FBI...here we go
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matt norlander @mattnorlander 14m poring through notes, there also this: texts retrieved in this case have billy preston"s mother texting preston and giving directions to her son about how to obstruct ku;s investigation if and wgen they ask preston who t.j. gassnola is.
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I really don’t think anything today worries me to this point. People are saying KT was involved because with Gassnola but Gassnola was a AAU coach. Which I’m sure most D1 staffs have contacts with. If anything SDS only supposedly getting 2500 dollars looks better than 20k or 60k that was alleged, especially if he paid back Maryland or didnt take their money. Selby basically got 1500 from AAU coach and had to sit the first 9 games so him missing the first half of the season could be a worthy punishment if they can even prove that he got anything. @JAYHAWKFAN214 Interesting that Billy was trying to play us, no wonder his attitude was so good according to HCBS, he knew he screw up lol.
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Nolander’s tweet about how Preston received the money after attending KU is interesting. But it certainly sounds like everyone is adamantly saying Self and staff were not in the know, so I guess it doesn’t matter one way or the other.
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Kcmatt7 said:
Nolander’s tweet about how Preston received the money after attending KU is interesting. But it certainly sounds like everyone is adamantly saying Self and staff were not in the know, so I guess it doesn’t matter one way or the other.
Well I mean Billy got a text from his mom about hiding information from KU. So far so good.
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So what does this trial mean for KU and the big Adidas contract? Obviously Nike is dirty is too but doesn’t look like anyone cares.
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Preston never suited up for KU. You all know that. What ever comes out of this trial against Preston and his fam is really not KU’s concern, or ours. Coach Self held him out of games on purpose.
Now, Silvio on the other hand. Self let him play. Now, THAT is what I am worried about. But, I also trust Coach Self. He would not have let Silvio play if he thought for one second that he wasn’t eligible or that it would hurt the KU program some how.
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Blurb on the Spanish Pro Team talk that popped up about De Sousa. Looks like that issue has already been cleared by KU & NCAA. Explains why it took so long to get his amateurism cleared
Also Wednesday, while a KU compliance director took the witness stand, he was asked by a defense attorney about De Sousa at one point signing a contract with a pro team in Spain. But a U.S. assistant district attorney told the court that KU obtained NCAA clearance after including evidence from handwriting experts who could not conclude the signature on that contract and another with a sports agent was not De Sousa’s.
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@BigBad Thank God Billy sucks as a driver!
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Wetzel’s latest article on the trial doesn’t make us sound very good.
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wissox said:
Wetzel’s latest article on the trial doesn’t make us sound very good.
A lot better then what Pat Forde would have wrote
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Wetzel has seemed pretty unbiased through the process. No issues with anything he wrote. If we have to give up games because of De Sousa, it will suck but it is what it is. Crappy way to end the streak. But it would almost be poetic. For years we all talked about the pressure of the streak. If we lost it this way instead of actually losing it, seems like it could almost be a good thing. Now the focus can be winning another NC. And no team had to go through the embarrassment of blowing the streak.
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@Lulufulu Self let SDS play because he was CLEARED by the NCAA.
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@Woodrow I still think games will be taken away from KU if Fenny can’t prove he didn’t take more than the $2,500
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Shouldn’t burden of proof be on him being given the money?
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@Kcmatt7 I don’t. The NCAA cleared him. Worse case scenario he is ineligible this year or forever. My best guess is he is suspended for 5-9 games.
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@Woodrow I think that is probably the most likely scenario as well.
@BShark At this point, I think the NCAA can probably put the burden on Fenny. This isn’t a criminal trial. This isn’t innocent until proven guilty at this point either. They have legit reasons to ask Fenny to prove he didn’t take any money.
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I have followed this pretty closely but I don’t recall there being a money trail proving Fenny took anything. He claims he didn’t ( obviously). To suspend him I would think they would have to have some sort of paper trail of the deposits.
His situation is totally different it seems than Billy’s. There is a trail , text messages , etc…
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Yeah idk, what a mess. I am slightly more hopeful Silvio plays though. We will see what shakes out during the rest of the trial.
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@Woodrow I mean having a credible source, under oath, say he gave Fenny money is a pretty good start to a trail. If Fenny didn’t take money, just show your bank accounts. It isn’t that hard. If he did nothing wrong, just come out and prove it.
I’d show you mine right now. It’s not impressive and I have nothing to hide.
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The $2,500 aside, it could be the Maryland fan paid the workout guy directly and there is no paper trail involving the mentor. However, if SDS did train with the coach, there’s still the issue of how that all worked. It couldn’t have been free.
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@BeddieKU23 Ford is about the worst major sportswriter out there. I really wonder how people like him, or announcers like Dakich have jobs like they do. People nationwide have opinions like this about these guys and Yahoo and ESPN have got to know it.
@Kcmatt7 I agree, I wasn’t trying to cast shade on Wetzels reporting. He’s really good, deserves a better platform than Yahoo.
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Coaches saying there are not aware there is a lot of cheating going on in college sports reminds me of
Coaches are not that naive, I am sure most are generally aware of the cheating going on in college sports but realize it is the reality of the game and choose to not be directly involved and have plausible deniability.
