This is what national publications are saying about KU basketball in wake of Adidas trial

A number of national publications on Monday wrote about the federal court case into college basketball corruption, particularly how it affects or reflects on Kansas basketball.

Text messages from KU basketball coaches Bill Self and Kurtis Townsend to former Adidas consultant Thomas “T.J.” Gassnola were introduced during the federal court case into college basketball corruption.

And that was the basis for the following stories.

Will Hobson and Kevin Armstrong of the Washington Post wrote a story with the headline, “Why Bill Self’s texts with an Adidas official are a headache for Kansas basketball.”

“As the trial began its third, and likely final, week Monday, it has yet to produce smoking gun evidence of a prominent head coach involved in brokering deals for top recruits,” they wrote. “It has, however, shed light on a cozy relationship between Self and top Adidas officials that could draw NCAA scrutiny over the generally prohibited involvement of third parties in the recruiting process.

“For years, officials at Nike, Adidas and Under Armour have been able to prod elite high school players toward their sponsored college teams without generating NCAA sanctions for those schools, in part because of a system that creates plausible deniability for coaches. Each company sponsors multiple colleges, so coaches can tell NCAA officials that the company’s consultants aren’t working specifically on behalf of their school.

“In parts of three days of testimony in U.S. District Court in lower Manhattan, however, Gassnola — who has pleaded guilty to wire fraud charges in connection with payments for two Kansas recruits and a North Carolina State recruit — has admitted that Self, and Kansas, held a special place in his recruiting efforts. After Ayton committed to Arizona, for example, Gassnola felt he had ‘let down’ Self and Kansas, he acknowledged on the stand. ...

“While Gatto’s lawyers have not explicitly said Self and other coaches knew the ‘help’ Adidas provided occasionally would involve cash payments, they have suggested such activity is commonplace in elite recruiting in college basketball, and if coaches didn’t know, it was because they didn’t want to know.”

Gary Parrish of CBS Sports wrote a column headlined, “Texts between Kansas coach Bill Self and ex-Adidas rep show how high-level college basketball recruiting works.”

Parrish wrote, “Gassnola assures Self he will deliver because he’s never previously let him down — except for that time with Deandre Ayton, the five-star center who enrolled at Arizona, a Nike school, even though Gassnola paid one of Ayton’s friends $15,000, according to testimony last week. And Self welcomes the help from Adidas because, he believes, North Carolina and Duke get similar help from Nike. So does Kentucky, Gassnola proclaims.

“Simply put, this has been college basketball for a while.

“Self was right.

“That’s how it works.

“Now do I have proof that Nike has paid prospects to go to Nike schools, or that Under Armour has paid prospects to go to Under Armour schools? No. (The feds might, though.) But what I do know is that coaches have long believed both Nike and Under Armour assist Nike and Under Armour schools in recruiting exactly the same way it’s been proven Adidas assisted Kansas, NC State and Louisville in recruiting.

“Self’s texts are evidence of that.”

Parrish later wrote of Self: “Why did he want Gassnola working for Kansas? Because, he believed, somebody at Nike was working for Duke and North Carolina. And why was Gassnola so anxious to help Kansas? Because, he believed, somebody at Nike was also helping Kentucky.

“That’s four blue-blood programs with Hall of Fame coaches.

“‘That’s how (it) works,’ Self texted Gassnola.

“Yep.

“That’s. How. It. Works.”

Sports Illustrated’s Dan Greene wrote a story with the headline, “Bill Self, Kansas Suddenly Caught in Federal College Hoops Trial.”

Green wrote: “It was not clear how well the defense’s spinning of Gassnola’s text conversations with the Kansas staff played with the jury, most of which looked understandably bored during a full day of examination that for sustained stretches focused on the intricacies of invoices and the Adidas corporate hierarchy. Unknown too is how much scrutiny the newly revealed texts from Self and Townsend will draw from the NCAA, which has essentially sat on the sidelines while the FBI’s investigation has played out, not yet punishing even the most directly implicated schools like Louisville, Auburn, USC, and Arizona. ...

“But what’s clear, as the trial heads into what is expected to be its final day of evidence on Tuesday, is that a program that could enter the upcoming season atop the national polls— Kansas — is going to continue receiving a lot of attention it will surely be dreading. After long serving as an Adidas flagship, that relationship may have sent it on a wayward course.”

Deadspin’s Patrick Redford wrote a story with the headline, “Text messages show Bill Self working with shady Adidas consultant to recruit player.”

He wrote: “In September, Gassnola texted Self to congratulate him on the $191 million sponsorship deal Kansas was about to sign with Adidas. Self replied, ‘I’m happy with Adidas. Just got to get a couple real guys.’ Gassnola later told Self, ‘I have never let you down. Except Dyondre lol. We will get it right,’ a reference to DeAndre Ayton, to whom Gassnola said he paid $15,000 on behalf of Adidas when Ayton was a high school junior.

“Aside from the fact that Gassnola might have failed to turn Ayton to Kansas because he doesn’t know how to spell his name, the takeaway here is that the entire system of payments to high school athletes is so shady, predatory, and convoluted because the NCAA’s hollow farce of ‘amateurism’ forces it all underground. College basketball is a big enough business that labor needs to get paid, and if the NCAA won’t let it happen above ground, then it falls on a vast network of con artists, AAU hucksters, and shoe company ‘consultants’ to funnel money to players. That hurts everyone, and we wouldn’t have to go through this embarrassing trial for the sanctity of the game or whatever if the NCAA wasn’t such a greedy cartel of an organization.”