~2017-18 Big Ten Basketball Thread~

[ELA]

And to be honest, it sounds like this is just the tip of the iceberg.

The AAU circuit and the shoe companies involved are all dirty.

Just wait til these guys start flipping on each other.

You have two different issues, the legal matters and the NCAA issues.  I don't think Louisville was implicated in anything illegal.  But in wiretapping the Adidas rep, they got a Louisville assistant involved in an NCAA violation.

I also wouldn't be surprised if you have some innocent coaches buried in this.  The Pitino trail is too long for anyone to think he is innocent, but if there is a deal in place between an assistant and a shoe rep and an AAU coach, I would buy that a head coach didn't know.

Now if it's a Bowen situation and a 5* recruit calls you (through his AAU "rep")out of the blue, after Signing Day, and says he wants to pay his own dime to come visit and commit, and that doesn't raise a red flag, you are being willfully ignorant.  But in other scenarios I could see how a coach would have no idea.

It does seem like if I were any Adidas school I would be really, really nervous right now.

[grillrat]

ELA is right.  This is two separate items.

The FBI is investigating criminal charges of fraud and corruption on a few specific coaches who took bribes.  In doing so, they got the Adidas finance guy to flip and that is the main source for all of these charges.  The FBI has the power to subpoena, and therefore they are able to get all the financial records.

If the FBI can then release all that information to the NCAA to process it, that's when we are going to see what schools are punished.  If that Adidas finance guy has the books for all the dealings with their contracted schools, this could literally affect dozens of big schools.  The NCAA would be forced to make some major overhauls.

[HailHailMSP]

This is looking like College Basketball's version of Balco. It may very well change how we think about the last 10-20 years of many programs and will hopefully have a positive impact on the sport moving forward. It's interesting that the FBI, through its weight, subpoena power, and resources, has been able to connect all the dots through the stream from college coach > AAU teams > shoe company > agent / financial rep > recruits and their families.

With Adidas being caught in the middle of this I suspect the greatest risk resides to Adidas schools that have skirted the lines. I know its wrong to wish for a certain final outcome but I really hope the smoke becomes fire with Pitino. It wouldn't feel right if Roy Williams, Calipari, and Boeheim didn't find their demise through this as well. 

[847badgerfan]

I like the Balco analogy.

[HailHailMSP]

The other thing that should be noted is that while Adidas seems to be the center-point of this one due to who the FBI was able to flip, their are Nike school's (Ok State, Arizona) and USC that just flipped from Nike to US, and a long time UA school (Auburn) tied up in this.

Also Adidas guy was at Nike for a number of years before he recently jumped ship to Adidas.

I really hope he kept meticulous books over the years!

[GopherRock]

I like the Balco analogy.

Not a bad analogy, but you better hope the outcome is different. That was one of the few high-profile defeats for the Federales.

[847badgerfan]

True, but it set baseball on its ear.

[SuperMario]

Please dear God let Pitino go down in flames. I also would mind Coach K being flung in there as well even though there doesn't seem to be any mention of him or Duke. Once upon a time I really like coach K, but he's turned into a toolbox over the last decade.

[847badgerfan]

"These allegations come as a complete shock to me. If true, I agree with the U.S. Attorney's Office that these third-party schemes, initiated by a few bad actors, operated to commit a fraud on the impacted universities and their basketball programs, including the University of Louisville. Our fans and supporters deserve better and I am committed to taking whatever steps are needed to ensure those responsible are held accountable."


Ehhh, yeah right...

Look in the mirror Rick, you shitbag.

[ELA]

Please dear God let Pitino go down in flames. I also would mind Coach K being flung in there as well even though there doesn't seem to be any mention of him or Duke. Once upon a time I really like coach K, but he's turned into a toolbox over the last decade.

I don't like K, but I don't think he's a cheater.
I just don't like how he holds the Duke program out, while now being every bit the 1b to Calipari's 1a as far as bringing in one and dones who never step foot in a classroom.  At least Cal owns what he is, and I can sort of respect that (not the cheating stuff, but the one and done program) but K is such a phony.
In retrospect the best thing to happen to Michigan basketball was Pitino's wife talking him out of that job.  Could you imagine Pitino on the heels of Fisher?  The program would have never recovered, death penalty stuff.  They missed on their fallback hire of Amaker, but then got it right with Beilein, a hell of a coach and a guy, and does it clean.

[Brutus Buckeye]

I don't think anyone would be wise to say this coach or that coach "does it clean"

We have no idea how deep this goes. 

[ELA]

I don't think anyone would be wise to say this coach or that coach "does it clean"

We have no idea how deep this goes.

Even if Michigan is implicated I would need to see a lot more than they showed with Louisville to believe Beilein was involved.  Pitino has burned any shred of belief he should get.

[NickSmith4Three]

Some rumors on twitter that Pitino will be fired today

[847badgerfan]

Even if Michigan is implicated I would need to see a lot more than they showed with Louisville to believe Beilein was involved.  Pitino has burned any shred of belief he should get.

Exactly this.

I trust Beilein. I trust Izzo. I trust Gard. Those guys do it right.

In fact, I think the B1G is pretty darn clean overall, except that kid up in the Twin Cities. I don't like his life mentor.

Which are the Adidas schools in the Big Ten now?