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I'm interested in the context of those texts. It does fit Little in that he was likely a lean here, then jumped to UNC. For the extent Adidas money was involved, he consistently was ultimately tied to Nike/Jordan schools.ChooChooCat wrote:Arizona never offered shit for Nassir Little. Proof it was all to scheme Adidas out of money.
This is honestly fucking absurd.ChooChooCat wrote:Arizona never offered shit for Nassir Little. Proof it was all to scheme Adidas out of money.
What it alleges"(Undercover Agent)-1, working with CHRISTIAN DAWKINS and MUNISH SOOD, the defendants, paid and/or facilitated the payment of $20,000 in bribes to Emanuel Richardson, a/k/a 'Book,' the defendant, some of which RICHARDSON appears to have kept for himself and some of which he appears to have provided to at least one prospective high school basketball player ('Player-5') in order to recruit Player-5 to play for University-4. In exchange for the bribe payments, RICHARDSON agreed to use his influence over the student-athletes he coached to pressure them to retain DAWKINS and SOOD as a manager and financial advisor, respectively."
The player involved is Quinerly and he's cleared to play at Villanova. Quinerly has denied him or his family have taken money. Book taking bribe money, even if he kept if for himself is probably the worst of it because he's technically employed by the state. Hard to see him getting out of it, maybe a plea deal.A government agent, in conjunction with Dawkins and Sood, paid Arizona assistant Book Richardson $20,000 so he'd use his clout with Arizona players to sway them toward Dawkins' and Soot's respective businesses. Richardson kept some of the money and gave some to a recruit, believed to be 2018 point guard Jahvon Quinerly.
It's also important to note the Adidas officials—Gatto and Code—aren't implicated in this part of the scheme, as Arizona is a Nike school.
But that's not the only nefarious action Arizona is accused of participating in. There's something really nasty hidden in a part of a complaint that addresses allegations about Miami (we'll get to them later).
What it alleges"CODE discussed with GATTO... the involvement of CHRISTIAN DAWKINS and JONATHAN BRAD AUGUSTINE, the defendants, in the scheme to facilitate payments to Player-12 in order to secure Player12's commitment to attend University-7. CODE explained that another Division I university ('University-4') was offering Player-12 $150,000 'and we're trying to keep him from going to one of their schools.'"
We know because of their texts in the tweet at the top this is complete bullshit. Should help Book. Little is eligible to play at North Carolina, Augustine had his charges dropped because he pocketed the money and admitted to lying.Code is trying to get Gatto to agree to pay "Player-12" $150,000 to commit to Miami instead of Arizona.
We know "University-4" is Arizona because it's described in a separate complaint as the school that employs Book Richardson. We also know that Miami is University-7 because the school has confirmed it is being investigated and University-7 is the only school named in the case that fits Miami's description.
Player-12 is believed to be five-star recruit Nassir Little, who plays for Augustine's AAU team—Augustine is accused of funneling Player-12 the money— and was being targeted by Arizona and Miami.
Little's family denies asking for or being offered any money for his commitment.
But there's obviously some timeline discrepancies. ESPN reported the wiretaps happened in spring 2017, then Spring 2016.FBI wiretaps intercepted telephone conversations between Arizona coach Sean Miller and Christian Dawkins, a key figure in the FBI's investigation into college basketball corruption, in which Miller discussed paying $100,000 to ensure star freshman Deandre Ayton signed with the Wildcats, sources familiar with the government's evidence told ESPN.
According to people with knowledge of the FBI investigation, Miller and Dawkins, a runner working for ASM Sports agent Andy Miller, had multiple conversations about Ayton. When Dawkins asked Sean Miller if he should work with assistant coach Emanuel "Book" Richardson to finalize their agreement, Miller told Dawkins he should deal directly with him when it came to money, the sources said.
The telephone calls between Sean Miller and Dawkins were among 3,000 hours of conversations intercepted from Dawkins' phone by the FBI.
