The money was to have come from Adidas. Even though Willams was aquitted on all five counts, Tulane president Eamonn Kelly decided to drop the Tulane basketball program because NCAA violations emerged during the investigation. SOKOLOVE: I think overall, it has not yet had a big impact on college basketball. There is something called the grassroots basketball network.
I mean, it really depends on how you calculate it, but directly to the universities and to the NCAA, billions. You know, the athlete is what you're there for. You want to just kind of paint that picture for us. Haskins lost his job because of the scandal and received a seven year show cause penalty. I mean, if you've got 10 players on the court and they're all running around in your insignias, why bother to advertise? I think they'll be - or possibly criminal activity. BCs star at the time, Ernie Cobb joined the scheme for the last five games. Also Justin Chang reviews the new fantasy thriller, "Suspiria."
He turned around programs at Pepperdine, UCLA and Rhode Island before making his way to Athens. What were some of the others? How young are players when they start getting attention? Just bring them to me. So in the federal government's case, there have been several assistant coaches charged with taking bribes from these runners or go-betweens on the grassroots circuit. Explain what they do, how they're paid. How? DAVIES: So Rick Pitino's the coach who's on the cover of the book. He's being represented by a lawyer hired by Adidas. But the NCAA still said, you can't play basketball last year and then ruled that he could not play college basketball this year. That $19,500 is one-quarter of 1 percent of the nearly $8 million annual salary that then-coach Rick Pitino was making. And what that was was that the FBI was on the case. Mills was banned from playing for Kentucky beyond the 1988 season as a result of the fallout.In the same season, it was also learned that Kentucky player Eric Manual cheated during the SAT. DAVIES: Right. 
You are having their elders just spread the money around. Rick Pitino won without those guys. If you're doing it legitimately, you're getting what a money manager might make. So in July, you will have a couple of hundred teams, all age groups, and a thousand or more players, a couple of hundred college coaches. Their loyalty and their responsibility is to their team first, which takes up 40 or 50 or 60 hours a week. Academic fraud, recruiting violations and improper financial assistance were all uncovered. They're hard to keep.
When these federal indictments were announced a year ago, it was big news. These assistant coaches jobs are very well-paid. You know, I mentioned that they dwell in a fantasy land. DAVIES: How big is the NCAA championship tournament, March Madness? So that really narrows the population. Although it had nothing to do with the University of Louisville, his extortion trial against the wife of Louisville equipment manager Tim Sypher sought money from Pitino after having an affair with him in a restaurant bathroom.Karen Dunagin Sypher was found guilty of lying to federal agents and extortion on August 6th, 2010, she faces amaximumof 26 years in prison. SWLA was then put on probation for the rules violations.With the NCAA microscope already on them, this uncovered other violations. He paused for a second. It would not be discovered until a year later. Talented athletes as young as 12 are targeted for manipulation by street agents Sokolove describes as dealers in human athletic flesh. Four former Wildcat players were implicated in the scandal. That was it for his NFL career. And you're not paying them, you know? The case was made harder by the fact that Dennehy was originally missing for about two weeks before Dotson was arrested for the crime in June of 2003. So that was sort of an - that was sort of strike one, strike two. Bushs parents alledgly received hundreds of thousands of dollards in cash and gifts including a house in Malibu rent free.The fallout for USC was significant. It was terribly embarrassing. SOKOLOVE: Rick Pitino won two national championships, one at Kentucky, one at Louisville. So to the extent that all of this is true - and I think it is; whether it's criminal, we don't know. Louisville was a central thread in the FBI and Justice Department case. So they knew they were engaged in criminal activity. He also said, and by the way, you never do this kind of stuff on the telephone. The players get the value of their scholarships. You describe a tournament in Las Vegas, I think, in July. And at Louisville, they started to call sports the front porch of the university. It's a mess. He's headed to the pros. So if you are looking at a young kid, you're going to mostly look at a kid who's already big and already athletic. And at a certain juncture, that's just not defensible. This case made national news more than just sports. At the time of the indictments, they had seen minimal success athletically. This was second time Calipari left a school before allegations had come out about his program. You know, any enterprise that generates large sums of money can be beset by corruption. And part of that just involves putting your head in the sand. DAVIES: I want to come back to one thing you said earlier. In the 1960s the Louisiana legislature did not grant scholarship money to African-American players. There's been no evidence that he did know. But they've been very, very quiet. Copyright 