FBI Arrests NCAA coaches for corruption

[Demon22]

Alabama just announced that their Associate Athletic Director, Kobie Baker, has resigned in connection with the investigation.

[herodotus]

Alabama just announced that their Associate Athletic Director, Kobie Baker, has resigned in connection with the investigation.

Oh my! If this jumps over to football, I can only imagine the dirt that could be uncovered. This is already groundshaking, but if this spreads to football, it might truly end up altering the landscape in some way.

[friars321]

I don't think its football just yet, regarding Alabama. But the last 2-3 years Alabama has been getting top 5 recruiting classes in basketball. Former Providence assistant coach Bob Simon left PC for Bama a couple years ago. It seems he resigned out of the blue a couple months ago with no legitimate explanation. Recently retweeting some of the articles about Alabama and this investigation. Connecting dots- Bama is guilty of something and he probably left because he didn't want to take part. L'ville, Alabama- and the Nike schools are next. Seems this is going to change the entire landscape of the sport.

[Fieldhouse Flyer]

Alabama just announced that their Associate Athletic Director, Kobie Baker, has resigned in connection with the investigation.

Cash@UDRYAN tweet – September 27, 2017

For those keeping track: Kobie Baker not affiliated with Alabama during Grants tenure. Grant March 2009 thru March 2015.

UD is a 'Nike' school.

Alabama Caught up in FBI Probe – Pat Forde, Yahoo! - September 28, 2017
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Rick Pitino promises ‘bare-knuckle fight’ amid Louisville firing report – NY Post – September 27, 2017

Pitino does not plan on going down without a fight, according to his lawyer, Steven Pence. According to Pence, Louisville would be in a legal fight over
$44 million it would owe Pitino as part of his buyout clause.

Rick Pitino lashes out at Louisville and it looks like he isn't going to go down quietly – CBS Sports – September 28, 2018

Pitino's statement indicates he intends to fight what he believes is his firing

A few hours after Louisville placed him on unpaid administrative leave due to a recruiting scandal revealed by the FBI on Tuesday centered around a Cardinals recruit, coach Rick Pitino met with his lawyers and concocted a statement. The statement indicates Pitino and his attorneys believe his fate has already been sealed and that he has been fired, although that is technically not yet the case. The statement also indicates that they intend to fight for Pitino's job.

"The University of Louisville ... "

According to Louisville employee policy, the university must give Pitino 10 days notice before formally firing him. The university and its Hall of Fame coach could be headed for a battle in court if both sides refuse to budge.

Look for the University of Louisville to formally fire Rick Pitino in 10 days – in accordance with Louisville employee policy. However, Louisville may also have to wait 10 days before formally interviewing any candidates for the head coach position, as doing so before the 10-day notice period expires could be used in evidence against U of L in the 'constructive dismissal' lawsuit which is apparently being prepared by Pitino's lawyer, Steven Pence.

Related post on the Coaching Carousel & Hot Seat 2017 thread: Louisville - Rick Pitino (updated this morning).

[GumbyDamnit!]

Pat Forde: "I talked to a coach who told me that he expected as many as 100 different programs being identified in some sort of pay to play corruption scheme."

I fear that our programs may not be immune to this in some way--albeit in a smaller way. Wrong is wrong regardless of the dollar amount. We may want to be careful throwing shade and stones until this all comes out. With practice starting this season will be incredibly intriguing to watch unfold. The immediate question is what happens to the eligibility of kids identified now or as the season begins. Is there a chance that rosters will change on the fly? What if it is learned in December that the leading scorer on 5 of the Top 10 teams got benefits? What if there are some kids in our own conference that are identified. This is not good. I pray that we (as a conference) stayed away from this nonsense.

[jfan]

I wonder if they haven't charged the two Louisville coaches yet because they are trying to get them to flip over a bigger fish? It seems odd that those two coaches weren't charged, given the info that came out and given the Feds know their identities!

[stever20]

Pat Forde: "I talked to a coach who told me that he expected as many as 100 different programs being identified in some sort of pay to play corruption scheme."

I fear that our programs may not be immune to this in some way--albeit in a smaller way. Wrong is wrong regardless of the dollar amount. We may want to be careful throwing shade and stones until this all comes out. With practice starting this season will be incredibly intriguing to watch unfold. The immediate question is what happens to the eligibility of kids identified now or as the season begins. Is there a chance that rosters will change on the fly? What if it is learned in December that the leading scorer on 5 of the Top 10 teams got benefits? What if there are some kids in our own conference that are identified. This is not good. I pray that we (as a conference) stayed away from this nonsense.

Just to think if it's 100 programs...

The number of programs in the P5, BE, and AAC is a total of 87(to include Wichita now with the AAC). Add in the A10 and it's 101. WCC is 111. That's the 9 conferences projected to get multiple teams in the NCAA tourney. You would think that a very high majority of the programs would fall in that group.

I'd think if the NCAA gets the info like what happened with Bowen that that kid is done.

[Burrito]

Arizona can top Louisville's $100,000 offer.

https://www.azdesertswarm.com/basketbal ... richardson

[Fieldhouse Flyer]

Things are not looking good for Rick.

Source: 'Coach-2' in federal complaint is Rick Pitino - ESPN - one hour ago

Court records also said Adidas executive Jim Gatto "spoke directly with Coach-2 multiple times in the days before [Bowen] publicly committed" to Louisville.

During a meeting in a hotel room in Las Vegas on July 27, which was recorded by video cameras the FBI placed in the room the day before, Dawkins, Jonathan Brad Augustine (the director of a Florida-based AAU program) and an undercover agent discussed how to pay $100,000 to the family of Bowen, a highly recruited player from LaPorte, Indiana, who had recently committed to play for Louisville, which has a shoe and apparel contract with Adidas.

Because two Adidas employees involved in the scheme were having difficulty getting the money, they wanted to funnel the payments through Augustine's AAU program, which was sponsored by Adidas.

According to FBI documents, at one point during the conversation in the hotel room, Augustine allegedly said, "No one swings a bigger [expletive] than [Coach-2] at [Adidas]" and added "all [Coach-2] has to do is pick up the phone and call somebody [and say], 'These are my guys; they're taking care of us.'"

Louisville hit with 4 NCAA violations, Pitino may face suspension - Gary Parrish, CBS Sports - October 20, 2016

[BEXU]

UD is a 'Nike' school.

I thought they were with PF Flyers.