OT: Yahoo Report implicates Miles Bridges in Dirty Dealings with ASM Sports Agency
Looks as if Izzo will have to answer more uncomfortable questions at his press conferences. They go into detail that Miles Bridges Mom took $500 on some documents at the agency. This would make him ineligible immediately and probably would spell the end for Coach Izzo at MSU.
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:04 AM ^
Bridges was already committed to Sparty when the $400 was paid in May of 2016. Of course that doesn't mean that there weren't other earlier payments that haven't been uncovered. I would bet there are. My point was a response to the earlier post suggesting that the money was the reason he came back for a 2nd year. As mentioned...no way a guy turns down NBA millions to come back so his mother pockets hundreds.
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:28 AM ^
Exactly. If anything, his mom getting paid gives him MORE of a reason to leave for the NBA, which is why I don't think Miles knew about the payments (whether or not that matters to the NCAA idk). If you look at some of the players named in the yahoo article, those who are already in the NBA, don't really lose anything. Sure, the school they played for will get hit, but it doesn't cost the players anything. If Bridges had gone into the NBA, his name popping up now wouldn't really harm him or cost him anything.
February 23rd, 2018 at 12:54 PM ^
ya, miles didn't know his mom got payments. give me a break.
February 23rd, 2018 at 1:08 PM ^
Miles: "Mom, I want to go to Duke."
Mom: "No, son. You really, really want to go to Michigan State."
Miles: "But Mom..."
Mom: "Son, I have ten thousand reasons why you should go to Michigan State. And counting."
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:02 AM ^
Flip side, it's easier to defer millions of dollars when you know there is a source of money in the interim.
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:09 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:19 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 6:36 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 6:50 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 8:06 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 8:33 AM ^
doles out penalties. The NCAA has been more consistent about that then they are in general.
February 23rd, 2018 at 9:13 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:01 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:43 AM ^
is suspending players for a year who are on injured reserve lists and have tested positive for pot. Not focusing on who took money and how much. Izzo has already suffered enough. You want him to have to start playing weird guys?
February 23rd, 2018 at 9:33 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:23 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:26 AM ^
I absolutely can not stand this take. It's illegal to go 1 mph over the speed limit, but you wouldn't treat that the same as someone going 30mph over the speed limit. There are millions of dollars being made around these kids, easy to see how getting some free meals and maybe a few hundred dollards seems would be pretty easy to justify as not really being important. Not saying there can't be a punishment if caught, but there can be a difference in punishment that fits the crime just like in real life (i.e. getting let off with warning or small ticket vs suspending a license).
February 23rd, 2018 at 3:47 PM ^
the point is the rule was broken. Technically, a recruit could have $00.01 given to them and they broke the rule. The punishment will fit accordingly.
You know the take I can't stand? The one where athletes are given thousands in education expenses/food/travel/stipends and we think they need more. If they don't want to play college, go to the CFL for a year, go to Europe, I could care less. This really gets me as I enter my school payments each month. They are getting paid, suck it up.
February 23rd, 2018 at 7:10 AM ^
"free meals and maybe their mom took a couple hundred dollars is a joke."
What the hell are you talking about? There's $80,000 on the low end just listed here, besides Smith.
- Dennis Smith, who would go on to play at North Carolina State in 2016-17, received $43,500 according to the documents. Another document headed “Pina,” for ASM agent Stephen Pina, says Smith received a total of $73,500 in loans, and includes notes about “options to recoup the money” when Smith did not sign with ASM.
- Isaiah Whitehead, at the time a freshman at Seton Hall, received $26,136 according to the documents. The “Pina” document says Whitehead received $37,657 and was “setting up payment plan.” Whitehead signed with ASM but later left the agency for Roc Nation.
- Tim Quarterman, at the time a junior at LSU, received at least $16,000, according to the balance sheet.
- Diamond Stone, at the time a freshman at Maryland, received $14,303 according to the documents.
- A listing that refers to “BAM” for $12,000 is later identified in the documents as Edrice “Bam” Adebayo, who would go on to play at Kentucky in 2016-17. He did not sign with ASM. There’s a later reference to Adebayo that says he received $36,500. “Bad loan,” reads the document.
