Apparently ole Shane was handing out cash as well.
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...es-offering-cash-improper-benefits-son-attend
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...es-offering-cash-improper-benefits-son-attend
Shane Heirman
- Thread starter Li'l Eric Coley
- Start date
His career in the NCAA died before it got started.
Man, I feel for Lou Dawkins. He lost his super-talented son Dorian back in 2009, and now his son Christian is caught up in this college basketball scandal.
Yeah, Kinda odd how TU is tied to this mess in a six degrees of separation way.
TU is tied to it simply by being an adidas branded school and that was before we find out Heirman has donors lined up to pay HS players/parents.
Were any of the kids who were caught up in this ever recruited by TU seriously?
Not that I know of. TU had recruited a La Lumiere big man, but that didn't end up going anywhere.
I was only referring to Heirman and the good Dawkins name. No clue about who we may or may not have recruited.
Nike. Dana Altman (seriously, Altman is one of the best recruiters out there).
You actually mean Nike $hoes......I'm hard pressed to believe anything else...
There are simply too many stories....The NCAA doesn't want to disturb one
of their big advertisers.......
Followed some of Bowen’s testimony today as it related to OSU and Evans. He testified that he was offered 150k and a 80k car and free housing to sign with OSU. He said he couldn’t recall ever discussing it with Evans or anyone from OSU. He also denied ever being offered any money from Oregon despite giving a sworn statement to the contrary.
Some of his testimony makes zero sense. Why would say Nike offer him $200k to go to school “x”, $150k to go to school “y”, $80k to go to school “z”? They’re basically bidding against themselves. He’s yet to link any of these money offers to the actual schools from what I’ve read.
Some of his testimony makes zero sense. Why would say Nike offer him $200k to go to school “x”, $150k to go to school “y”, $80k to go to school “z”? They’re basically bidding against themselves. He’s yet to link any of these money offers to the actual schools from what I’ve read.
I agree, makes no sense. This is a stretch, and based on no evidence, but my best guess is the higher amounts come from booster donations in addition to some base amount from Nike or adidas?
The latest:
It's impossible to know for sure how what's playing out in the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse in lower Manhattan is resonating with a jury reportedly filled with folks who understand little or nothing about college basketball. But the testimony of Brian Bowen Sr. seems to suggest, at least to me, that not guilty verdicts for Jim Gatto, Merl Code and Christian Dawkins, at this point, seem more likely than not.
Simply put, the government's case no longer makes sense.
It's possible it never did.
Bowen Sr. testifies he took cash from former Louisville assistant
But it certainly doesn't now.
The charges levied against these three defendants were always flimsy, according to some legal minds. But now they're downright laughable given what Bowen Sr. said under oath Tuesday morning. The government's entire case, you see, is basically rooted in the idea that former Adidas employees Gatto and Code -- plus Dawkins, who is, more or less, an ambitious but sloppy middle-man -- are guilty of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud because they paid Bowen Sr. money that made Bowen Jr. ineligible and, in the process, defrauded Louisville. For the purposes of this case, Louisville is considered a "victim."
Obviously, that's a ridiculous notion to anybody who understands recruiting because, in reality, Gatto, Code and Dawkins didn't defraud Louisville. (They helped Louisville!) And Tuesday morning's cross-examination of Bowen Sr. convincingly hammered home that point -- especially when Bowen Sr. detailed how he was accepting money from various people in exchange for his son's services long before Adidas even got involved, and when Bowen Sr. also detailed how former Louisville assistant Kenny Johnson gave him $1,300 cash in June 2017 to help with rent after the family relocated to Louisville. In other words, it's going to be difficult for the government to continue to argue that Gatto, Code and Dawkins made Bowen Jr. ineligible when they were actually late to the money game, relatively speaking. And it's going to be difficult for the government to continue to paint Louisville as a victim when Gatto, Code and Dawkins aren't accused of doing anything other than what a Louisville employee also did himself -- i.e., provide money to Bowen Sr. in violation of NCAA rules.
Meantime, it'll be interesting to see what happens to Johnson.
First-year La Salle coach Ashley Howard hired him to his staff last May in a questionable move for exactly this reason -- specifically because there was always a chance Johnson would get roped back into this scandal regardless of what he told La Salle officials.
"Based on my personal relationship with Kenny, I know him to be an individual of the highest integrity," Howard said via a released statement back in May. Bowen Sr., under oath, said otherwise Tuesday. La Salle officials have yet to comment.
