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Two more premier college basketball programs were ensnared in an expanding federal probe into bribery at the sport’s highest level when prosecutors filed additional charges against three men accused of funneling cash to prospects to steer them to top schools.
Former Adidas AG executive James Gatto, consultant Merl Code and agent Christian Dawkins, face new charges of paying families of six student-athletes in exchange for commitments to attend the University of Louisville, the University of Miami, the University of Kansas and North Carolina State University, prosecutors said Tuesday. Kansas and North Carolina State weren’t included in the original indictment.
According to the superseding indictment, Gatto helped to direct about $40,000 in payments to the father of a player “widely regarded as the top high school recruit in the state of North Carolina” to induce him to play for North Carolina State. While the recruit wasn’t named in the indictment, the description matches that of Dennis Smith Jr., who played for the Wolfpack as a freshman and was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks last year.
The unidentified player committed to NC State in September 2015, but wasn’t happy with his decision and was considering decommitting about a month later, according to the indictment. Gatto and the unidentified Adidas consultant agreed to make a $40,000 payment to an unnamed NC State coach, who would then deliver it to the player’s parent, the indictment alleges. The payments were concealed from NC State officials and the NCAA, according to prosecutors.
The indictment says the player enrolled at NC State for the 2016-17 season and entered the NBA draft in June 2017.
NC State also released a statement on Tuesday, addressing that one of the latest indictments included the school and that the school had previously contacted former coaches in September 2017 about issues.
It concluded, “NC State will continue to fully cooperate with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and keep the NCAA updated throughout this investigation.”
I’m just giddy we are referred to as a “premier” college basketball program. Solid.
Swear to the Almighty, Wulfpack, that was the first thought in my noggin.
I’m just giddy we are referred to as a “premier” college basketball program. Solid.
Swear to the Almighty, Wulfpack, that was the first thought in my noggin.
My first thought as well. After a second look I’d say they got it right with the” premier college” but we might have to wait and see on the basketball program part.
This is disappointing beyond all belief that this could happen on our basketball team after the amount of suffering we have had to endure for the last 25+ years. I am just flabbergasted and disgusted.
If the university was running a diploma mill to keep players eligible, I Would be “disappointed beyond all belief.” If the players were shaving points, I would be “flabbergasted and disgusted.”
Neither our school nor our team has done anything wrong. The only person I would hang by his gonads is the unnamed coach who delivered the cash to the unnamed player’s parents. We don’t know if the unnamed player even knew about the deal nor do we know if our HC knew.
What I WOULD like to know from some of you basketball gurus is who was the recruiting coach of record — the unnamed dude who was in contact with the unnamed parents of the unnamed player.
Adidas is our athletic apparel supplier and is the party with the most to gain from the unnamed player wearing Adidas Shoes and other apparel. I hope Debbie Yow has the schools legal staff searching for a way out of any apparel contract we may have with Adidas.
Even though the unnamed coach who delivered the cash is in deep, neither the team nor the school has committed a crime IMO. In any event hire the law firm that EweNC used and we will be found to be in full compliance with any NCAA rules and not subject to so much as a wrist slap.
It’s not like our HC had a slush fund like a certain coach from a school in the west had. Lighten up, Packster. This transgression by an unnamed coach from a former team doesn’t warrant being “flabbergasted and disgusted.” Let’s keep it in the “disappointed” but NOT beyond all belief category. 😉
Gott was dirty. Everyone knew it. He was a scum bag. I imagine this probe stays with the coaches and not ncsu. Nonetheless it name gets dragged through the mud. Hopefully it doesn’t impact recruiting.
Gott is the gift that keeps on giving.Kansas and State had already been mentioned….weeks ago, along with Puke and UNx. Typical ESPN puts their spin on it to release a new “old” breaking news story in all caps bold print pointing its ugly finger at state and Kansas. Old news, suck it espn.
I was flabbergasted DSJ decided to come to state after all his AAU stud friends bailed, now we all know why. I’d say it actually makes more sense now.
In a word…
GOTTCHA….
