Pitino knew about money being funneled to recruit
Pitino was "Coach-2" and apparently spoke with the Adidas executive regarding sending money to a recruit. What a hypocrit. He's spoken out about shoe companies involved in recruiting and was playing in the same mud pit with them anyway.
Edit: One of the mentions of Coach-2 in the documents is: "no one swings a bigger dick than Coach-2" at Adidas. All he has to do is call them and say "these are my guys" and they'll take care of it. (36d)
September 28th, 2017 at 12:18 PM ^
Every D-1 school in the country is paying attention to this. Even if your own coaches weren't involved there's the possibility a shoe company cut a deal with the parents or high school coach or AAU handlers of one of your recruits.
September 28th, 2017 at 12:07 PM ^
The (former for now) AD of Louisville Tom Jurichs daughter is an employee at ADIDAS hence the "nobody has a bigger swinging dick" than Pitino" line.
This is very messy.
So a few different things make this messy; The University has it's own fraud scandal going on which the governor (Matt Bevin) has decided to step into. He fired the (very pro-Jurich) board a couple months ago. The Supreme Court of Kentucky just concluded that the firings were not legal and not binding. So IF the university brings back the former board Jurich might still have a job. The reason he is on leave and not fired is his job is based on a vote by the board which is in flux...
Add that to Jurichs daughter being hired by ADIDAS just before the $160M Louisville ADIDAS deal. Add that to the actual Coach 2 scandal. Add that to the fact that all this happened abotu a week after the penalties from the prostitute scandal came off, but the team and athletic department were still on probation... it's a lot.
Pitino is for sure gone though. And I think the Jurich firing will end up actually happening as well. As for the board of the university? Who knows. Some could be back. Some likely won't. The whole thing is a mess. Not just the athletic department but the university as a whole has a lot of explaining and reworking to do.
September 28th, 2017 at 1:13 PM ^
The Jurichs daughter conflict of interest twist is absolutely fascinating (and breathtakingly clumsy). Adidas is negotiating with you (on behalf of a public institution you represent). Adidas hires your daughter, and you don't recuse yourself from the negotiations?
That boggles the mind! Talk about a breach of the public trust ... .
September 28th, 2017 at 1:24 PM ^
Want a recruit? Hire his dad or his AAU coach as an assistant. It's so common it never occurs to anyone that there's anything remotely improper about it.
September 28th, 2017 at 1:44 PM ^
It's one thing to hire a friend or relative as an assistant, and those sorts of hires are rightly subject to public scrutiny and - in some cases - public censure. But it's not clear to me that there's a serious conflict of interest there: if you hire Uncle Joe and star recruit comes along to be coached by Uncle Joe, the university is a winner.
It's quite another to be negotiating contracts on behalf of your state's university for hundreds of millions of dollars with your newly-hired daughter working for the prospective vendor. That is not common from what I know. And it's a major conflict of interest.
September 28th, 2017 at 2:18 PM ^
But it's not at all an ordinary vendor contract. Usually the university pays the vendor for the services and equipment provided. Here Adidas is paying Louisville quite handsomely for the right to provide them with services and equipment--however conflicted their representatives might have been, I doubt anyone at Louisville is complaining about the terms of that contract.
And as far as it goes, having Pitino's daughter on the inside was probably a plus for the school--it's something they were able to use as leverage when they wanted a favor from the company. (Whether that favor was actually a plus for the school is in doubt of course.)
September 28th, 2017 at 2:52 PM ^
It seems we're seeing this through different lenses. I agreed that it's an unusual contract in that the money flows from the vendor. So we're on all fours there.
I'm not moved, though, by the fact that the Adidas contract was sizeable. There are at least three companies lining up to be that apparel vendor, and the AD's job is to maximize the payout from the athletic clothing provider. Louisville should be very concerned about the integrity of that process - not just gobsmacked at how much money apparel companies shell out in these negotiations.