2018 NPR. And when they don't follow the rules, they don't tell me about it because they know how angry I would be. The FBI was bringing parents and coaches and players into interrogation rooms as opposed to the NCAA. We're speaking with writer Michael Sokolove, whose new book focuses on the allegedly corrupt practices in college basketball recruiting, exposed in a federal indictment last year. There are publications and scouting services that look at kids as young as fifth grade. The Buffaloes havent recovered, they are 17-30 in the Hawkins era. DAVIES: And just so we cover this, I mean, you said that in some respects, shoe and apparel companies look pretty bad in this. The NCAA is probably quietly happy they did not. SOKOLOVE: Well, if the teams do well, if you're a Nike school and you reach the Final Four, or if you win the national championship, your coach is sure to get a $100,000 or a $200,000 bonus on top of his multimillion-dollar salary. So is Adidas. SOKOLOVE: Thank you. During the 1980s and early 1990s, it was all about the U. Former UM academic adviser Jan Gangelhoff admitted to doing extensive work for the players. So one of the most prominent coaches in college basketball, the legendary Mike Krzyzewski, Coach K of Duke, was just quoted as saying this is a blip. The Mustangs are the only NCAA Football team to receive the dreaded death penalty. Can I deal this kid to a particular college? SOKOLOVE: One hundred thousand dollars was promised to Brian Bowen Jr.'s father. Some of them are staying on the strip. Their low point came when they finished 5-6 during the 1997 season. Point Shaving scandals, athletes and/or their parents getting paid and coaches, administrators and schools that act as if the rules do not apply to them. The shoe companies do? It's the kind of money that pro franchises are making or generating. They have put out sort of vanilla statements that this is not what we do. But Pitino is a fascinating character. It comes directly from the shoe company. Coming up, Justin Chang reviews the fantasy thriller "Suspiria." Kuhn was the only player that served prison time. That's where the college coaches go to scout. SOKOLOVE: And he went to Northern Arizona, became an athletic director, and then Colorado State and became an athletic director, and then came to Louisville, and everybody in the business said, whatever you do, Tom, don't take that job. It will continue to go on because there's too much incentive for it to go on. He's a guy, you know, spends his life looking at little basketball players. He missed out on what is by far the easier route, which is to play in college, to be on TV, to be known and just take that glide path right into the NBA. The morning news programs all covered the case.Dotson admitted to killing Dennehy nearly two years after the crime was committed. And Adidas and Under Armour and Nike are part of the corporate basketball fraternity. And you know, by the way, I loved watching him coach. SOKOLOVE: Just about a billion dollars a year goes to the NCAA itself, which is the nonprofit organization that runs big-time college sports. And these prospects, these kids, their families take them. Well, nobody believes that. His new book is The Last Temptation of Rick Pitino. Football starters Dion Lee and Dewey Williams and starting running back Dennis Lundy were accused in separate incidents of bookmaking and point shaving. And Brian Bowen Jr. has gone off to play professionally in Australia and is over there now in Sydney and has become one of a thousand overseas players trying to attract the attention of NBA scouts. DAVIES: You write about the University of Louisville, which you say was kind of a quiet commuter school until a new athletic director, a guy named Tom Jurich, came in and had big ambitions, and invested in big-time coaches, and new facilities, stadiums and basketball arenas and made a ton of revenue from it. They will go to private schools and figure out what private school your child should go to. At the time the death penalty was imposed, SMU was serving a three year probation. And Louisville actually lost its 2013 national title over Strippergate. He finally landed on his feet at Morgan State after the ban expired and has led those Bears to the last two NCAA Tournaments. DAVIES: Michael Sokolove's new book is "The Last Temptation Of Rick Pitino: A Story Of Corruption, Scandal, And The Big Business Of College Basketball." SOKOLOVE: The money largely goes to the adults who run the games. So Sunny not only put the best players together, but he created a situation that coaches loved. Michigan basketball was one of the countrys best programs from the mid 1980s to mid 1990s. Pitino was not charged but did lose his job in the scandal. Send him to me. What was it about? The fact that the University of South Carolina took him in is an indication that they certainly believed that he had no knowledge of this. But the fact that Coach K said it gives you an indication of the sort of institutional reaction to what has gone on and a determination to sort of try to get past this without really changing anything. There's another really creepy part of this story, which took me a while to get, which is the street runners not just using, you know, incentives to get kids to colleges, but then in some cases, paying the assistant college coaches to steer their players who are already in college to a certain financial adviser that the street runner has a relationship with.