As for the other schools alleged to have offered something for Bowen Jr. -- schools like Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma State, Oregon and Creighton -- Bowen Sr., to date, has either denied any knowledge of the offers, testified he "couldn't recall" the offers or insisted they were offers relayed to him only second-hand by Dawkins. That's good news for the schools listed above because unless there is some corroborating evidence everybody accused of anything will simply call Dawkins a liar, and there's just no way the NCAA is going to levy charges based on nothing more than what Bowen Sr. has said Dawkins told him other coaches said they would do. If there's more, maybe. But if that's it, definitely not.
Either way, we're now a week into this thing and it's hard to dispute that things aren't going well for the prosecution. From the jump, the defendants acknowledged they did everything the government alleged they did but insisted they still committed no crime.
Brian Bowen Sr.'s testimony helps their case, I think.
In this scandal, NCAA rules were broken; nobody denies that. But the end result was Gatto, Code and Dawkins getting what they wanted, Louisville getting what it wanted, and Bowen Sr. getting what he wanted. Everybody won -- until, of course, they got caught. But everybody involved was a willing participant. And, ultimately, it's reasonable to assume the defense will ask the jury these questions: If Brian Bowen Sr. was accepting money for his son's services in violation of NCAA rules before our clients were even in the picture, why are our clients the ones who made him ineligible? And if a Louisville employee was giving cash to Brian Bowen Sr., how did our clients defraud Louisville by doing nothing different than what a Louisville employee also did?
I'm not sure there are good answers for those questions.
Which is why getting a guilty verdict suddenly seems tough.
It's impossible to know for sure how what's playing out in the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse in lower Manhattan is resonating with a jury reportedly filled with folks who understand little or nothing about college basketball. But the testimony of Brian Bowen Sr. seems to suggest, at least to me, that not guilty verdicts for Jim Gatto, Merl Code and Christian Dawkins, at this point, seem more likely than not.
Simply put, the government's case no longer makes sense.
It's possible it never did.
Bowen Sr. testifies he took cash from former Louisville assistant
But it certainly doesn't now.
The charges levied against these three defendants were always flimsy, according to some legal minds. But now they're downright laughable given what Bowen Sr. said under oath Tuesday morning. The government's entire case, you see, is basically rooted in the idea that former Adidas employees Gatto and Code -- plus Dawkins, who is, more or less, an ambitious but sloppy middle-man -- are guilty of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud because they paid Bowen Sr. money that made Bowen Jr. ineligible and, in the process, defrauded Louisville. For the purposes of this case, Louisville is considered a "victim."
Obviously, that's a ridiculous notion to anybody who understands recruiting because, in reality, Gatto, Code and Dawkins didn't defraud Louisville. (They helped Louisville!) And Tuesday morning's cross-examination of Bowen Sr. convincingly hammered home that point -- especially when Bowen Sr. detailed how he was accepting money from various people in exchange for his son's services long before Adidas even got involved, and when Bowen Sr. also detailed how former Louisville assistant Kenny Johnson gave him $1,300 cash in June 2017 to help with rent after the family relocated to Louisville. In other words, it's going to be difficult for the government to continue to argue that Gatto, Code and Dawkins made Bowen Jr. ineligible when they were actually late to the money game, relatively speaking. And it's going to be difficult for the government to continue to paint Louisville as a victim when Gatto, Code and Dawkins aren't accused of doing anything other than what a Louisville employee also did himself -- i.e., provide money to Bowen Sr. in violation of NCAA rules.
Meantime, it'll be interesting to see what happens to Johnson.
First-year La Salle coach Ashley Howard hired him to his staff last May in a questionable move for exactly this reason -- specifically because there was always a chance Johnson would get roped back into this scandal regardless of what he told La Salle officials.
"Based on my personal relationship with Kenny, I know him to be an individual of the highest integrity," Howard said via a released statement back in May. Bowen Sr., under oath, said otherwise Tuesday. La Salle officials have yet to comment.
As for the other schools alleged to have offered something for Bowen Jr. -- schools like Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma State, Oregon and Creighton -- Bowen Sr., to date, has either denied any knowledge of the offers, testified he "couldn't recall" the offers or insisted they were offers relayed to him only second-hand by Dawkins. That's good news for the schools listed above because unless there is some corroborating evidence everybody accused of anything will simply call Dawkins a liar, and there's just no way the NCAA is going to levy charges based on nothing more than what Bowen Sr. has said Dawkins told him other coaches said they would do. If there's more, maybe. But if that's it, definitely not.