It's also hard for me to see how having the AD's daughter at Adidas helps Louisville. Having your own daughter at a company that is trying to conclude a mega-deal with you is an obvious conflict of interest. It has the appearance (and likely effect) of Adidas buying its way into the Louisville apparel deal by hiring the AD's daughter (a benefit to AD but not to Louisville). And with that favor to the AD done, he gets to repay it by not bargaining as hard as he would if there was no family member on the other side of the table's payroll.
September 28th, 2017 at 9:11 PM ^
how about: everyone bribes?
September 28th, 2017 at 12:12 PM ^
September 28th, 2017 at 12:25 PM ^
Bowen was a top-20 recruit but he wouldn't likely have been drafted straight out of high school. I agree that we need other developmental paths besides college ball but I don't think getting rid of the one-and-done rule is a solution in itself.
September 28th, 2017 at 5:04 PM ^
What? He sure would have been drafted. Go watch some of the all-star games he was playing in. He and Jaren Jackson would definitely go straight to the NBA.
And the one and done rule is stupid. Should be straight to the NBA or multiple years in college.
September 28th, 2017 at 6:36 PM ^
September 28th, 2017 at 8:52 PM ^
How many high school players do you think would get picked? Rivals had Bowen #22; 247 had him #19. There are only 60 slots in the draft; the last year HS players were eligible eight were selected, four in the first round and four in the second.
Maybe they and I are wrong and he would have moved up into that top group? Either way, there are a lot more five-stars than there are available draft slots for high school players. It'd be nice if there were a domestic pro alternative for the guys that are going to be left out.
I'm all for abolishing one and done. But it's not enough.
(Jackson would have gone; I don't disagree there.)
September 28th, 2017 at 12:13 PM ^
September 28th, 2017 at 12:16 PM ^
September 28th, 2017 at 12:17 PM ^
Come on, man. In other news: Caitlyn Jenner is a dude.
September 28th, 2017 at 2:01 PM ^
September 28th, 2017 at 12:22 PM ^
both guys whose ongoing success has been associated with recruiting that lends itself to scandal. And now, even this investigation is an example of institutions hardly being touched, and that the lesser lights of major conferences getting the attention.
If all you ever do is recruit kids who are going to play one year or maybe two years, then these are players who if the rules allowed would bypass college altogether. These are kids more susceptible to being bribed and more likely to be funnelled to the major bball schools because the system is already in place, otherwise these schools would drop off the competitve map.
I mean at Duke, Coach K gets nothing but the best players. The difference is his industry connections put him in an untouchable class and he is still promoting one-and-done player recruitment, both because he can't keep kids in school and that's the expectation of the best players. For the NBA, college basketball has been an unfunded minor league system.
The league now needs to provide pro development opportunity so its talent doesn't get that diluted by washouts and not-ready-for-primetime players.
September 28th, 2017 at 2:18 PM ^
You are also missing one very important factor when it come to Coach K...he can also sell Duke. His legacy and success coupled with one of the finest institutions in the US is a recruiting dream.
September 28th, 2017 at 12:39 PM ^
Of fucking course he knows about this stuff. He's been lying through his teeth for years, and what's worse is that not only will he not own up to it, but he has the audacity to consider himself a victim.
He's a good coach, but he's a sleze and a cheat. That's what he'll be remembered for now more than anything else.
September 28th, 2017 at 12:58 PM ^
September 28th, 2017 at 1:16 PM ^
September 28th, 2017 at 1:28 PM ^
September 28th, 2017 at 1:45 PM ^
that we were robbed of in 2013 by them... yeah, I know, dream on... Fuck Pitino.
September 28th, 2017 at 1:47 PM ^
September 28th, 2017 at 1:49 PM ^
September 28th, 2017 at 3:56 PM ^
For example, the SMU scandal didn't make so much as a dent in illegal recruiting. But at least athletic departments learned not to send checks to players using university envelopes.
September 28th, 2017 at 2:47 PM ^
September 28th, 2017 at 2:56 PM ^
September 28th, 2017 at 3:58 PM ^
is now a LOT of other folks are sweating bricks.
basically, anyone who is a "GOOD" recruiter in the past 10 years probably has a little dirty in them. will be fun to see where this trail leads....
