Bribery Scandal - FBI Probe - Book Richardson Involved

[pc in NM]

I think Goodman, Bilas and Fraschilla all are dealing precisely with the facts reported by Schlabach. Vitals is the one dealing in speculation and innuendo. Schlabach’s reporting clearly links the return of Alkins and Trier and Bowen’s consequent concerns about playing time. Dawkins was handling the recruitment, and those conversations could easily have been focused on possible resolution to those concerns.

I don’t fault Schlabach or ESPN for the focus on Miller; he’s one of the premiere coaches and recruiters in the country. It appears that Schlabach is reporting information revealed through the legal proceedings and/or “sources”. And, many of the characters involved are being revealed to be highly suspect and unreliable. It appears to me that the more facts Schlabach is reporting, the more room for Miller’s involvement to be innocent of criminal or NCAA violations. To be fair, a lot of information is stil being withheld (by Miller, the U of A, the FBI & Justice Department, etc), so unresolved questions remain. And, like it or not, those questions are legitimate to be asked and reported....

[Chicat]

I think Goodman, Bilas and Fraschilla all are dealing precisely with the facts reported by Schlabach. Vitals is the one dealing in speculation and innuendo. Schlabach’s reporting clearly links the return of Alkins and Trier and Bowen’s consequent concerns about playing time. Dawkins was handling the recruitment, and those conversations could easily have been focused on possible resolution to those concerns.

I don’t fault Schlabach or ESPN for the focus on Miller; he’s one of the premiere coaches and recruiters in the country. It appears that Schlabach is reporting information revealed through the legal proceedings and/or “sources”. And, many of the characters involved are being revealed to be highly suspect and unreliable. It appears to me that the more facts Schlabach is reporting, the more room for Miller’s involvement to be innocent of criminal or NCAA violations. To be fair, a lot of information is stil being withheld (by Miller, the U of A, the FBI & Justice Department, etc), so unresolved questions remain. And, like it or not, those questions are legitimate to be asked and reported....

Ok, sure. Sounds good.

[PHXCATS]

I think Goodman, Bilas and Fraschilla all are dealing precisely with the facts reported by Schlabach. Vitals is the one dealing in speculation and innuendo. Schlabach’s reporting clearly links the return of Alkins and Trier and Bowen’s consequent concerns about playing time. Dawkins was handling the recruitment, and those conversations could easily have been focused on possible resolution to those concerns.

I don’t fault Schlabach or ESPN for the focus on Miller; he’s one of the premiere coaches and recruiters in the country. It appears that Schlabach is reporting information revealed through the legal proceedings and/or “sources”. And, many of the characters involved are being revealed to be highly suspect and unreliable. It appears to me that the more facts Schlabach is reporting, the more room for Miller’s involvement to be innocent of criminal or NCAA violations. To be fair, a lot of information is stil being withheld (by Miller, the U of A, the FBI & Justice Department, etc), so unresolved questions remain. And, like it or not, those questions are legitimate to be asked and reported....

All of this was known in Feb/March and admitted to by Miller at his return pressconference. The We Landed On The Moon is perfect for this new report.

If Miller did not offer money, which was not part of this article, then he did absolutely nothing wrong and did not break any laws/regulations/ncaa rules

FUCK ESPN FUCK SCHLABACH FUCK THE HATERS FUCK MSPN

[MountainCat]

....... It appears that Schlabach is reporting information revealed through the legal proceedings and/or “sources”.......


Wait.....what?????

So then why aren't those other high profile programs that were talked about in the trial (coach's, players, recruits, etc......) not also included in Schabach's latest where he puts Arizona right out there?

Why not at least put a picture of Mr. Self amongst others in his report too?

[Spaceman Spiff]

I think Goodman, Bilas and Fraschilla all are dealing precisely with the facts reported by Schlabach. Vitals is the one dealing in speculation and innuendo. Schlabach’s reporting clearly links the return of Alkins and Trier and Bowen’s consequent concerns about playing time. Dawkins was handling the recruitment, and those conversations could easily have been focused on possible resolution to those concerns.

