http://www.espn.com/mens-college-bas...rruption-trial
Things are about to get really interesting.
I'm less interested in Sean Miller's testimony (although hearing his story about the reported "at least 13 phone calls [between Dawkins' cell and] a cell number belonging to Sean Miller ... from May 3, 2017, to July 2, 2017," all of which lasted longer than 5 minutes, would be very interesting), than I am in hearing the wiretaps/seeing the transcripts -- in particular to know whether there is any wiretap evidence to corroborate any of:
(i) Brian Bowen Sr's testimony that Dawkins said former UA Assistant (now UCSB coach) offered $50,000 for Bowen to sign with Arizona;
(ii) the assertion by defense counsel at the last trial that, as described in the linked article, "Arizona offered -- or was prepared to offer -- $150,000 for ... Nassir Little to sign with the Wildcats"; and/or
(iii) the controversial Mark Schlabach report (linked below) that asserted, among other things, that there were calls "between ... Miller and ... Dawkins, ... in which Miller discussed paying $100,000 to ensure star freshman Deandre Ayton signed with the Wildcats," and that "[w]hen Dawkins asked Miller if he should work with ... Book Richardson to finalize their agreement, Miller told Dawkins he should deal directly with him when it came to money." http://www.espn.com/mens-college-bas...-investigation.
Sean Miller's "denial" of the Schlabach report was, to my mind, overly specific -- i.e., he focused the denial on (1) not actually paying for any recruit, (2) not discussing "paying Deandre Ayton" with Dawkins and (3) that he "never even met or spoke [with] Dawkins until after Deandre publicly announced he was coming to" Arizona. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/...-investigation.
There was some facial plausibility to Miller's specific denial in that most of the reports had the wiretapping being done in in the Spring/Summer of 2017, whereas Ayton had committed to Arizona in the Fall of 2016.
One of the theories being floated at the time was the Schlabach's story was correct in most respects, but wrong on the player involved -- that it was about Brian Bowen, not Ayton.
Given the narrow crafting of Miller's denial, each of the statements he made in it could, I believe, be technically reconciled with a version of Schlabach's story being correct in everything except it not being about Ayton. If that's true, then I think Miller would be done, since he has tried to portray his prior denial as a wholesale denial of any wrongdoing at all -- a discussion about paying to get Bowen (or anyone) to commit to Arizona has to be a fireable offense whether or not such payment was actually made or the player actually landed.
On the other hand, if there were a tape of such a call, then I can't figure out why Dawkins wouldn't have tried to use it at the first trial -- and none of the recordings/transcripts released by the Govt. after the trial contain anything as explicit as was reported on by Schlabach.
I guess we will see who was telling the truth -- I'd feared all of this would be buried by Richardson's taking a plea.
According to reports, Sean Miller has been notified by the FBI that he will be subpoenaed (along with LSU coach Will Wade). Are we really sure Mannion is going to stand by his commitment?
I am sure someone is going to explain to me how so many stud recruits have chosen to commit to Arizona for next season... I'm waiting...
-Jason "there has to be at least a 25% chance Sean Miller never coaches again after this trial is over, right?" Evans
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
Studs like.... https://sport.one/the-top-10-hottest...eading-squads/
The problem for them is, at least from what I read, that the defense case is that everyone does this and everyone knows about it so if the schools know, they are not being defrauded. It is not at all clear that the judge will let them try this and it creates an uncomfortable situation for the defense witnesses. Will be interesting.
I believe Cal would out bid Calhoun ! And Slick Rick would "Out-Benefit" Cal !
Will anyone throw Nike or UnderArmor under the bus ? At times, a sinking ship has a tendency to cry wolf ! The old "Everyone is doing it" defense.
It surely will be interesting to watch.
Any UNC-CHeat fan will tell you that since an agent claimed that Kansas was willing to pay Zion, and Zion came to Duke, the ONLY logical conclusion is that Duke paid Zion even more. There is no other possible explanation. But as far as Little, the situation is completely different. He knew nothing and chose the CHeats because he needed to go to the cleanest program he could find. (Yes, their fans actually think this.)
Very interesting points. With Nike, they are a massive market leader, especially in basketball. Do they need to pay kids/programs? With UA, I can absolutely see them paying players, but maybe they have more of a moral compass (based on what I’ve heard of their executive team, maybe not).
IMO, we haven’t scratched the surface of this yet. Plenty more shoe company scandals to come!
Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. - Winston Churchill
President of the "Nolan Smith Should Have His Jersey in The Rafters" Club