The world of college basketball sounds like it’s going to get hit by another shockwave due to the federal investigation into multiple members of the community.
Several college coaches were charged with crimes stemming from bribery and corruption, and the investigation might shine an unpleasant spotlight on major programs.
Yahoo Sports reported the following:
Sources familiar with the probe told Yahoo Sports that there’s a surprising level of specificity in the documents, bank records and wiretaps involving Miller’s business. They include exact dollar figures and intricate documentation of payments to the families of college players. There are also conversations brokering deals between Dawkins and the clients he was recruiting.
“There are spreadsheets detailing who got paid, how much they got paid and how much more they were planning to pay,” said a source familiar with the investigation. “The feds got everything they wanted and much more. Don’t think it will only be players who ended up signing with ASM that got paid. Those spreadsheets cast a wide net throughout college basketball. If your school produced a first-round pick in the past three years, be worried.”
That last sentence should terrify every good school in America. There are 30 first round picks every year, which means that 90 young men are possibly wrapped up in this. The worst part is that a small group of schools produces the vast majority of first round picks.
The top schools to produce first round picks are North Carolina, Kentucky, Duke, UCLA, Kansas and Indiana. So far, none of those schools have been publicly named in this whole mess of a situation. The biggest school to get wrapped up was Louisville, and it cost Rick Pitino his job as head coach.
I’ve lived in the world of college sports, and I know how far some people are willing to bend or break the rules in order to win. It’s all about hanging banners in the gym. Sometimes that means you have to get your hands a little dirty. This might not be the most ethical thing to say, but I’d recommend the people in these major programs destroy any and all incriminating evidence that might exist. Get rid of it all, and then prepare to lawyer up. They’re not likely to get charged with crimes, but that doesn’t mean the NCAA isn’t going to come snooping around.
If teams with a first round pick in the past three years are really in trouble then college basketball is about to get turned upside down. It might be about to get wild.