I don’t fault Schlabach or ESPN for the focus on Miller; he’s one of the premiere coaches and recruiters in the country. It appears that Schlabach is reporting information revealed through the legal proceedings and/or “sources”. And, many of the characters involved are being revealed to be highly suspect and unreliable. It appears to me that the more facts Schlabach is reporting, the more room for Miller’s involvement to be innocent of criminal or NCAA violations. To be fair, a lot of information is stil being withheld (by Miller, the U of A, the FBI & Justice Department, etc), so unresolved questions remain. And, like it or not, those questions are legitimate to be asked and reported....

Any legitimate investigation agency is going to keep information witheld to keep from jeopardizing an active prosecution. Arizona is also not going to destroy interactions with the FBI by putting out information at this stage.

Implying otherwise is denying reality. Similarly, you're dignifying Schlabach's reporting too much. "Calls link Sean Miller, others, to recruit's handler" is the headline. It's clear where the article points the reader. It's an attempt to mash Miller and Dawkins together as much as possible with no evidence of what they discussed.

This is 9 months after Schlabach reported a claim about the content of their discussions that gets further from corroborated with every new detail that emerges. He's never backed off that original report.

[Spaceman Spiff]

I'm willing to concede to Spiff that the player Dawkins offered Miller (alluded to by Miller in his presser) for $100k was Bowen. But this would mean this offer happened before Dawkins was wiretapped, maybe even also before Trier returning, Rawle returning, Akot reclassifying.

See, my mistake was giving the benefit of the doubt to Schlabach that he didn't completely make up the wiretap portion of it.

I'm also willing to concede to UofAlum05 that Schlabach's source is very high likelihood of being Book or book's defense attorney. Only someone that close to Miller/Arizona could Schlabach be used by and taken advantage of by the defendant or the defense attorney.

Fucking Schlabach

No need for concessions. The true enemy is Schlabach and ESPN.

I only said what I said because I had trouble believing Miller would mess up his tense in a statement that I'm sure his lawyers and Arizona's went word for word on vetting. That pretty well cut the list of suspects to Bowen, unless this is something really outlandish.

Beyond the initial shock, I've never trusted Schlabach's story in any relevant part. The timeline's been rejected more often than PJC trying to post up prime Hakeem.

It would not stun me that wire/call record is as unreliable as the rest. I would be surprised if it was Book's team. As I've posted, snitching is career suicide for a coach. Dawkins's team went to trial with a "everybody does it" defense and he has no similar bridges to burn.

[TucsonClip]

I think Goodman, Bilas and Fraschilla all are dealing precisely with the facts reported by Schlabach. Vitals is the one dealing in speculation and innuendo. Schlabach’s reporting clearly links the return of Alkins and Trier and Bowen’s consequent concerns about playing time. Dawkins was handling the recruitment, and those conversations could easily have been focused on possible resolution to those concerns.

I don’t fault Schlabach or ESPN for the focus on Miller; he’s one of the premiere coaches and recruiters in the country. It appears that Schlabach is reporting information revealed through the legal proceedings and/or “sources”. And, many of the characters involved are being revealed to be highly suspect and unreliable. It appears to me that the more facts Schlabach is reporting, the more room for Miller’s involvement to be innocent of criminal or NCAA violations. To be fair, a lot of information is stil being withheld (by Miller, the U of A, the FBI & Justice Department, etc), so unresolved questions remain. And, like it or not, those questions are legitimate to be asked and reported....

The only thing revealed in that article were the exact length of the calls. Every single bit of information that was "revealed" was already known in February.

[ChooChooCat]

I think Goodman, Bilas and Fraschilla all are dealing precisely with the facts reported by Schlabach. Vitals is the one dealing in speculation and innuendo. Schlabach’s reporting clearly links the return of Alkins and Trier and Bowen’s consequent concerns about playing time. Dawkins was handling the recruitment, and those conversations could easily have been focused on possible resolution to those concerns.

I don’t fault Schlabach or ESPN for the focus on Miller; he’s one of the premiere coaches and recruiters in the country. It appears that Schlabach is reporting information revealed through the legal proceedings and/or “sources”. And, many of the characters involved are being revealed to be highly suspect and unreliable. It appears to me that the more facts Schlabach is reporting, the more room for Miller’s involvement to be innocent of criminal or NCAA violations. To be fair, a lot of information is stil being withheld (by Miller, the U of A, the FBI & Justice Department, etc), so unresolved questions remain. And, like it or not, those questions are legitimate to be asked and reported....