Either way, we're now a week into this thing and it's hard to dispute that things aren't going well for the prosecution. From the jump, the defendants acknowledged they did everything the government alleged they did but insisted they still committed no crime.
Brian Bowen Sr.'s testimony helps their case, I think.
In this scandal, NCAA rules were broken; nobody denies that. But the end result was Gatto, Code and Dawkins getting what they wanted, Louisville getting what it wanted, and Bowen Sr. getting what he wanted. Everybody won -- until, of course, they got caught. But everybody involved was a willing participant. And, ultimately, it's reasonable to assume the defense will ask the jury these questions: If Brian Bowen Sr. was accepting money for his son's services in violation of NCAA rules before our clients were even in the picture, why are our clients the ones who made him ineligible? And if a Louisville employee was giving cash to Brian Bowen Sr., how did our clients defraud Louisville by doing nothing different than what a Louisville employee also did?
I'm not sure there are good answers for those questions.
Which is why getting a guilty verdict suddenly seems tough.
Except for then the government is going to come back on everyone with racketeering charges and conpiracy.
Not if the jury finds no law was broken. A criminal act is required for racketeering and conspiracy. Heck...my wife and I conspire every night on ways to get the kids to sleep before 10pm. We usually fail.
True, but there is a victim here, but it's not Louisville, it's the NCAA. They were all cooperating to fool the organization and by default other members were injured by this. Namely any team on the bubble left out for these teams with this benefit. That's a lot of money for one tournament credit, like 700,000 or so for six years. Now all of them have admitted on their own to doing it.
The NCAA hasn't suffered harm as they get their money regardless. I do agree that a member institution could claim harm due to another school obtaining a competitive advantage. However, that theory isn't being used in this prosecution by the Feds.
I understand that, I am just implying that people are exposing themselves with a defense that may get them off on this charge but make their guilt pretty clear on another.
I would assume if the victim is different or the charge is the government would avoid the double jeopardy issue.
They could use this testimony against people in other cases right? Or at least if they try and back track in a different trial create a purgery situation.
It seems to me that the defendants may be jumping from the frying pan to the fire. Would RICO charges not be much worst than wire fraud?
A question the NCAA's reputation is injured by this, meaning that such scandals cause them lose fans, which will be loss of revenue. Plus if the NCAA investigated this and the group conspired to mislead them and succeeded the NCAA would have loss money on the investigation into the issue. Is that harm? I know next to nothing about law so I'm just curious.
I don't know what "crime" adidas and the others involved committed. What it did expose is that the crap SMU got the death penalty for in the 80s is still alive and well and apparently far more widespread than originally believed. The Feds have actually made it easier for the NCAA to do their jobs and levy penalties on these schools. Of course the schools will say they are acting the same way lobbyists act in Congress. (They're all technically offering bribes but somehow that's legal).
We weren't cheating under Ross. It was a bad optic and against the rules and a gateway to cheat or shave points, etc. It wasn't as blatant as Pete Rose betting on the Reds while manager of the Reds. And being an administrator with no on field coaching duties it would have been even harder to influence what was going on. Ross was an overall good guy. He got caught up with the wrong dude who got nabbed breaking the law.
He was ahead of his time with the gamblin.
Found guilty on all counts
https://www.courier-journal.com/sto...s-gatto-code-dawkins-found-guilty/1741016002/
https://www.courier-journal.com/sto...s-gatto-code-dawkins-found-guilty/1741016002/
Idk, I think it goes the other way. I think the NCAA hammers those schools. A nothing to see here Mr. Officer we can clean up our messes. Otherwise you may see the feds start ripping into everything. Could they force a consent decree on the NCAA like they do with police departments?
The NCAA is struggling with a show cause rule making it past California employee protection laws too. The legal opinions tend to lean towards the NCAA being screwed for that case too.
NCAA is in a lot of trouble legal wise. Would enough political pressure from the big state universities get the NCAA special status like say MLB?
The schools were victims because $$ that should have gone to them was funneled to individual players - by school personnel. Uh oh. What allows a culture where $$ could be funneled to players? A lack of institutional control. Uh oh.
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