Report: Corruption Case Threatens 50+ Hoops Programs

[Westbrook#36]

Chris Mack the only coach to respond publicly so far.

“I have no relationship with Andy Miller or any of his associates. He plays no role in the recruitment of potential student athletes on Xavier’s behalf. Beyond that, our staff has never created a path for him to foster a relationship with any of our student-athletes while enrolled at Xavier. Any suggestion that I or anyone on my staff utilized Andy Miller to provide even the slightest of financial benefits to a Xavier student-athlete is grossly misinformed. We are prepared to cooperate with any and all investigations at any level.”

I honestly am not worried. How are the Nova and Hall fans feeling?

Honestly, feeling much safer than X. The only mention about Nova is Kyle Lowry, who finished playing at Nova over a decade ago, and then is only mentioned in reference to a loan on a sheet dated 12/31/15, well after his Nova playing career ended. Same goes for Maalik Wayns, if it's actually him, his name is misspelled on the document. No mention of either one in any article that I see.

[ChelseaFriar]

As someone who finds the NCAA morally reprehensible I couldn't give two shits about paying the players.

That being said, the $7000 from the agent to Sumner was during his spring semester of his sophomore year (academically, freshman athletically). I seriously doubt Xavier had anything to do with it, he had already been on campus for more than a year. Also, Sumner was a 3* recruit and we beat out UMASS to get him. Its likely the dad said he wanted some cash or they were going to look elsewhere so the guy paid him.

I think once a kid has decided to forgo his eligibility—whether that happens while technically still enrolled in that school or not—money from agents is irrelevant. If I got a job offer from a firm while a 2nd semester Sr. that included a signing bonus, why should I not accept it? It is a business transaction. Are these agents slimey for dangling $ in front of these kids who need it? Without question. But, I see little wrong with 2 parties coming to a business agreement on the open market.

Now if the kid receives money and is still playing, we have a much stickier situation that does require oversight IMO.

Correct, once a kid plays his last college game in March, they can take a loan from an agent and finish up the semester at school without a problem. You'll often see projected 1st rounders suddenly driving a luxury car in April.

[DudeAnon]

Chris Mack the only coach to respond publicly so far.

“I have no relationship with Andy Miller or any of his associates. He plays no role in the recruitment of potential student athletes on Xavier’s behalf. Beyond that, our staff has never created a path for him to foster a relationship with any of our student-athletes while enrolled at Xavier. Any suggestion that I or anyone on my staff utilized Andy Miller to provide even the slightest of financial benefits to a Xavier student-athlete is grossly misinformed. We are prepared to cooperate with any and all investigations at any level.”

I honestly am not worried. How are the Nova and Hall fans feeling?

Honestly, feeling much safer than X. The only mention about Nova is Kyle Lowry, who finished playing at Nova over a decade ago, and then is only mentioned in reference to a loan on a sheet dated 12/31/15, well after his Nova playing career ended. Same goes for Maalik Wayns, if it's actually him, his name is misspelled on the document. No mention of either one in any article that I see.

I am pretty sure there is a note about a meeting with "Villanova coaches" on the agent's sheet, so... good luck

[Hall2012]

NJ based agent that Whitehead signed with when turning pro, we were all hoping for the best but had a feeling this was coming.

Just note that this was between agent and player and began after Whitehead was enrolled at Seton Hall. The agent wanted to make sure he'd get a 5* freshman as a client. He has no reason to care where the player goes school and there's nothing at this point to suggest the SHU administration had any knowledge/involvement or that this had anything to do with him choosing SHU. The agent would have come after him and the same thing would have happened anywhere. Let's not jump to conclusions beyond the facts just yet

We'd expect Whitehead to retroactively be declared ineligible, which would likely result on losing the BET title.

The only caveat to that is if Tiny Morton was also mentioned. A staff member on the payroll is not a great look. That’s the part that I hope any BE coaching staff members stayed clear.