-- Michael McCann, Sports Illustrated legal analysta source familiar with the college hoops corruption investigation confirmed with SI that the details of a wiretapped phone call involving Miller were inaccurately reported. According to the source, relevant FBI wiretaps in the investigation did not begin until 2017—months after five-star recruit Deandre Ayton had already committed to Arizona in Sept. 2016. This account is consistent with reporting by Evan Daniels of 247Sports.
The recruitment of Ayton, therefore, would have not been at issue in an intercepted phone call that occurred in 2017. To that end, the source told SI what Miller clarified for the first time Thursday: Ayton is not the player on whose behalf former ASM Sports employee Christian Dawkins allegedly sought a payment from Miller, and Miller never pursued paying or made any payments to a recruit associated with Dawkins.
-- EVAN DANIELS, BRIAN SNOW & JOSH GERSHONESPN said that the phone call took place in the spring of 2017. The network then issued a correction, stating that the phone call between Miller and Dawkins took place in the spring of 2016. ESPN then corrected its first correction, stating that the phone call between Miller and Dawkins took place in the year 2016, removing the "spring" designation.
ESPN reported the wiretaps happened in 2016uthe timeline doesn't add up.
A source told 247Sports that Dawkins (who had his phone tapped by the FBI) and Miller had calls intercepted between the timeframe of June 19 of 2017, through Sept. 25.
Sources say that the U.S. Attorney's office notified multiple parties who had conversations with Dawkins that their phone calls had been recorded specifically during the dates of June 19, 2017 and Sept. 25, 2017.
It sort of made the front page, it's in the list of articles without pics.Frybry02 wrote:How is this not on the front page of ESPN?
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basket ... ecruitment
The question boils down to “Does Arizona get mentioned as cheaters because they recruit like champions or do they recruit so well because they’re paying players?”DrWildcat wrote:Kind of interesting that Arizona is the "competing offer" these guys use for practically every kid. Is this just that they had a link to Book and the money was somewhat believable since we are a pretty big Nike school? While there is no direct evidence that we actually did anything, it is frustrating to repeatedly see Arizona brought up.
The Dan Wetzel Yahoo article (https://sports.yahoo.com/10-things-know ... 07130.html" target="_blank) seems to point at our name always being brought up too:
"Likewise, while Arizona gets mentioned about every 15 minutes and the characters in this case believe the Wildcats are willing to pay for pretty much any available recruit out there, there are no direct ties to Sean Miller at this time."
I would imagine part of it is not understanding how the hell Miller is consistently #3. Duke and Kentucky make sense to a lot of people. But Arizona? Lute didn't rip top 5 classes every year.Chicat wrote:The question boils down to “Does Arizona get mentioned as cheaters because they recruit like champions or do they recruit so well because they’re paying players?”DrWildcat wrote:Kind of interesting that Arizona is the "competing offer" these guys use for practically every kid. Is this just that they had a link to Book and the money was somewhat believable since we are a pretty big Nike school? While there is no direct evidence that we actually did anything, it is frustrating to repeatedly see Arizona brought up.
The Dan Wetzel Yahoo article (https://sports.yahoo.com/10-things-know ... 07130.html" target="_blank) seems to point at our name always being brought up too:
"Likewise, while Arizona gets mentioned about every 15 minutes and the characters in this case believe the Wildcats are willing to pay for pretty much any available recruit out there, there are no direct ties to Sean Miller at this time."
I think the players (and more likely it’s usually their handlers, AAU coaches, family, friends, mentors etc) do get money but it comes from the shoe companies. Sean Miller isn’t handing anyone $100k, and neither is Bill Self. What they actually provide is access and success.