Miller and the university of Arizona already know all the facts in regards to wiretaps. They already looked into this Rawle stuff and cleared him to play. They know exactly what was said between Sean Miller and Dawkins on the phone. There's no secrets here. Arizona even knew the second it was reported that the Ayton story was horseshit. They knew stories like this would come at rapid pace and had to make the decision to stick by their guy or just avoid all the bad PR and move on. They decided to stick by their guy because they knew he was in the clear. Now nobody knows what will be said during the Book trial, that's the only question that remains, but of every thing that came out from the Gatto, Dawkins, Code case every thing was all known already.

[Spaceman Spiff]

The Rawle part of the story irritates me. It's essentially that the guy who was proposing paying lots of players proposed paying Rawle. Rush that to the presses!

And that's the problem. He proposed paying Zion Williamson, but you don't see the article being about the negotiations for Duke's star, despite similar evidence. The payments for some KU players have more credible evidence, and that article also doesn't exist.

[midnightx]

The Rawle part of the story irritates me. It's essentially that the guy who was proposing paying lots of players proposed paying Rawle. Rush that to the presses!

And that's the problem. He proposed paying Zion Williamson, but you don't see the article being about the negotiations for Duke's star, despite similar evidence. The payments for some KU players have more credible evidence, and that article also doesn't exist.

Bingo. The article reeks. It is presented under the guise of presenting a timeline of information, but the intention is to damage Arizona, and more specifically, Sean Miller. Schlongback backed himself into a corner and continues to try to create the perception of credibility by targeting Arizona in the article.

The Zion Williamson association to this payment scandal should conceivably be much bigger, because he plays for the number one program in college basketball, is one of the most touted freshmen in the country, is likely a top 3 draft pick, and plays for Coach K. But it is Duke, and ESPN and many other industry entities love Duke and Coach K, so they will be protected as much as possible. There has not been nearly the same amount of scrutiny on Bill Self, the head coach of iconic Kansas, where there is direct evidence that he knew about payments that were actually made to a current player -- after one week, it is a non-story.

[MountainCat]

The Rawle part of the story irritates me. It's essentially that the guy who was proposing paying lots of players proposed paying Rawle. Rush that to the presses!

And that's the problem. He proposed paying Zion Williamson, but you don't see the article being about the negotiations for Duke's star, despite similar evidence. The payments for some KU players have more credible evidence, and that article also doesn't exist.

Bingo. The article reeks. It is presented under the guise of presenting a timeline of information, but the intention is to damage Arizona, and more specifically, Sean Miller. Schlongback backed himself into a corner and continues to try to create the perception of credibility by targeting Arizona in the article.

The Zion Williamson association to this payment scandal should conceivably be much bigger, because he plays for the number one program in college basketball, is one of the most touted freshmen in the country, is likely a top 3 draft pick, and plays for Coach K. But it is Duke, and ESPN and many other industry entities love Duke and Coach K, so they will be protected as much as possible. There has not been nearly the same amount of scrutiny on Bill Self, the head coach of iconic Kansas, where there is direct evidence that he knew about payments that were actually made to a current player -- after one week, it is a non-story.

At least Self is holding out one of his players from playing for KU this year since the trial expecting something to be handed down from the NCAA (of course he has not choice in the matter as he has already played him last year). I suppose Duke can ignore that their prized recruit this year was even mentioned in the Court Trial Case, that resulted in a guilty verdict, and wait, and pretend that nobody noticed, and plead innocent later, and, and, and, and, ......

"Slayback" is an ass...

[baycat93]

The Rawle part of the story irritates me. It's essentially that the guy who was proposing paying lots of players proposed paying Rawle. Rush that to the presses!

And that's the problem. He proposed paying Zion Williamson, but you don't see the article being about the negotiations for Duke's star, despite similar evidence. The payments for some KU players have more credible evidence, and that article also doesn't exist.

Bingo. The article reeks. It is presented under the guise of presenting a timeline of information, but the intention is to damage Arizona, and more specifically, Sean Miller. Schlongback backed himself into a corner and continues to try to create the perception of credibility by targeting Arizona in the article.