Agree it's a bad look and one would have to imagine that at least Morton, if nobody else on staff, knew about Whitehead. It doesn't necessarily mean that the money had anything to do with Whitehead's decision to choose SHU. If it was, it would be more sensible for all of that money to go through Morton to be funnelled to Whitehead.

My guess on Morton's involvement is that the agent saw him as a trusted advisor to Whitehead (as evidenced by the package deal) and bribed him to convince Whitehead to take the deal.

Who knows, it's all speculation at this point in terms of how things played out. Maybe Willard was behind it all. If so get him out and good riddance. That would show he can't coach in game and can only recruit in this way. But I'm not ready to jump to that conclusion quite yet.

[aughnanure]

Even if they can't prove the programs were involved, which they may not be able to in all cases, but probably will be able to in some. The info in that article would make the players named ineligible which would cause the schools to vacate all games in which they played.

Lol vacating wins. The NCAA still lists those teams as champions, but just puts a tiny asterisk on it.

I also think the NCAA would really hesitate before vacating that many wins and championships across multiple conference and years.

[Westbrook#36]

I am pretty sure there is a note about a meeting with "Villanova coaches" on the agent's sheet, so... good luck

Link? Edit: Saw this mentioned at the bottom of article after hitting continue story tab that I didn't notice before. Coaches can meet with anyone, if they even met at all, doesn't mean anything nefarious went on.

If I were you I'd be much more worried about Edmond Sumner and X's situation than Nova, so ... good luck.

[sju88grad]

Its all fun and games until a Big East school is named.

Saying prayers that doesn't happen.

Same lol. I can't even imagine the reaction if Xavier is involved somehow. If I had to bet, St. John's or Seton Hall. The rest of the programs seem pretty squeaky clean.

glass houses dude......glass houses......

[herodotus]

The Marcus Camby/UMass case is probably a good one to look at for a comparison. Camby was taking shoes, suits, cash and hookers from a wannabe agent from Hartford. He was already at UMass and it was never proven that UMass had any knowledge. UMass had to forfeit the Final 4 appearance and give back $151,000 in NCAA Tourney earnings. Camby took a lot more than most of the guys we are talking about, but similar situations.

https://www.si.com/vault/1997/09/15/231760/tangled-web-marcus-camby-was-both-victim-and-villain-in-his-illicit-dealings-with-agents-while-at-umass

Squid has always been smeared with the Camby case by those who accuse him of malfeasance, so it's funny to see some of those same folks embrace the excuses that they swiftly brushed away when Squid tried to use them.

[NovaGrad12]

Chris Mack the only coach to respond publicly so far.

“I have no relationship with Andy Miller or any of his associates. He plays no role in the recruitment of potential student athletes on Xavier’s behalf. Beyond that, our staff has never created a path for him to foster a relationship with any of our student-athletes while enrolled at Xavier. Any suggestion that I or anyone on my staff utilized Andy Miller to provide even the slightest of financial benefits to a Xavier student-athlete is grossly misinformed. We are prepared to cooperate with any and all investigations at any level.”

I honestly am not worried. How are the Nova and Hall fans feeling?

Honestly, feeling much safer than X. The only mention about Nova is Kyle Lowry, who finished playing at Nova over a decade ago, and then is only mentioned in reference to a loan on a sheet dated 12/31/15, well after his Nova playing career ended. Same goes for Maalik Wayns, if it's actually him, his name is misspelled on the document. No mention of either one in any article that I see.

I wouldn't be so sure about that. Based on the limited info on the sheet we have no idea when the loans were made. All we know is that those loans were on the books as of 12/31/2015. It is likely that those loans weren't made too far in advance of 12/31/2015, but we really can't say for sure at this point. If Lowry received a loan around 2015, I'm curious why he would even need to borrow money while making millions of dollars in the NBA, unless he is not great with his finances which I haven't heard anything about (he just donated $1 million to Nova).

[milksteak]

Maybe it’s just me, but these coach-agent dinners are pretty damn shady. I really don’t see anything legitimate coming out of them.