I don't know that players, themselves, get the money all that often. I mean, maybe a nice car, but that's just stupid with compliance officers at your school logging if you get a nice new TV. The sums aren't astronomical for these players, based on reports ($150K tax free is nice, but no one is retiring), and seems to get spread around a lot. Figure there is debt to be paid off, obligations to be met, travel to plan for (so many parents seem to be able to attend out of town games), etc. It doesn't stretch that far. Preston got popped because he was driving a stupid ride and got caught in an accident on campus. Seems a bad way to go about staying under the radar.Postmaster wrote:What’s hard for me to grasp is that we haven’t seen a lot of people admitting that they got paid.
You see some kids (Mark Lyons) talk about living on ramen. Other guys like Barkley saying they would get some spending money or some new shoes. But nobody that I know about is saying that they got $50k or $100k.
You would think that some of these kids would brag about it on social media or in some other way. I find it hard to believe all of these 18 year old kids can keep a secret as well as NASA has about the Moon Lansing.
I'd love to see Schlabach cover the Alex Jones/Art Bell/tin foil hat beat. Schlabach is no doubt being recruited by Nat'l Inquirer, The Globe, etc... for his writing prowess. He'll believe and write anything.Postmaster wrote:What’s hard for me to grasp is that we haven’t seen a lot of people admitting that they got paid.
You see some kids (Mark Lyons) talk about living on ramen. Other guys like Barkley saying they would get some spending money or some new shoes. But nobody that I know about is saying that they got $50k or $100k.
You would think that some of these kids would brag about it on social media or in some other way. I find it hard to believe all of these 18 year old kids can keep a secret as well as NASA has about the Moon Landing.
I’m honestly questioning whether one even exists.NYCat wrote:Was hoping we heard the Miller wiretap, damn.
I've always figured that something exists, simply because Miller conceded that he'd once spoken to someone about paying a player and he rejected the idea outright.Chicat wrote:I’m honestly questioning whether one even exists.NYCat wrote:Was hoping we heard the Miller wiretap, damn.
This. The fact Miller described a conversation and offer leads me to believe Miller thinks he's on a wire. He may not be right about that, but I figure he has a pretty good reason to believe it and mentioned it at the press conference to address it before things got too far down the line.YoDeFoe wrote:I've always figured that something exists, simply because Miller conceded that he'd once spoken to someone about paying a player and he rejected the idea outright.Chicat wrote:I’m honestly questioning whether one even exists.NYCat wrote:Was hoping we heard the Miller wiretap, damn.
Yeah this ain't it. He was recorded talking to Dawkins (talking to agents is part of the job) and a player not named DeAndre Ayton was brought up and money was brought up by Dawkins. The conversation didn't last much longer. Miller mentioned in the infamous presser exactly what happened with no names mentioned.RichardCranium wrote:A guy I know, has had good info in the past, (but also absolute bullshit), claims that Miller was recorded in a phone call, and the FBI were in the room with Miller at the time. In other words, it was Miller cooperating. I am more skeptical about this than I was when he first made the claim, but I just don't know.
Spicy. OK, Dawkins’ phone was tapped from 6/19/2017 to 9/25/2017 (with the exception of 8/19-8/21). Brian Bowen is obviously the first guess, but he committed on 6/2/2017. Nas Little? Balsa Koprivica? Augustine/Dawkins, it came out today was trying to shop him to Will Wade at LSU. Don't know any other recruit in the 2018 class who's name was dropped in the FBI report.ChooChooCat wrote:Yeah this ain't it. He was recorded talking to Dawkins (talking to agents is part of the job) and a player not named DeAndre Ayton was brought up and money was brought up by Dawkins. The conversation didn't last much longer. Miller mentioned in the infamous presser exactly what happened with no names mentioned.RichardCranium wrote:A guy I know, has had good info in the past, (but also absolute bullshit), claims that Miller was recorded in a phone call, and the FBI were in the room with Miller at the time. In other words, it was Miller cooperating. I am more skeptical about this than I was when he first made the claim, but I just don't know.
That doesn't make any sense, why would he commit to Louisville and then be shopped to Arizona? He had actually enrolled to Louisville a couple days before he actually committed on 6/01/2017.Spaceman Spiff wrote:God please let this involve Duke.