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As Grey pointed out and as the University of Kansas stated in their ‘official’ response yesterday…
“The University is a victim in this matter…”
GO PACK!
#NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!If we are a victim it’s because we played the ‘heart be evil see no evil’ game. They knew what they had with Gott. I hope they insulated the school.
If we are a victim it’s because we played the ‘heart be evil see no evil’ game. They knew what they had with Gott. I hope they insulated the school.
Rick, In another thread you asked,
Dumb question. How do you know this? <skip> but I was just wondering what evidence you have for this claim.
So I’m wondering…
This is not old news. Feds charged Gatto YESTERDAY with additional criminal counts, alleging FOR THE FIRST TIME he provided cash to families for players for Kansas and NCSU.
My guess is we get the death penalty. Kansas gets a slap on the wrist and head turning the other way (even though the $$$ were more to Jackson than Smith) and Midwest Cornfield U gets 5 years of sanctions in place of Kansas.
Vacate the wins of any game the ineligible player played. Bye bye 2015 season. Double secret probation. Done.
Here’s what you do. Here it is. Now you listen real careful to me and those that can pass this advice along to the decision makers over at the school please do so posthaste.
You get one of the coaches right now to give a student who is NOT an athlete $1.Problem solved. It’s gone. Like it never happened.
NCAA has set the precedent with the UNC non-scandal.
You get one of the coaches right now to give a student who is NOT an athlete $1.
That thought ran through my mind last night, you articulated it very well.
Who hired Gott to come to NCSU?
Here you have it, folks……the Wolfpack version of the Final Four- KU, Louisville, Miami and NC State.
Who’ll come out the biggest winner in this select group?
Place your office pool bets now.
This is not old news. Feds charged Gatto YESTERDAY with additional criminal counts, alleging FOR THE FIRST TIME he provided cash to families for players for Kansas and NCSU.
OK, so if this isn’t OLD news then Dennis Smith Jr’s mother also received 40k…because that was reported weeks ago. Dang, DSJ is up now 80k….
Here’s what you do. Here it is. Now you listen real careful to me and those that can pass this advice along to the decision makers over at the school please do so posthaste.
You get one of the coaches right now to give a student who is NOT an athlete $1.Problem solved. It’s gone. Like it never happened.
NCAA has set the precedent with the UNC non-scandal.
Now THAT read was worth my time!!!!!! Spot on brother
We hired the Gott and allowed him to hire the bag men. We “gott” what was coming.
If you look at the timeline, you can figure out which coach paid DSJ via process of elimination. As dumb and slimy as Gott is, he probably wasn’t dumb enough to make the actual payments.
The only one on that staff doing any real coaching was Lutz. I said at the time, said along the way, and still believe that our program would have been in much better shape had we hired Lutz and not Gott.
Grey,
To answer your question. I had heard about the payments to dsj. And I am not particularly connected. If I heard about then I think it is safe to assume the administration knew about it.Those schemes are set up to make sure the University has plausible deniability. Only the most egregious and systemic cheaters (like UNC with their dental school, or Southern California with Carroll) are doing it in such a way that the larger university can get implicated.
DSJ getting paid had a lot of rumblings……………….. I was hoping it was related to his surgery.
The “we didn’t know” defense is pretty weak. When you hire the Gott and he hires assistants who are “recruiters” then you know what you are getting. When you have to work to get marginal kids cleared every year for a variety of reasons, then there are questions that need to be asked. When you allow Harrick to be anywhere near your program, you are playing with fire. When your coach is directly recruiting against one of the dirtiest programs around and is trying for the same guys, then you probably need to ask questions. When one of your targeted recruits is dumb enough to tweetspublicly that basketball is a business, you’ve got to wonder what kind of kids are being targeted. When you hire a coach and he “brings a recruit” in a “package deal” you have to question why there’s such loyalty of a player to a random assistant.
There were a series of very bad decisions made with respect to the men’s basketball program and they started with “an email” and a knee jerk signing of a TV announcer fired in disgrace from his alma mater………
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