National media split on KU’s culpability in the wake of Adidas basketball trial
On Wednesday, the defendants in the Adidas college basketball trial were found guilty by a federal jury in New York.
They are Adidas executive James Gatto, former Adidas consultant Merl Code and former sports agent Christian Dawkins, and they were accused of conspiring to pay the families of players to attend schools sponsored by Adidas.
That included Kansas, which has been in the national spotlight since the trial started. While Jayhawks coach Bill Self defended his program, others have said KU doesn’t look good in the wake of the trial.
This is a sample of what people were saying and writing about any potential disciplinary action that should be taken against KU or Self.
Michael Rosenberg of Sports Illustrated wrote a column with the headline, “Bill Self should be suspended If Kansas is serious about following the rules.”
Rosenberg wrote in part: “If the NCAA cares about its rules a 10th as much as it claims, then here is an idea: Suspend Bill Self. Tell him to sit on his couch while Kansas starts its basketball season, and tell him assistant coach Kurtis Townsend can join him there.
“This may sound unfair, because Self has not been proven guilty of anything, he has a right to defend himself, and to that, I say: So what?
“Players under investigation are held out all the time. Right now, Kansas is holding forward Silvio De Sousa out of competition because he might be ineligible. Kansas knows if the NCAA dings De Sousa for accepting money later, KU might have to forfeit games. Well, why is that fair for De Sousa and not for Self?
“Self is the one who is 55, the one making $5 million a year, and the one who is supposed to know and follow every one of the NCAA’s rules. Why does he get to keep coaching while his player has to sit?
“If you followed the Adidas trial, and you don’t think Kansas violated any rules, let me pause here so you can show me your Rock Chalk tattoo.”
You can read more of what Rosenberg wrote here.
Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News wrote a column with the headline, “If NCAA goes after Kansas, Jayhawks won’t just be an easy victim.”
DeCourcy wrote in part: “In order for there to be a case of fraud, some entity obviously must be defrauded. In this case, the government argued, those entities were Louisville and Kansas.
“Which is why Kansas’ situation — as it pertains to the NCAA — becomes much trickier now than is suggested by the focus and intimations elsewhere regarding text messages and forgotten phone conversations involving KU coaches. Kansas now has a federal court ruling identifying itself as the victim in this case, bolstered by sworn testimony that its employees were unaware of the scheme in question. If you believe the NCAA soon will ride over the hill into Lawrence waving postseason sanctions and show-cause orders, you’re ignoring the question that will be at the core of any subsequent action:
“How can Kansas be both victim and perpetrator?”
Later DeCourcy wrote: “The NCAA’s capitulation in the North Carolina academic scandal was based, at least in part, on the expectation that Carolina would sue if the organization twisted its rulebook to mount a case. Now, if the NCAA goes after Kansas basketball, the university will be able to point to a federal court ruling that says the Jayhawks are victims.”
You can read more of DeCourcy’s column here.
Yahoo college writers Pete Thamel, Pat Forde and Dan Wetzel discussed KU in a podcast last week.
“I feel like that should be grounds to get Kansas in trouble,” Thamel said. “That is as naked of a ‘this is what he is looking for, we are willing to do it’ conversation as you can possibly get. I feel like there’s have been a lot of cynics being like, ‘Well, this isn’t that bad’ from coach (Mike) Krzyzewski right on down to the college basketball media, which is not exactly a cynical lot. ... People just have been skeptical. No, this stuff happens, it’s happening. They are reading you transcripts of it happening.
“And that’s pretty serious and damning. Look, Kansas’ leadership, I know they’re all huddled in a corner as victims, so we should be kind and gentle to Kansas’ leadership as they confer, because this has been very difficult on them, I realize....
“Other than a videotape of a cash payment, that is pretty much as quantifiable evidence that Kansas was in the market to buy players under Bill Self. Like it’s all kind of there.”
Wetzel added: “There is no reason Kansas is any good at basketball. It’s located in a wheat field. You get these kids all over the country for the last 60 years to go to Kansas.”
Forde also said the trial was damning for the Jayhawks.
“Here’s what we’ve got from a Kansas perspective: we have a coach on the record saying, ‘we’ll do whatever we’ve got to do, somehow someway to get Zion Williamson for 10 months’ after being told it would take a job and cash and housing,” Forde said. “We also have TJ Gassnola having admitted that he paid 90 grand for a Kansas player and at least 2,500 for another Kansas player and that’s before we even get to the previous Kansas players like Josh Jackson and Cliff Alexander and others who have run afoul of the NCAA. So, I’m just saying they’ve got some things to answer for.”
You can listen to the podcast here.
This story was originally published October 26, 2018 at 11:39 AM.