It virtually had to be Bowen. Miller said in the press conference that the player that the money discussion was about a player who had already enrolled. By the time of the heavy FBI involvement, Bowen is the only kid who fits that bill.
He committed committed to Louisville on 6/03/2017 . Wiretaps on Dawkins started 18 days later. Heres the transcript of Miller talking about it.U of L’s registrar’s office, through a school spokesman, said Bowen’s status changed from application to matriculation and that he enrolled in classes for the summer term.
Bowen, a consensus five-star Class of 2017 prospect, still has to sign financial aid paperwork before he is officially a member of the 2017-18 Louisville team
And video (3min 16secs)“The only attempted corrections by the original source of the media statements are still inaccurate and completely false. I also want you to know that the one time that someone suggested to me paying a player to come to the University of Arizona, I did not agree to it. It never happened and that player did not come to the University of Arizona.
“Out of respect for this ongoing investigation, the privacy of the student-athlete and his family, I’m not going to share further details concerning this matter.
And while just about anyone and everyone who pays attention to college athletics has an opinion about the NCAA's amateurism model, the arguable nature of one of sports' most polarizing organizations is now off limits.
U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan made sure of that Thursday.
"I will not have it, Mr. Schachter, I will not have it," Kaplan said to Gatto's lead defense attorney, Michael Schachter. "You're not going there."
By "not going there" Kaplan meant dragging the NCAA into this as means to broaden the parameters of the trial's arguments. Here's the defense team's pickle: Even if NCAA rules are critical to this ordeal happening to begin with, the laws allegedly broken by Gatto, Code and Dawkins supersede NCAA jurisdiction of course. With Kaplan's admonishment, the pathway to a not-guilty verdict became undeniably more problematic. In a five-minute dress-down of the defense (intentionally done with no jury in the room or any witness on the stand, as to not influence either) the Honorary Judge reminded both sides what the basis of this trial is and why the NCAA's business has nothing to do with the matter at hand as far as he, and the law, are concerned.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are here today because the government alleges that Jim Gatto committed two federal offenses when Adidas took a tiny portion of the money that it brought in and shared it with the families of the players on the court," Kaplan said. "Now, the purpose of this trial is not to determine whether the NCAA amateurism rules are good or bad. It has nothing to do with it."
K is such a fraud. Like he doesn’t know agents, shoe companies, and other parties have been steering players to major programs, including Duke. He is nauseating. Can’t wait for him to retire.DrWildcat wrote:Kind of funny that this Zion stuff comes out a day after Coach K said the following...
"I think [college basketball] is actually pretty clean"
"I think it's minute, it's a blip. It's not what's happening. ... We haven't lost guys because someone cheated. I haven't paid attention to it because I haven't been affected by it."
The bolded above by Choo doesn't lineup with the Bowen angle spiff.ChooChooCat wrote:Yeah this ain't it. He was recorded talking to Dawkins (talking to agents is part of the job) and a player not named DeAndre Ayton was brought up and money was brought up by Dawkins. The conversation didn't last much longer. Miller mentioned in the infamous presser exactly what happened with no names mentioned.RichardCranium wrote:A guy I know, has had good info in the past, (but also absolute bullshit), claims that Miller was recorded in a phone call, and the FBI were in the room with Miller at the time. In other words, it was Miller cooperating. I am more skeptical about this than I was when he first made the claim, but I just don't know.
If Miller is referencing a recorded convo he had with Dawkins in his presser, as Choo says, it is impossible the player Miller alludes to is Bowen. Because it was 18 days, at the earliest, after the feds started wiretapping Dawkins that Bowen was already in the Louisville program.Spaceman Spiff wrote:NyCat, Miller said:
I also want you to know that the one time someone suggested to me paying a player to come to the University of Arizona I did not agree to it. It never happened and that player did not come to the University of Arizona.