And the intent of the bribe is to say, OK, you already have this player. You know, they got too greedy. But you're right that this was not his first brush with scandal. And we're speaking with writer Michael Sokolove, whose new book "The Last Temptation Of Rick Pitino" is about a recruiting scandal in college basketball. And he sort of sets the sort of number of players who may be looked at. DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. He also filed a false theft report to the police alleging he had more than $10,000 worth of clothes, electronic equipment, CDs and cash taken from a car he borrowed from a local dealership. I'm Dave Davies, in for Terry Gross. Well, you've got the Nike swoosh on your sneakers. DAVIES: Right. So if you're a financial adviser and this is what you do, and you manage to, in some way or another, get an NBA player as your client, what's it worth to you? And for that reason and some other reasons, it is relatively easier in basketball to look at a sixth or seventh-grader and correctly say, this kid's going to be at least a college player. SOKOLOVE: Brian Bowen Jr. had told the FBI - and he told me when I interviewed him, and he has told everyone - he did not know that money was exchanged, that money was received by his father. He taught the game. Cooper said Nifong used dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation during his prosecution of the case.Mangum would have more legal troubles after the case including being arrested for attempted murder.Duke the number one ranked team in the country at the time of the accusations. And on the one hand, they're - can be seen as colorful. The thinking in the industry and among journalists and many who follow this world is that many of the head coaches say, just get me players. So what Clark Francis does, whether you take him seriously or not, is he lays down a foundation for people who then scout high school and middle school players. And I think that's the most insidious part of this. Claretts situation seemseerilysimilar to former USC running back Reggie Bush who helped the Trojans to National Championships in 2004 and 2005. And there are several reasons for this. So what the shoe companies created was the grassroots basketball circuit. No wrong doing was ever proven at Illinois in relation to Pearls allegations. And we're talking about middle school kids in a lot of cases, right? I think one of the scariest things for people in the basketball industry, to the extent that they are alarmed, is these people were them. The allegations did not come to light until the following season. So it becomes worth it for these scouts to then prowl the sidelines of fifth and sixth-grade basketball tournaments. DAVIES: Now, one of the parts of this story is the relationship between shoe and apparel companies and big-time college basketball programs. Only six of the nine games selected to shave point succeeded. It generates billions of dollars, and it doesn't pay. You say it's not hard to make the case he's the best college basketball coach of his generation, a tactical and motivational genius. It's on your trunks. DAVIES: Mike Sokolove's book is "The Last Temptation Of Rick Pitino: A Story Of Corruption, Scandal And The Big Business Of College Basketball." He got them to play merciless defense. All throughout out the athletic department, people are making six-figure salaries. The murder of Patrick Dennehy by teammate Carlton Dotson transcended the sports pages and SportsCenter. College Basketball Doubleheaders at Madison Square Garden had been held regularly since 1934.The City College of New York (CCNY) was the best team in college basketball in 1950. DAVIES: Michael Sokolove's new book is, "The Last Temptation Of Rick Pitino: A Story Of Corruption, Scandal, And The Big Business Of College Basketball." And the money that seems to us perhaps so big is not that big for them. DAVIES: And has it had a major effect on college basketball programs? There's no doubt that money changed hands - by the way, relatively small amounts of money in the grand scheme of what these apparel companies generate and - and make in profit. If you're in college basketball, it's an occupational risk that you may run afoul of the NCAA. Explain what you mean. And he was given his walking papers after the indictment came out. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. DAVIES: Are there national publications or online sites that actually rate these players that have a lot of readers? And in this case, Adidas. And they are being scouted not only by coaches - not only by college coaches but also by these characters who exist on the fringes. It does not go to the players, what I call the unpaid workforce. The Trojans were slapped with a two year postseason ban and the loss of 30 scholarships over three years. President Robert Wickenheiser resigned, board president Bill Swan later committed suicide and the Bonnies were stripped of six wins by the Atlantic Ten conference and banned from post season play in March of 2003. I mean, Louisville, certainly, was turned upside down. If you're, quote, "managing the money" of one of these players, I don't know what that might add up to. It was not considered an occupational risk that you may be visited by the FBI and may be looking at prison time. And the federal government has charged in this case that we're seeing money flowing among these parties to help to lure kids to universities. DAVIES: Are there kids who, when they're, you know, 12, 13, 14, kind of become celebrities, kind of think of themselves as in a business? Northwestern is one of the best schools in the country academically. Coach Steve Fisher who had led UM to three national championship games and the 1989 national championship lost his job. SOKOLOVE: Rick Pitino, who's written a couple of leadership books but is not really a model of leader that most people would recognize, employs a sort of circular logic when things go wrong. The interception sealed a 17-15 Tiger win. The Golden Gophers eventually forfeited postseason wins between 1993 and 1998 including the schools only Final Four appearance in 1997. That adds up to about $400,000 a year. Last year, the NCAA college basketball tournament known as March Madness was seen by 97 million TV viewers. And this recruiting scandal - and Pitino was not charged. The charges against the Buffaloes were eventually dropped, but the damage was done. I certainly think with the FBI on the case, people will become much more careful. One of those men was James Gatto Jr., the former head of global basketball marketing for Adidas. SOKOLOVE: More than a decade ago, Rick Pitino had a sexual assignation in a closed restaurant with a woman who then tried to extort him. What's the relationship? He would later be banned from playing at any NCAA member school on any lever. Many also said the school nearly condoned rape as well. And I think most of us would figure this would focus on high school players - you know, juniors or seniors who've proved that they have the chops, and they visit their families, they do whatever to try and get them interested in their program.
And in the case of Strippergate - and there was an echo of this in the recruiting scandal - he says, I tell everyone to follow the rules. DAVIES: Now, he lost his job. I learned from your book this starts much, much earlier. You know, Nike is a multibillion-dollar global company. What did they allege? It's a small sliver of what really goes on. And he's seeking the $35 million which was left on his coaching contract. And in the - in the NCAA's lexicon, its strange lexicon, this was ruled to be impermissible benefits to amateur players. Almost all of these defendants are well-liked, well-known insiders. Its legendary Coach Rick Pitino wasn't charged, but the scandal cost him his job. You write that on the college end of this, it's the assistant coaches who are really involved in recruiting. And then they pour a lot of money into the college programs themselves. It eventually came out that seven schools in all were in involved the scheme that impacted 86 games. The players have to wear only their gear. Terrell earned a welding certificate from Coastal Georgia Community College. They never shook hands after a game. As part of the probation that preceded the death penalty, SMU was unable to participate in bowl games in 1985-86 or have their games televised live in 86.The most startling revelation that came out during the SMU football scandal was that former Texas Governor (current at the time) Bill Clements approved of the slush fund that was used to pay players.SMU received the death penalty for the 1987 season, they decided to sit out the 1988 season before restoring football as a varsity sport in 1990. The subsequent fallout from the scandal cost Michigan numerous post-season appearances and awards and milestones earned by the aforementioned players. MICHAEL SOKOLOVE: Well, billions. Head Coach Gary Barnett wassuspendedin the off-season for his part in the scandal. They lost their coach. So in Strippergate and in this recruiting scandal, there were people just one layer below him - his assistant coaches or in one case, his director of basketball operations, who were elbows-deep in wrongdoing, it would seem. Some of them are just moving through, not necessarily getting a degree, coming out with some injuries. It involved a recruit. And by the way, James Gatto, who - this Adidas executive, his father was a high school coach.