The Zion Williamson association to this payment scandal should conceivably be much bigger, because he plays for the number one program in college basketball, is one of the most touted freshmen in the country, is likely a top 3 draft pick, and plays for Coach K. But it is Duke, and ESPN and many other industry entities love Duke and Coach K, so they will be protected as much as possible. There has not been nearly the same amount of scrutiny on Bill Self, the head coach of iconic Kansas, where there is direct evidence that he knew about payments that were actually made to a current player -- after one week, it is a non-story.

I would love to know where Williamson's parents are currently living and for whom they are currently working. But that would be too much investigative reporting for the intrepid news breakers at ESPN.

[midnightx]

Duke is almost untouchable. Does anyone think the NCAA is ever going to go near Duke (or ESPN for that matter)? The irony is Duke has likely benefitted from all of this underground money going to recruits for years. If it is indeed true that many top 25-50 players have been the beneficiaries of shoe company money, and Duke has been reeling in top five classes loaded with top ten players over the past several years (in addition to getting a number of these kids qualified to play at one of the most difficult academic institutions in the country), no one can sincerely question whether there has been a pipeline into Duke.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Duke is almost untouchable. Does anyone think the NCAA is ever going to go near Duke (or ESPN for that matter)? The irony is Duke has likely benefitted from all of this underground money going to recruits for years. If it is indeed true that many top 25-50 players have been the beneficiaries of shoe company money, and Duke has been reeling in top five classes loaded with top ten players over the past several years (in addition to getting a number of these kids qualified to play at one of the most difficult academic institutions in the country), no one can sincerely question whether there has been a pipeline into Duke.

If the NCAA wanted to touch the scale and scope of the actual problem, they would have done so with their "commission." The fact that commission treated things like a system in need of tweaks rather than an overhaul should tell you everything.

The idea big time schools like Louisville, Kansas and Arizona might have paid players and Duke lands historically good classes without dipping into the same pool is laughable.

[azcat34]

I count 5 tweets past 24 hours where Vitale grinds on Arizona

He Re-Tweeted the one above

Didn't his buddy Pitino SIGN Bowen?

Also tweeted out a Pascoe link, researching Arizona?

[Chicat]

That one-eyed bald fuck can eat shit and die.

[SabinoDrifter]

The source for ESPN's reporting is coming from a combination of Dawkins's lawyer and Book.

And Dawkins was just convicted of multiple felonies. Plus, Book will be on trial in April. ESPN is doubling-down on the story because they wanted to make a huge splash and ran with something that was corroborated by two guys facing jail time.

[Chicat]

Schlafuck, DukieV, and the rest of those lying fucks at the Worldwide Leader of Bullshit would love nothing more than to hound Sean Miller into retirement based on nothing more than the “evidence” in Schlafuck’s original story so they can then turn around and say, “See? Told you he was guilty!”

Fuck every last one of them.

[ChooChooCat]

The source for ESPN's reporting is coming from a combination of Dawkins's lawyer and Book.

And Dawkins was just convicted of multiple felonies. Plus, Book will be on trial in April. ESPN is doubling-down on the story because they wanted to make a huge splash and ran with something that was corroborated by two guys facing jail time.

Nah it ain't coming from Book.

[Spaceman Spiff]

When Vitale says constant mentions, he means BY ESPN REGURGITATING BULLSHIT. We can't control those constant mentions.

[Beachcat97]

It's just f'ed up that this will now be a "talking point" whenever we play on ESPN this year, or whenever our highlights are shown. The current "narrative" surrounding AZ hoops is: elite program, rebuilding year for Miller, hey did you hear Miller paid Ayton??

I feel bad for Sean.

[KillerKlown]

Mark's source?

[midnightx]

Dick doesn’t seem too concerned with Bill Self’s direct involvement. What a phony.

[ChooChooCat]

Really find it interesting as the only ESPN employees that are really pushing this story outside of Schlabach are the biggest Duke supporters of the bunch, meanwhile other ESPN employees like Seth Greenberg and Fran Fraschilla have been providing counter talking points and the rest of their employees are just silent.

[Chicat]

Really find it interesting as the only ESPN employees that are really pushing this story outside of Schlabach are the biggest Duke supporters of the bunch, meanwhile other ESPN employees like Seth Greenberg and Fran Fraschilla have been providing counter talking points and the rest of their employees are just silent.