I always took from that the implication this was past. Maybe Miller wasn't on a wire, but all of Arizona's FBI involvement was in 2017, and the only player who was on our radar who was actually at a college by the time Miller said the above was Bowen.
Little, Quinerly...none of them would fit the past tense in that statement.
KillerKlown wrote:I think Nike was involved but not to the extent of Adidas. Adidas has to get ahead start on future stars. Adidas doesn't have the pull of Nike. Nike is already the go to brand
I know Schlabach and his editors that approved his shaky story are fucking terrible, but I somehow doubt they completely made up the wiretap portion of it. They might have gotten details wrong, such as the player involved and the dates of the wiretaps, but I still think there's a Miller wiretap out there thar Schlabach reported on. What Choo says (Dawkins called him and offered him a player in exchange for money), makes the most sense if we believe Miller is innocent of what Shlabach reported.UofAlum05 wrote: From my understanding it is possible there isn't a tape of Miller at all. It is likely that Miller is going to have to testify against Book. Book's attorney gave Schlabach a little call and told him some info knowing that it would blow up in the media and could possibly discredit Miller.
Those dates have been confirmed during the trial.U.S. Attorney's office notified multiple parties who had conversations with Dawkins that their phone calls had been recorded specifically during the dates of June 19, 2017 and Sept. 25, 2017.
So Pasternak was hired on April 4th, 2017 at UC Santa Barbara. Dawkins was wiretapped by the feds from June 19, 2017 to Sept. 25, 2017. That's a looooong time passing to go tell Dawkins to go fuck himself. Dawkins didn't meet Book, Pasternak until the PAC 12 conference tournament in Vegas. This is a very short window, basically early March to early April.baycat93 wrote:since we are supposing:
What if Miller's reference to a conversation was not with Dawkins or any handler... if it was with his own staff.. ie Pasternak. Pasternak came to him with the offer from Dawkins and Miller said NoF'ingWay. Don't speak with him again. I will handle this from here. Miller called Dawkins and told him Foff.
Just to confirm, NY is saying that it was likely Dawkins that leaked information incorrectly to Mark Schlabach. But what is the motivation for doing that? Sorry, my feeble brain can't keep up with this shit sometimes.ChooChooCat wrote:NY is absolutely on the right track.
From my understanding Book and his attorney strongly disagree on loyalty to Miller.YoDeFoe wrote:I'm not buying Book as the source of the ESPN leak.
He's not.YoDeFoe wrote:I'm not buying Book as the source of the ESPN leak.
NY is on the right track that it wasn't Bowen. If you've paid attention to the case you know exactly who the guy is and you also know it was pure bullshit.goslingswagg wrote:Just to confirm, NY is saying that it was likely Dawkins that leaked information incorrectly to Mark Schlabach. But what is the motivation for doing that? Sorry, my feeble brain can't keep up with this shit sometimes.ChooChooCat wrote:NY is absolutely on the right track.
So if I put on my sleuth hat... it was about Little. Miller said no. Dawkins/Augustine whoever else involved then created a “market rate” of 100,000 that they were going to pocket themselves. Am I closeChooChooCat wrote:NY is on the right track that it wasn't Bowen. If you've paid attention to the case you know exactly who the guy is and you also know it was pure bullshit.goslingswagg wrote:Just to confirm, NY is saying that it was likely Dawkins that leaked information incorrectly to Mark Schlabach. But what is the motivation for doing that? Sorry, my feeble brain can't keep up with this shit sometimes.ChooChooCat wrote:NY is absolutely on the right track.
Sub Little for Lonnie Walker?Frybry02 wrote:So if I put on my sleuth hat... it was about Little. Miller said no. Dawkins/Augustine whoever else involved then created a “market rate” of 100,000 that they were going to pocket themselves. Am I closeChooChooCat wrote:NY is on the right track that it wasn't Bowen. If you've paid attention to the case you know exactly who the guy is and you also know it was pure bullshit.goslingswagg wrote:Just to confirm, NY is saying that it was likely Dawkins that leaked information incorrectly to Mark Schlabach. But what is the motivation for doing that? Sorry, my feeble brain can't keep up with this shit sometimes.ChooChooCat wrote:NY is absolutely on the right track.