September 28th, 2017 at 6:22 PM ^
So, Adidas outbid everyone for Bowen's services, and he ends up at Louisville. I wonder what Nike school was outbid?
September 28th, 2017 at 6:39 PM ^
Sorry, I have read a bit on the FBI arrests but I don't understand what crimes were committed. I don't think violating NCAA rules is a crime. Is it a crime to pay someone's family to go to a specific school? I'd imagine there might be some fiduciary responsibilities for the financial managers, but don't know for sure. It seems like paying some kids family to go a school shouldn't be a crime if it is, and even paying a family to help steer a kid to a financial planner is more of a discount for services than anything else, something that is part of every negotiation. I'm sure I'm missing something here...
I find this ESPN article incredibly confusing. Maybe it's because there are too many "unnamed people" to keep all the numbers straight.
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/20834050/the-sto…
Any articles explain in detail what the allegations are?
September 28th, 2017 at 6:59 PM ^
Wire fraud
Money laundering
Conspiracy to commit bribery
Solicitation of bribes and gratuities by an agent of a federally-funded agency
Conspiracy to commit Honest Services Fraud
Honest services wire fraud
Wire fraud conspiracy
Travel act conspiracy
Solicitation of bribes
There are rules and restrictions regarding federally funded or state funded institutions and bribery/money handouts.
September 28th, 2017 at 7:27 PM ^
Sounding like a future criminal, some of these laws seem pretty stupid. Admittedly, I don't know the nuances, but why can't you pay someone to try and convince other people to do things? I believe you can, legally, and they are called salespeople or brokers. When someone gives advice, they obviously have something to gain from the recipient’s actions.
When I was having trouble finding a job in college, my councilor was like, you should really consider taking the [x job that was lower paying with a lower lifetime earnings potential etc. etc.] job. Obviously that counselor cares about things like % of grads employed at graduation and getting me out of her office so she can play Sudoku – I just had to push to get the real help I needed. That’s how life works.
Take, for instance, Honest Services Fraud. That requires someone breaking a fiduciary duty to another. Does a coach have a fiduciary duty to a player? That sounds like a stretch. Also not sure a parent has a fiduciary duty to a child. What if the parent accepted the money but then felt like the agent was indeed the best choice? Honestly, I'm glad I don't work for the FBI because a lot of this sounds like garbage to me and I would feel gross performing the work to charge these people.
I hate Pitino and Louisville and corruption in the college game as much as anyone, and all these coaches should lose their jobs and I'm fine with death sentences for programs too, but on the surface these charges seem like a stretch, if not an outright overstep of justice.
That said, tax fraud would definitely be more believable as I doubt anyone claimed any of this on their 1099. I wish the criminal was focus on that instead.
September 28th, 2017 at 8:57 PM ^
September 28th, 2017 at 7:00 PM ^
September 28th, 2017 at 7:04 PM ^
Replying to my own post.
By the way, if I were a kid who was going to be 1 and done and took a payment, I would take payments from EVERYONE - not just double-dip, but I'd take from Nike, Addidas, UA, Reebok, Asics, New Balance, Sperry, Teva, Toms, and obviously Crocs. Then, i'd go to whatever school I want and hire whatever agent and financial advisor I want and dare the others to report me to the authorities for violating an agreement that no one has in writing. This is just stupid.
September 28th, 2017 at 7:52 PM ^
And you're right, nobody would report you. But basketball's a small world, and you would have honked off pretty much everyone in it...and for what? Ten $100,000 dips into the kiddie pool is less than just one year at the bottom of the rookie scale. Is it worth pissing off people that might have influence on people that will decide whether you make it?
Most businesses/industries that can't access the law find other ways to enforce their codes. I'm guessing basketball is no different.
September 28th, 2017 at 6:52 PM ^
September 28th, 2017 at 7:08 PM ^
Duh...
September 28th, 2017 at 10:11 PM ^