Schlabach isn’t even pushing it. He’s dead silent on social media.

It’s like the editors at ESPN have told him to keep quietly writing on the subject, but just to keep Arizona at the top of this shitpile, and to pray a tape comes out that proves his original story true. And if it never does get proven, they’ll just quietly jettison him and hope no one notices.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Dick doesn’t seem too concerned with Bill Self’s direct involvement. What a phony.

He has less than zero concern about Pitino's super direct involvement.

[prh]

Really find it interesting as the only ESPN employees that are really pushing this story outside of Schlabach are the biggest Duke supporters of the bunch, meanwhile other ESPN employees like Seth Greenberg and Fran Fraschilla have been providing counter talking points and the rest of their employees are just silent.

Schlabach isn’t even pushing it. He’s dead silent on social media.

It’s like the editors at ESPN have told him to keep quietly writing on the subject, but just to keep Arizona at the top of this shitpile, and to pray a tape comes out that proves his original story true. And if it never does get proven, they’ll just quietly jettison him and hope no one notices.

Additionally, I think that for the most part, people never really notice when someone leaves ESPN-- we only notice it when they resurface at Fox/CBS/Yahoo/etc.

Schlabach is never going to resurface so he will have the quietest death in sports media history.

[midnightx]

Really find it interesting as the only ESPN employees that are really pushing this story outside of Schlabach are the biggest Duke supporters of the bunch, meanwhile other ESPN employees like Seth Greenberg and Fran Fraschilla have been providing counter talking points and the rest of their employees are just silent.

Schlabach isn’t even pushing it. He’s dead silent on social media.

It’s like the editors at ESPN have told him to keep quietly writing on the subject, but just to keep Arizona at the top of this shitpile, and to pray a tape comes out that proves his original story true. And if it never does get proven, they’ll just quietly jettison him and hope no one notices.

Or nothing will happen at all. This is the contemporary era of media. There is no accountability. Reporters and analysts pretty much say what they want, regardless of inaccuracies or flat out fabrications. ESPN should have owned the mistake and at the very least suspended Schlabach once it was clear the story was unverifiable and possibly bogus, but they do not need to in this era. The only time it seems that someone is removed from their job is due to sexual misconduct. If it is revealed that there was no recording of Miller discussing an Ayton payment, ESPN isn't going to apologize or do anything with Schlabach, they will just quietly move past the story.

[midnightx]

ESPN is also pushing Arizona into a corner here. They want access to documents and records to try to back up their report and Arizona refuses to comply with the requests. So, ESPN continues to target the program in a quasi-defamatory manner, possibly hoping to trigger a defamation suit by Arizona. If Arizona sues ESPN, ESPN will conceivably get access to various records, documents, and personnel as part of the lawsuit's discovery process -- and that is why Arizona stays quiet and sits by and lets ESPN trash the program. And ESPN's actions are blatant. Miller has been splashed across the website homepage day after day for weeks ever since the trial started, even though other programs and coaches became the real focus of the trial (with evidence directly tying blue blood program Kansas at its coach to player payments). After the verdicts, who is again ESPN's target? Sean Miller..."Calls link Sean Miller, others to recruits handler."

[Spaceman Spiff]

If you're wondering if ESPN will delve into the new evidence of Zion Williamson's family soliciting money and employment, check out "The Brotherhood," ESPN's 8 part documentary on the brotherhood of Duke basketball. It promises to be a soft hitting inside look at how great Duke really is.

[Jefe]

Thats it, I'm ordering more of these. PM me size and if you want drifit or cotton.

[NYCat]

They don't have any power, but whatevs

[PHXCATS]

This is nothing. ABOR was informed of everything Miller and Heeke and Robbins knew in March. This is a meeting to get ahead of anything should more pop up

[PHXCATS]

[midnightx]

Yawn. There is nothing there. But, without the latest ESPN article chronicling an alleged timeline of Arizona activity, this Regents meeting doesn't take place. Good old ESPN doing what it can to stir things up.

Anyone want to wager how quickly it will be before ESPN splashes this update on its website? "Arizona Regents To Discuss Basketball Program and Sean Miller Amid New FBI Evidence."