ETA: the only other guy that came to mind was Ferguson but unsure how he fits in the timeline
EVCat wrote:Completely forgot about him!Frybry02 wrote:So if I put on my sleuth hat... it was about Little. Miller said no. Dawkins/Augustine whoever else involved then created a “market rate” of 100,000 that they were going to pocket themselves. Am I closeChooChooCat wrote:NY is on the right track that it wasn't Bowen. If you've paid attention to the case you know exactly who the guy is and you also know it was pure bullshit.goslingswagg wrote:Just to confirm, NY is saying that it was likely Dawkins that leaked information incorrectly to Mark Schlabach. But what is the motivation for doing that? Sorry, my feeble brain can't keep up with this shit sometimes.ChooChooCat wrote:NY is absolutely on the right track.
ETA: the only other guy that came to mind was Ferguson but unsure how he fits in the timeline
Sub Little for Lonnie Walker?
Was Nassir a lock to go to Arizona? Most people think that without the investigation he would be in Tucson instead of Chapel Hill.Absolutely not. We told everyone at the start of Nassir’s recruitment that if you’re offering money or any kind of impermissible benefit then you’re automatically cut, no questions asked. ... If you’re a coach in the NCAA then you obviously know what the rules are. If you’re offering stuff, that means you know you could compromise my son’s eligibility. And if you’re willing to do that just to get him, that means you don’t give a damn about him reaching his dreams and aspirations, and you don’t give a damn about our family.
It’s funny you asked that, because that’s just not the case. We told everyone who was around Nassir that the people making the decision were going to be Nassir, along with input from me and my wife. There was never a commitment to Arizona, and there was never an understanding that that’s where he was going to go. Now he was very interested in them, but ultimately Carolina was the best fit. The idea that other folks had sway or that they were going to force him to go to a certain school, that just didn’t happen. I know people talked about Nassir’s tweet where he said he was re-opening his recruitment. That was just a bad choice of words. What he meant was that he’s resetting everything and starting over, because he didn’t want to be connected with that stuff at all.
UofAlum05 wrote:Holy shit!! I got Dick Vitale to finally respond to me on twitter
God bless youIrishAzCat wrote:UofAlum05 wrote:Holy shit!! I got Dick Vitale to finally respond to me on twitter
This is nice and all, but yes if Arizona's name didnt get drug through the mud Nassir Little would've committed to Arizona during his visit.NYCat wrote:Walker would've been a good guess if this didn't happen during the time Dawkins was wiretapped, Bill Preston too.
Did any coach recruiting Nassir offer you or anyone in your family cash or impermissible benefits?
Was Nassir a lock to go to Arizona? Most people think that without the investigation he would be in Tucson instead of Chapel Hill.Absolutely not. We told everyone at the start of Nassir’s recruitment that if you’re offering money or any kind of impermissible benefit then you’re automatically cut, no questions asked. ... If you’re a coach in the NCAA then you obviously know what the rules are. If you’re offering stuff, that means you know you could compromise my son’s eligibility. And if you’re willing to do that just to get him, that means you don’t give a damn about him reaching his dreams and aspirations, and you don’t give a damn about our family.
It’s funny you asked that, because that’s just not the case. We told everyone who was around Nassir that the people making the decision were going to be Nassir, along with input from me and my wife. There was never a commitment to Arizona, and there was never an understanding that that’s where he was going to go. Now he was very interested in them, but ultimately Carolina was the best fit. The idea that other folks had sway or that they were going to force him to go to a certain school, that just didn’t happen. I know people talked about Nassir’s tweet where he said he was re-opening his recruitment. That was just a bad choice of words. What he meant was that he’s resetting everything and starting over, because he didn’t want to be connected with that stuff at all.
