King told Lester that Gassnola is a consultant, and that was that. Why would he? But the federal investigation ultimately did several things: It emboldened the N.C.A.A. That includes tens of millions of dollars during his Kansas tenure to date. University presidents and athletic directors have largely abdicated responsibility for disciplining coaches, let alone dismissing them. investigations (one assistant’s case took place at another school). To the Jayhawks staff, Gassnola was a known friend of the program, not a rogue threat who was victimizing Kansas basketball. And now it includes Level One NCAA allegations that could result in massive penalties for both the school and the coach. Reed described him thusly to NCAA investigators: “He’s a parasite taking advantage of kids and riding their coattails to be a jock sniffer to power coaches and power players in the industry. And there he was (along with Gatto) at the same on-campus hotel as prospective recruit Billy Preston when Preston made his official visit. wiretap. Marsh’s advice: Don’t tell that to the judge. And yet … when Preston wrecked a very nice car on campus in November and the school was forced to deal with that sudden potential scandal, Reed closed his compliance interview with Preston’s mother by asking if she knew T.J. Gassnola. In a case unrelated to the federal corruption investigation, Dave Leitao, the coach at DePaul, was suspended in July for three games and the program placed on three years probation after a former assistant moved in with a recruit to help him complete coursework to become eligible. Money, of course, has been funneled to recruits just about forever, be it through cars, bogus jobs or envelopes stuffed with cash, like the one Kentucky sent to the father of Chris Mills, a recruit in the late 1980s. (That’s after Self texts Gassnola that they “just got to get some real guys.”). The cases will be closely watched as a test of the N.C.A.A.’s potency at a time when its business model built around athletes as amateurs has been under assault in court and from lawmakers, and as the organization's ability to police its members has been called into question. accusations that he was complicit in Adidas’s improper funneling of more than $100,000 to three basketball recruits. But if you want to know why Kansas is facing a Level One charge for lack of institutional control and failure to monitor its men’s basketball program, the hands-off approach to Gassnola (and other Adidas reps) is your answer. If court testimony and wiretaps are an accurate representation, the companies have largely replaced boosters as the source of illicit payments. enforcement staff continues to comb through remnants of the F.B.I.’s investigation into college basketball corruption. Nobody in the Kansas administration questioned Self about Gassnola’s association with the program. L.S.U. It is a one-sided document filed in response to Kansas’s own one-sided document, the latter of which refutes almost everything the NCAA alleges. That’s a negative cloud. … “ Reed said he asked the Kansas ticket manager, Scott Hahn, about Gassnola and was told, “Just Google him, he’s a scum bag.” Google don’t lie: Reed found out Gassnola had been a runner for agent Andy Miller, had his AAU team suspended by the NCAA and had a criminal record. That was about the time shoe companies began exerting their influence. Zenger said Lester shared his concerns about Gassnola with him, but Adidas “assured (Lester) he was on the up-and-up.”. Reed’s deeply held suspicions turned out to be correct. Gene Marsh, a former top regulator for college sports, chuckled when he saw how Kansas Coach Bill Self punched back at N.C.A.A. Significantly, the notice also portrayed Adidas as a representative of Kansas, akin to a booster. If Bill Self had spent the first 15 years of the 21st century coaching in Turkmenistan and then suddenly arrived in college basketball, he might not have any idea what Gassnola’s reputation and track record were within the sport. But that wasn’t Self’s career path. No head coaches or top shoe company executives were implicated. I believe that was something that was arranged by our administration that we thought would maybe be handled a little differently, and it wasn’t.". That body will hear the case against Kansas, which will surely be joined by other universities as the N.C.A.A. But an argument that Kansas might have been unfairly singled out won’t hold much sway in a hearing. Then, when everything blows up, everyone has to play their roles. Even after the entire underground economy was exposed by the FBI and Southern District of New York in late September 2017, Kansas didn’t exactly rush to disassociate from Gassnola. notice of allegations) and perhaps Louisiana State, Arizona, the University of Southern California, Oklahoma State, Miami, South Carolina, Auburn and Louisville — the testimony laid out in court could build a foundation for N.C.A.A. According to NCAA Enforcement, Lester was sufficiently concerned about Gassnola’s presence around the Jayhawks that he asked the head of Adidas North America, Mark King, outside a meeting about Gassnola’s role with the company.

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