Wow. I hope there is no truth to this.
https://www.aseaofblue.com/2018/10/1...rruption-trial
Wow. I hope there is no truth to this.
https://www.aseaofblue.com/2018/10/1...rruption-trial
Here is the source.
Bold type is mine.In a taped conversation that was not allowed into evidence today, Adidas' Merl Code and Kansas asst Kurtis Townsend discuss the recruitment of Zion Williamson, who wound up at Duke. In arguing for admission, a transcript was read by Code defense atty Mark Moore. (thread)
link https://twitter.com/DanWetzel/status...23887621578752
Q "Why do you like Duke, you didn't even go there." A "Because my art school didn't have a basketball team."
I mean, even assuming the sleazy sneaker exec Merl Code is telling the truth here on that tape as opposed to putting words in Zion's mouth in order to brag / signal to others that Code is an important guy to whom important recruits make important demands, there's no need to assume that (A) Zion made the same alleged demands to Duke via Nike and that (B) Duke acquiesced to Zion's demands, leading to his commitment.
Seems obvious to me. Williamson and K will be asked about it all season. It’s an annoyance at the least. Many sports writers will st least imply that Williamson and Duke are guilty. I can’t say how big a damage to reputation it will be but it will have some effect. K’s recent statement that he knows nothing of cheating in college BB isn’t playing so well already. We all know there’s been some degree of cheating. We just don’t know how widespread it has been. I hope Nike is clean but I’m far from certain of it.
Doubtful. One press release containing a statement from Zion and the Duke AD should take care of it.
A very minimal one, imo. The opposing fans / media who were already inclined to think that Duke cheats will be X% more confident in it. Otherwise, I can't see it moving the needle. Duke will still be widely regarded as a clean program that does things right unless something more substantial drops.
Seems to me that in any inquiry into any national recruiting violations, the names of the hot shot recruits would come up...whether or not they or their parents had any involvement at all. Zion's name came up....of course...he was the most famous recruit last year, by a wide margin.
I'm gonna have to see something more before I even worry about this.
The impact of this will be both small, but it will last a long, loooooooooooooong time.
Any time Duke is mentioned, or even implied, through hearsay or second-hand testimony, it will "stick" to Duke in the minds of the haters and detractors. Let's not forget that Clemson, South Carolina, and Kentucky were all recruiting Zion at the time of this text message. But the focus is on Duke because Zion ended up there. Here, for example, is a tweet from Pat Forde of Yahoo Sports from yesterday:
"Wendell Carter's parents met w Christian Dawkins. Lance Thomas' jewelry. Cory Magette was in the Myron Piggie posse. Bagleys owned a Nike AAU team. But K doesn't know a thing about how the CBB underground economy works."
It'll be yet another smear without credible evidence that people will bring up to try to prove that Duke and Coach K are dirty or somehow not what they seem.
The perception is that the NCAA gives Duke a pass because to investigate Duke means to really expose everything dirty happening because Duke is supposed to be the shining beacon of virtue...so says Wetzel in today's installment of the "Duke gets a pass" trope.
https://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa-even-d...043518120.html
Common sense guarantees Coach K and by extension his assistants would never have paid Zion a dime. At this point in his illustrious career, would K even consider destroying his reputation as the GOAT?
The usual gaggle of Duke-haters and click-baiters are predictably pouncing on this dung-drop like a bunch of rabid dogs running back and forth at the end of their chains with their eyes bulging out, rushing to insinuate that Duke and Coach K must be dirty. Unless and until someone presents reliable evidence showing that the Duke program has provided Zion Williamson improper benefits, however, I'm not going to waste my time and attention on these disparaging suppositions being spewed by "commentators" based on the suspicions of a few squirming low-lifes trying to divert focus away from their own failings or misdeeds by resorting to the pathetic "everyone does it" excuse.
Let's not forget that the Addidas scandal blew up more than a year ago. Pitino was fired a year ago yesterday (October 16th). Zion Williamson committed to Duke 3 months later, in January.
I bring this up because EVERYONE associated with recruiting knew about the Addidas scandal right away. If you were a recruit looking for a handout from a shoe company rep, you went into immediate panic mode. You saw Brian Bowen barred from playing by the NCAA and searching for a new school after Louisville dropped him. You saw folks getting arrested for fraud and heard about the FBI wiretapping phones.
There is no way someone with a guaranteed future like Zion Williamson would risk it to take a measley $100-grand or so. NO WAY!
Now, if you want to make some kind of allegation against Wendell Carter or Marvin Bagley or Trevon Duval, guys who committed before all this stuff blew up, fine (but you better bring some evidence -- something more than a lunch receipt with Mrs. Carter). But, allegations against the current Duke recruits doesn't really hold water to me given all of them (except Tre, who was already connected to the Duke program and had no reason to take money given his bro is a millionaire) committed after the investigation into the pay-for-recruits scandal was well known.
-Jason "I'd hate to see silly stuff like actual, factual timelines get in the way of Dan Wetzel's purely speculative narrative" Evans
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
Pretty cool we got him for free. #blessed
K isn’t a moron. Forget the moral aspect of it, K isn’t going gubeba Guy $$ or benefits in the middle of all of these investigations
This sounds like a similar scenario to the one Oregon was associated with last week. An Adidas agent or exec claims that the school wants to pay money for a player. There’s no proof that the school actually said this, it could just be the agent trying to up the price for the player. And there’s certainly no evidence that money actually changed hands. I hate that Zion’s name has gotten dragged into this, but it’s not really a shock considered we have recruited numerous top players every year. I’ll assume he’s clean until I see proof otherwise (and hold the same attitude towards players from other schools).
I hope this isn't a case of the GM giving his MGR/HC the vote of confidence - then next week all hell breaks loose. I'm getting a little edgy about this entire process. Here's hoping there is nothing to be found.