- Markelle Fultz, who would go on to play at Washington and become the No. 1 pick in the 2017 draft, received $10,000 according to the documents. He did not sign with ASM.
People who are just waiving all this off as penny-ante meals makes me wonder if they're related to Andy Miller.
February 23rd, 2018 at 7:43 AM ^
Man, there's this chick at the Platinum's in Toledo, Diamond Stone, boy does she look comfortable workin' that pole.
February 23rd, 2018 at 8:55 AM ^
Diamond Stone is comfortable working Poles, Swedes, Finns, Spaniards, Danes & Turks.
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:25 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:04 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:21 AM ^
but that's not what you wrote—you specifically referred to the dollars involved as just free meals and somebody's mom getting a couple of hundred bucks, and that's ridiculous disingenuous bullshit.
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:39 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:15 AM ^
Remember the big news when the story first broke was about Brian Bowen getting $100K from Louisville through Adidas. They have documentation on that too.
There's a lot more evidence already gathered. They have conversations with an informant wearing a wire. They're going to have interviews, bank records, etc and they aren't finished..
This was a teaser and maybe a warning to schools about using these players in the tournament.
February 23rd, 2018 at 1:02 PM ^
a lot of those smaller payments say "advance". that means more to come.
February 23rd, 2018 at 8:11 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 8:50 AM ^
i don't to pull the 'institutional control' thing out, because it's such a non-specific catch-all, but the odds that miles bridges is the only dude involved here are just tiny.
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:15 AM ^
is the kind of money that could sway a guy to attend one school over another, so that is significant.
But completely agree that meals and a few hundreds bucks here or there is negligible.
February 23rd, 2018 at 6:37 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 6:41 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 6:42 AM ^
As a fan of a clean program, seeing others get away with this crap for decades was so frustrating. Like a secret everyone knew, but noone bothered to stop. Doubtful that the NCAA will do much to their moneymaker programs, but I remain hopeful.
Side note:
February 23rd, 2018 at 7:06 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 7:24 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 8:52 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 8:07 AM ^
It usually ends in March, unless you believe the legends.
February 23rd, 2018 at 8:54 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 9:11 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 9:19 AM ^
think he was pretty clean then. Those players from Flint were tight before they went to State, that seemed pretty organic to me. But that level of performance created new expectations that Michigan State had not had for some time, and it is not as though they had developed any kind of recruiting "pipeline" at the time, and Flint has not produced a whole lot since then. My guess is that the 2000 team created enormous pressure to sustain that level of play.
That being said, I don't get the impression that Izzo has been dirty throughout his stint at MSU. They got really good players, but they never signed classes just loaded with McDonald's All Americans etc. until really recently. The pressure for Izzo to get that "second title" has increased because, frankly, for all the sizzle with Izzo, there is really less steak there then meets the eye.
If he has succommed to impermissible tactics, my guess is that it is kind of a "Blue Chips" situtation, where it was becomming increasingly clear that he could not put out the kind of team to really win it all without meeting some "demands." That loss to the MTSU probably only enhanced the pressure because that team had a cake bracket and that was a really good shot for him to get it done.
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:44 AM ^
Izzo was willing to dip his toe in the water. He recruited kids whose handlers were looking for payoffs. Maybe make smallish payments to them just to get access. They can run little scams that circumvent NCAA rules. Once you go that far, you see better what it takes to land some of those recruits and you know better just what some other schools are doing. And you were always running the risk of landing recruits who were getting paid behind your back. Boosters who see a coach dealing with shady characters must believe they have a green light from the program.
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:27 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 10:57 AM ^
The night of the famous "rollover crash" our guys were taking Cleeves downtown to meet with Ed Martin.
I had always assumed that Joel Ferguson outbid Martin for Cleeves' services.
February 23rd, 2018 at 6:49 AM ^
Going anywhere. People need to come to that realization. Dantonio either.
February 23rd, 2018 at 6:59 AM ^
Going anywhere. People need to come to that realization. Pitino either.
February 23rd, 2018 at 7:01 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 8:35 AM ^
You can say that for all the OT Kate Upton and Elle Johnson threads too.
February 23rd, 2018 at 11:00 AM ^
Had to Google Elle Johnson. Boy, do I feel dumb!
February 23rd, 2018 at 7:12 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 8:29 AM ^