[zonagrad]

Yawn. There is nothing there. But, without the latest ESPN article chronicling an alleged timeline of Arizona activity, this Regents meeting doesn't take place. Good old ESPN doing what it can to stir things up.

Anyone want to wager how quickly it will be before ESPN splashes this update on its website? "Arizona Regents To Discuss Basketball Program and Sean Miller Amid New FBI Evidence."

How many Arizona games will ESPN carry this season? I mean, I can't imagine anyone within the AD cooperating with them in even the slightest manner. And a halftime court side interview with Miller? Ha.

[PHXCATS]

Yawn. There is nothing there. But, without the latest ESPN article chronicling an alleged timeline of Arizona activity, this Regents meeting doesn't take place. Good old ESPN doing what it can to stir things up.

Anyone want to wager how quickly it will be before ESPN splashes this update on its website? "Arizona Regents To Discuss Basketball Program and Sean Miller Amid New FBI Evidence."

How many Arizona games will ESPN carry this season? I mean, I can't imagine anyone within the AD cooperating with them in even the slightest manner. And a halftime court side interview with Miller? Ha.

14 games will be on ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU before the conference tournament

[Newportcat]

I FUCKING HATE ESPN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[PHXCATS]

I FUCKING HATE ESPN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amen brother

[AZCatGirl]

Anyone want to wager how quickly it will be before ESPN splashes this update on its website? "Arizona Regents To Discuss Basketball Program and Sean Miller Amid New FBI Evidence."

Already done so. -_-

I FUCKING HATE ESPN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's one thing we can all we agree on.

[Captain Obvious]

ESPN's witch hunt against Miller and Arizona basketball has me baffled. Did Miller do something to piss these people off to include Dukie V? I can't imagine why they have such an ax to grind. Especially making so obvious their double standard excusing other programs and coaches that have clearly committed violations. Furthermore Vitale continues to support a guy like Pitino yet has this insatiable vendetta against Miller despite having no definitive evidence to substantiate his blathering viewpoints. What's amazing is the guy is always talking but never has anything to say. If he had one less synapse working in his brain he'd be in a coma. Bottom line, It doesn't matter what you think you know or what you may actually know with great certainty; it matters what you can prove. Sorry to vent but this whole thing is just making my blood boil.

[UAEebs86]

Someone posted a while back that we are the perfect program to go after.

A big name, close to a blue blood, but ESPN doesn't really have anything invested in the Pac-12.
It's all about SEC Football and ACC basketball. So what if everyone in Tucson turns off ESPN?

They aren't going to go after one of their cash cows. To the uniformed it looks like they are blowing the lid off a scandal, when in truth they are covering up shit.

[Captain Obvious]

Someone posted a while back that we are the perfect program to go after.

A big name, close to a blue blood, but ESPN doesn't really have anything invested in the Pac-12.
It's all about SEC Football and ACC basketball. So what if everyone in Tucson turns off ESPN?

They aren't going to go after one of their cash cows. To the uniformed it looks like they are blowing the lid off a scandal, when in truth they are covering up shit.

I think your assessment is dead on. ESPN is setting Arizona up to be the sacrificial lamb or at least trying to since they have a vested interest in other programs that falls within their financial agenda. ESPN will continue to grasp at every straw to put the nail in the coffin of Arizona basketball.

[Irish27]

[ByJoveByJingle]

I hope to god somebody is roasting this idiot on twitter. But intelligent roasting. And I love how he keeps @brucepascoe-ing. Is Pascoe aiding and abetting this blathering fool?

[Chicat]

[84Cat]

I hope to god somebody is roasting this idiot on twitter. But intelligent roasting. And I love how he keeps @brucepascoe-ing. Is Pascoe aiding and abetting this blathering fool?

99.5% of the replies are roasting Dick but it has been that way for all his tweets about the scandal. He doesn't seem to care

[UAEebs86]

I hope to god somebody is roasting this idiot on twitter. But intelligent roasting. And I love how he keeps @brucepascoe-ing. Is Pascoe aiding and abetting this blathering fool?

99.5% of the replies are roasting Dick but it has been that way for all his tweets about the scandal. He doesn't seem to care

Senility will do that.

[Irish27]

[prh]

Yeah let's fucking go RJ