As far as I can tell, the only thing that affects KU is the $2,500 Silvio’s guardian received for either on-line classes or to repay the Maryland booster. In the big scheme of things it is a minor amount that if repaid (to whom it would be???) it would result in a slap in the wrist and maybe a 2-3 game suspension.
KU seems to be pretty much in the clear vis-à-vis Preston since all the clowns involved actively worked to keep KU in the dark and KU acted prudently by holding him as soon as it had a suspicion of wrong doing and he did not play a single game for KU.
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https://twitter.com/danielle_lerner/status/1051166212615475200?s=21
Case might be over this week
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When a school signs with an apparel firm for sponsorship there is an implicit understanding that it will help steer prospects to the school and I am sure coaches from Nike sponsored programs call Nike as well when it helps with a prospect. There is nothing to indicate or even imply that KU knew Adidas was doing anything illegal which in Silvio’s case amounted to all of $2,500.
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That’s pretty not great for optics but shouldn’t hang Self.
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Yea this was probably the biggest blow I’ve heard so far.
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Kcmatt7 said:
Yea this was probably the biggest blow I’ve heard so far.
Which is still basically nothing, so that’s pretty great.
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Not a good look
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The Coaches definitely seem more involved than I had hoped from that Star Article.
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Pretty easy to infer shit here. Like, it’s obvious now, but legally it seems unlikely anything will happen as of now.
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Per Zags
TJ Gassnola is done testifying and the judge told the jury they should be ready to deliberate this week
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I think today was the worse day for Self and KU. I don’t think there is anything there to vacate wins, fire Self, or anything like that. However, those text exchanges as @BShark said do not reflect well on Self.
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At minimum Self and his coaches were well aware of the bag man for Adidas. SMH
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@BeddieKU23 Well I mean, are you surprised? I’m not.
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Gotta love the Star…
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dylans said:
Gotta love the Star…
WE ALL KNOW HOW THE STAR LIKE TO GO ACTOR KU
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BShark said:
@BeddieKU23 Well I mean, are you surprised? I’m not.
I’m not surprised at all. I’m just disappointed, very disappointed to say the least
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Yawn at all this. It’s not exactly breaking news that shoe companies steer kids to their flagship schools. There’s not really even a NCAA violation here, at least nothing that will jeopardize anyone affiliated with KU.
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It seems like the coaches knew about payments. The good news is that Gassnola testified that he didn’t think the Kansas coaches knew. So I believe it will be hard for the NCAA to hang anything major on Kansas.
I’m disappointed in Kansas too, but I’m also disappointed in the You-Have-To-Be-19-Years-Old-To-Play-In-The-NBA rule, and the NCAA model that’s driving these kinds of behind-the-scenes payments. A highly ranked basketball or football recruit is worth more than a one-year scholarship. Some of them are worth a lot more than a one-year scholarship, but that player’s market value is being restricted by the NCAA while and even before that player attends a university. These top athletes are very valuable to Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, etc. even as teenagers because they have the potential to be the next LeBron James or Steph Curry or insert NBA Super Star and sell a bunch of shoes and merchandise. As universities are allowed to sign large multi-million dollar contracts with these apparel companies , there is a major incentive for Adidas to direct top recruits to Kansas, or Nike to direct top recruits to Kentucky or Duke. A commitment of a player to a branded university is a major step in a commitment of a player to a brand, though not always (see: Joel Embiid and Under Armour).
So all of you here probably know this, and you might reasonably say that nobody is forcing these kids to go to college. The major problem I have with this is that college basketball is by far the best way for a high-profile recruit to showcase their talent and get drafted into the NBA. In the 2018 NBA draft, 52 out of the 60 players taken played college basketball. The 8 that did not, I’m not totally sure, but am willing to wager that none or a small fraction of them were American-born. What I’m saying here is that a high-profile recruit who doesn’t choose to go to college can seriously jeopardize his NBA draft position and potentially miss out on being drafted or lose millions of dollars down the road due to lack of media exposure and NBA teams not wanting to take a chance on an unproven recruit. In short, I don’t like that the NCAA monopolizes high-profile basketball recruits due to a lack of alternatives for that recruit other than college basketball and at the same time restricts their true market value.
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@KirkIsMyHinrich josh Jackson, under armour as well.
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Unless Gassnola perjured himself, nobody under the KU banner knew.
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@FarmerJayhawk Do you really believe that?
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What am I missing? I just don’t see any thing that even resembles any NCAA rule breaking or the law. I would certainly expect Adidas to help KU with recruiting as part of the sponsorship deal. If Adidas is not going to help then why sign with them? I am sure Nike and Under Armour do their best to steer kids in the direction of programs they sponsor and as long as they do not do any thing that breaks NCAA rules or the law, it is all good…why wouldn’t it be?
Otto von Bismarck said…Laws are like sausages. Better not to see them being made…which would also seem to apply to recruiting. There is a good deal of action going on that we really don’t want to see but it is the reality of recruiting.
