Zorro]

Apologies if this has already been posted.

The investigation was carried out largely with the assistance of a cooperating witness, identified Tuesday as Louis Martin Blazer, a former Pittsburgh financial adviser who found himself in hot water in 2014 for siphoning money from professional athletes whose accounts he managed to finance movie and music ventures.

He ultimately pleaded guilty to identity theft, making false statements and documents, wire fraud and security fraud. Under a cooperation agreement, prosecutors agreed to inform the sentencing judge of Blazer's help in the NCAA case.