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Which Former Player(s) Is Wetzel Implicating Here?

The FBI is not in the business of publicly apologizing to those collaterally damaged in its investigations.

This may be as close as Jim Larranaga and his staff will get.

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced updated charges against a former Adidas executive and his associates in their ongoing probe of college basketball corruption. The new indictment lacked some of the material from the original indictment: namely, a strong implication that Miami and Larranaga participated in their alleged conspiracy.

The report, which mentioned Kansas and North Carolina State for the first time and also discussed Louisville, painted Miami in a much more flattering light than before. It said the scheme was perpetrated by three men who wanted to pay a top 2018 recruit to play at Miami, and ensure he would sign with Adidas and a particular sports agency when he reached the NBA. The scheme, the new report said, aimed to defraud Miami and the NCAA.
It was far less detailed, and struck a different tone than the report the Department of Justice released Sept. 26.

The original report stated that Jim Gatto, Adidas’ since-ousted head of grassroots marketing, and associates Merl Code and Christian Dawkins aimed to “assist one or more coaches” at Miami in landing Orlando-based recruit Nassir Little. The assistance, they said, would come in the form of a $150,000 payment, funneled through back channels “at the request of” Larranaga. The two men claimed Larranaga “knows everything” about the scheme.

Tuesday’s updated charges included none of those claims against Miami’s coaches.

The report stripped most of the language about Larranaga, including a passage referencing “Coach-3’s request” that Adidas make a six-figure payment to keep Little from signing with another school.
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http://caneswatch.blog.palmbeachpos...kansas-and-n-c-state-nothing-new-about-miami/


Im so ******* ****ed

Praying we can salvage the next class at least and get the recruiting momentum back
 
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TheRichtShow said:
You realize that's an unsubstantiated allegation, right.

The FBI has zero evidence of a phone call between Adidas and Miami discussing payment. What they have is a discussion between Adidas officials, discussing that there was a phone call between an Adidas rep and Miami. That is a huge difference from the Arizona/Louisville situations, where they have the coaches on wiretaps

I know you want to believe Miami did something criminal, but you're not capable of understanding apparently there is no direct evidence in that indictment that that was the case.

And you don't believe the media/FBI would pick on Miami? lol, yeah okay
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The media has nothing to do with our school's and Coach's name being in the FBI paperwork. And, no, I don't believe the FBI would be out to "frame" Miami.

No one knows what was said in the phonecon between Coach L and the shoe company guys. I think his version would be they were just exchanging pleasantries and basketball small talk. What was initially implied in the gov't info was that it was more than that. Guess we'll never know and count ourselves fortunate. I don't think even what Pitino or Miller did is criminal. Unethical and sleazy, yes. Looks like Arizona is standing behind Miller, despite the wiretap?
 
Problem2 said:
http://caneswatch.blog.palmbeachpos...kansas-and-n-c-state-nothing-new-about-miami/


Im so ******* ****ed

Praying we can salvage the next class at least and get the recruiting momentum back
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I like the bold below.

The FBI is not in the business of publicly apologizing to those collaterally damaged in its investigations.

This may be as close as Jim Larranaga and his staff will get.

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced updated charges against a former Adidas executive and his associates in their ongoing probe of college basketball corruption. The new indictment lacked some of the material from the original indictment: namely, a strong implication that Miami and Larranaga participated in their alleged conspiracy.

The report, which mentioned Kansas and North Carolina State for the first time and also discussed Louisville, painted Miami in a much more flattering light than before. It said the scheme was perpetrated by three men who wanted to pay a top 2018 recruit to play at Miami, and ensure he would sign with Adidas and a particular sports agency when he reached the NBA. The scheme, the new report said, aimed to defraud Miami and the NCAA.
 
The irony of the whole situation is that the underlying basis of the crime being charged is the damage that would be caused to the university being "defrauded" when they were punished for violating NCAA rules. In our case, the FBI caused roughly the same damage themselves by falsely accusing Coach L in the initial indictment.

As Consigliere said, this is probably the closest we get to being exonerated. Hopefully, it along with the contract extension are enough to get our recruiting going again.
 
Consigliere said:
I like the bold below.

The FBI is not in the business of publicly apologizing to those collaterally damaged in its investigations.

This may be as close as Jim Larranaga and his staff will get.

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced updated charges against a former Adidas executive and his associates in their ongoing probe of college basketball corruption. The new indictment lacked some of the material from the original indictment: namely, a strong implication that Miami and Larranaga participated in their alleged conspiracy.

The report, which mentioned Kansas and North Carolina State for the first time and also discussed Louisville, painted Miami in a much more flattering light than before. It said the scheme was perpetrated by three men who wanted to pay a top 2018 recruit to play at Miami, and ensure he would sign with Adidas and a particular sports agency when he reached the NBA. The scheme, the new report said, aimed to defraud Miami and the NCAA.
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This is what all the "victim schools" are saying. KU, Arizona, NC St, USC, Auburn, etc. "We were the victims." I'm not quite sure how that works but I'll take it at this point ... Anyone think if Coach L gets a call in the future from a shoe company rep or "agent," he might not take the call, or would hang up?
 
