Judge, in dissent, says he believes KU hoops assistant knew about recruit payments
A ruling in the Second Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals concerning former Adidas executive Jim Gatto contains references from a judge stating that he believes the Kansas men’s basketball program had knowledge of Adidas representatives paying KU recruits and their families.
Circuit judge Gerard E. Lynch, while explaining his dissent to his colleagues’ 2-1 overall ruling, references a phone call between Adidas employee Merl Code and a KU assistant coach, where, “The coach stated he would ‘talk with Jimmy (Gatto)‘ about funneling money to the family through an amateur team.’”
Though the coach is not identified, other details in the dissent line up with previous reports of a documented phone call between KU assistant Kurtis Townsend in reference to future Duke player Zion Willamson.
According to the dissent, “The coach then described how he might also ask Gatto to help pay for the recruit’s brother to visit Kansas despite acknowledging ‘not [being] allowed to pay for it.’”
Lynch argued this should have been allowed into evidence during Gatto’s original trial, saying the call “made it more likely that Code and Gatto believed Kansas officials expected to get recruits in ways that violate the NCAA rules because the call itself is an example of a Kansas official doing just that.”
Lynch went on to say this: “Surely a conversation in which a coach from a victim university discusses with one defendant soliciting help from another defendant to break the NCAA rules would be extremely relevant to whether those defendants believe that the university that the coach represents condones such rule-breaking.”
He later stated: “Had the jury heard this call, it may have believed that the coach did call Gatto to ask him to provide the money.”
Lynch also wrote about a phone call, that was excluded from evidence, between Code and business manager Christian Dawkins “in which they discussed their understanding that the family of a recruit was asking Kansas for money before committing to play basketball at the school. During the call, Code and Dawkins agree that paying the athlete ‘has to be worth it for the school ... for the money that they’ll make off [of the athlete.]”
KU Athletics declined comment, citing the ongoing nature of its current NCAA case.
Townsend’s attorney, Stu Brown, provided this statement: “Although NCAA rules prohibit me from discussing details of the NCAA investigation process or information developed as part of the NCAA investigation, I can generally address the dissenting opinion in the public Second Circuit appeal decision. The dissenting opinion has no bearing on the outcome of the appeal or the trial. The dissenting opinion mischaracterizes Kurtis’ phone call and provides only selectively edited parts of the call without context. Kurtis vigorously denies that he discussed breaking NCAA rules. Kurtis has a record of NCAA compliance throughout his almost 30 years as a college coach. Kurtis has cooperated fully with the NCAA investigation, and he will continue to do so.”
Last March, Brown acknowledged Townsend’s communication with Code and others that was previously documented in court filings, saying the talks were “the type of routine and permissible communication that college coaches have on a regular basis as a normal part of their jobs” while claiming they did not involve improper recruiting assistance.
In one such conversation, as described by a defense attorney in a sidebar discussion with the judge in the original case, Code told Townsend that Williamson’s family was looking for a job, money and housing, and Townsend responded by saying, “So, I’ve got to just try to work and figure out a way. Because if that’s what it takes to get him for 10 months, we’re going to have to do it some way.”
KU’s NCAA case — the athletic department, in part, is facing five Level I violation allegations against its men’s basketball program — remains in the process of being decided by the newly formed Independent Accountability Resolution Panel. KU head coach Bill Self and Townsend have also been accused of NCAA violations in the case while continuing to coach.
A final ruling is not expected until summer at the earliest, with KU athletic director Jeff Long recently saying COVID-19 had caused some delays in the timeline.
The appeal ruling, which contained Lynch’s dissent, upheld the previous federal convictions of Gatto, Code and Dawkins.
