Another sneaker dropped — and it could mar March Madness.
Leaked documents from the FBI’s probe into corruption in college basketball were released by Yahoo Sports on Friday, revealing nearly two dozen schools — including perennial power programs such as Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas and Michigan State — have been implicated in potentially violating NCAA rules, and linking alleged impermissible loans and payments from former NBA agent Andy Miller, associate Christian Dawkins and Miller’s agency, ASM Sports to at least 25 players.
In September, the FBI announced its two-year investigation into the sport and made 10 arrests — including Dawkins, and assistant coaches from Auburn, USC, Arizona and Oklahoma State. The feds also seized documents from Miller’s office, which included Dawkins’ expense reports that referenced current players, such as Duke’s Wendell Carter, Michigan State’s Miles Bridges and Alabama’s Collin Sexton.
Benefits ranged from five-figure payments to meals totaling less than $40, and included travel expenses and entertainment given to elite players (who could pay back loans after they were drafted) in hopes of landing them as future clients.
Late Friday night, ESPN reported more damning, and concrete evidence, from the FBI’s wiretaps, in which Arizona head coach Sean Miller was captured in multiple conversations talking to Dawkins about making a $100,000 payment to land star freshman DeAndre Ayton, the potential No. 1 pick in this year’s NBA draft. Miller, whose assistant Emanuel “Book” Richardson already has been arrested, reportedly requested that Dawkins speak directly with him regarding the financing for Ayton.
“It’s not shocking to anybody. That’s the reality of this business,” one coach told The Post, on the condition of anonymity. “That’s what everyone doesn’t understand about college basketball. The agents control the kids, not the coaches.
“The way the rules are currently constructed, the only hope you have is that the kid isn’t taking, and you tell me if you think that’s happening.”
Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball said it’s happening everywhere.
“Everybody knows everybody’s getting paid,” Ball told reporters in Los Angeles. “That’s how it is. If everybody’s getting paid anyway, might as well make it legal.”
At least six players were listed as receiving more than $10,000, including Mavericks guard Dennis Smith ($73,500), former Seton Hall star Isaiah Whitehead ($37,657) and last year’s No. 1 pick, Markelle Fultz ($10,000), while multiple families of players also allegedly collected payments. The mother of Bridges, who passed up millions as a likely lottery pick after last season to return for his sophomore season with the Spartans, is listed as receiving hundreds of dollars in cash advances. Current Kentucky player Kevin Knox is among the players or families alleged to have had meals with Dawkins, though his father denied it took place.
Knox is expected to play Saturday against Missouri, while Duke athletic director Kevin White said there are “no eligibility issues related to the report.”
NCAA President Mark Emmert said his organization will work in coordination with federal prosecutors, and punishments may not be levied until investigations are conducted by the NCAA and schools.
“These allegations, if true, point to systematic failures that must be fixed and fixed now if we want college sports in America,” Emmert said in a statement. “Simply put, people who engage in this kind of behavior have no place in college sports. They are an affront to all those who play by the rules.”
Kentucky coach John Calipari said in a statement that he and his staff have “no relationship” with Miller or his associates. Michigan State coach Tom Izzo released a statement saying he has “no reason to believe “that I, any member of our staff or student-athlete did anything in violation of NCAA rules.”
If it sounds improbable the faces of so many prominent programs had no knowledge of payments to their players, multiple unaffected coaches believe they have plausible deniability.
“The seeds are being sown in AAU, and if I’m walking in to recruit a kid, I don’t know that kid’s getting $500 a week from an agent, and they’re not going to tell you that,” another coach said. “You don’t even know what they’re doing with the families because they’re doing that before you’re recruiting them. How am I supposed to know if he’s taking money or plane tickets? I understand it’s my job, but it’s unrealistic to think that’s gonna happen.
“The only thing you can do is legitimize it all and pay the players market value. … Or don’t recruit elite, high-level kids. That’s what it comes down to.”
Coming just days after Louisville had its 2013 national championship vacated due to NCAA violations, one agent for college basketball coaches said he believed the latest bombshell could finally push the sport’s power programs to split from the NCAA and create their own postseason tournament.
“I think the NCAA has no idea what to do right now,” the agent told The Post. “It’s too archaic, it’s too big. Duke and the other programs can leave and form a power six, sort of like football.”
The list of schools affected is likely to grow, with the findings of financial documents and thousands of wiretapped conversations from Miller’s office still to be unveiled.
“This is only Andy Miller. There’s a lot more they’ll uncover,” the agent said. “One-hundred [percent] of big agents are doing something. It’s the way the business has been run for decades.”