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We were mentioned. This is like being called a Commie in the 50s. We're toast in the eyes of America. I hate life.
 
hotshot said:
This is what all the "victim schools" are saying. KU, Arizona, NC St, USC, Auburn, etc. "We were the victims." I'm not quite sure how that works but I'll take it at this point ... Anyone think if Coach L gets a call in the future from a shoe company rep or "agent," he might not take the call, or would hang up?
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Dude, even in the initial allegations, there was nothing about Coach L being caught on a wire tap with anybody. It stated that the Adidas guys were saying that Coach L knew about their hair brained scheme. There is nothing here. By the way, when this is all over, I predict Rick Pitino is going to get paid bigly by Louisville.
 
tcgrad1014 said:
Dude, even in the initial allegations, there was nothing about Coach L being caught on a wire tap with anybody. It stated that the Adidas guys were saying that Coach L knew about their hair brained scheme. There is nothing here. By the way, when this is all over, I predict Rick Pitino is going to get paid bigly by Louisville.
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OK, I accept everything you said in this post. If all Coach L's "involvement" here is "knowing" about their scheme, if he does nothing with that knowledge, what does that mean? Certainly nothing criminal but ... you'd think somebody like the University President or the NCAA wouldn't be too happy with his keeping that knowledge to himself.

Also, can someone tell me how this scheme worked, or was supposed to work? Let's take Louisville because there is an instance where a player was apparently "delivered." The shoe company calls Pitino and says, "We think Louisville would be the perfect place for Bowen to play, and we're gonna pay his family to ensure he does." What's in it for them? Or, did it work in reverse, Pitino telling the shoe guys, we want Bowen and would appreciate your help in making that happen. Again, what's in it for the shoe company? Can someone explain?
 
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hotshot said:
OK, I accept everything you said in this post. If all Coach L's "involvement" here is "knowing" about their scheme, if he does nothing with that knowledge, what does that mean? Certainly nothing criminal but ... you'd think somebody like the University President or the NCAA wouldn't be too happy with his keeping that knowledge to himself.

Also, can someone tell me how this scheme worked, or was supposed to work? Let's take Louisville because there is an instance where a player was apparently "delivered." The shoe company calls Pitino and says, "We think Louisville would be the perfect place for Bowen to play, and we're gonna pay his family to ensure he does." What's in it for them? Or, did it work in reverse, Pitino telling the shoe guys, we want Bowen and would appreciate your help in making that happen. Again, what's in it for the shoe company? Can someone explain?
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Basically it allows them to get their hooks into the kid at the HS level. Once the kid spends his 1 year at Louisville he will then sign a shoe deal with Addidas after he graduates and basically eliminates Nike from the picture. Nike does the same thing according to some of the wire taps on Adidas.
 
Thanks, OGH. So, really, the sleazy Adidas defendants in this matter could not care less where the high profile recruit ends up, so long as it is at an Adidas school. If UM had stayed with Nike, then, at least as far as this scandal goes, we'd be sitting free and clear. Hindsight I guess really is 20/20.
 
hotshot said:
Thanks, OGH. So, really, the sleazy Adidas defendants in this matter could not care less where the high profile recruit ends up, so long as it is at an Adidas school. If UM had stayed with Nike, then, at least as far as this scandal goes, we'd be sitting free and clear. Hindsight I guess really is 20/20.
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No problem. Exactly. They just want to keep the kid at an Adidas school so they can sign him later on. Allegedly they even try to push middle school kids to AAU coaches that will help them go to Adidas schools. I believe you are correct, but their is a wiretap that had one of the addidas reps saying something along the lines of: Nike is willing to pay the kid 150k can we match that? So in all likelihood Nike will get hit next.
 
hotshot said:
Thanks, OGH. So, really, the sleazy Adidas defendants in this matter could not care less where the high profile recruit ends up, so long as it is at an Adidas school. If UM had stayed with Nike, then, at least as far as this scandal goes, we'd be sitting free and clear. Hindsight I guess really is 20/20.
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Nope. Lots of smoke signals that Nike is ALSO involved, but that they have not yet been named or had anyone indicted. YET. And even if you read between the lines on what they say about adidas, the only reason that adidas had to offer more money is because Nike was outspending them.

Lots of scumbaggery here. It is not just limited to adidas. This is how the sausage is made.
 
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TheOriginalCane said:
Nope. Lots of smoke signals that Nike is ALSO involved, but that they have not yet been named or had anyone indicted. YET. And even if you read between the lines on what they say about adidas, the only reason that adidas had to offer more money is because Nike was outspending them.

Lots of scumbaggery here. It is not just limited to adidas. This is how the sausage is made.
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Perhaps I'm being cynical here, but I have certainly wondered if Adidas was the first/only target because it is the sole non-U.S. major athletic gear manufacturer in college sports. It's certainly easier for DOJ to go after a German-based company than Nike or Under Armour -- regardless of relative guilt.
 
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