Bowen Sr.: Louisville paid me

NEW YORK — The father of a blue-chip college basketball recruit testified Tuesday that an assistant coach at the University of Louisville gave him a secret payment of $1,300 as part of a deal to get the son to sign with the school.

At a criminal trial about corruption in big-time basketball, Brian Bowen Sr. described setting up two meetings with assistant Kenny Johnson via text in 2017 to try to collect cash in violation of school and NCAA rules.

Bowen testified that the first time, Johnson was “shocked” and “flabbergasted” when he told him that defendant Christian Dawkins had promised that the coach would help the father with paying rent. The next time, he said, Johnson handed over $1,300 — reluctantly.

“He made it clear that this was a one-time deal for him,” Bowen said in federal court in Manhattan. “He said Louisville didn’t pay basketball players.”

There was no immediate response Tuesday to a message seeking comment from a lawyer for Johnson, who was never accused of a crime.

Louisville spokesman Kenny Klein said on Tuesday that the university is monitoring the trial, but he declined to comment further.

The testimony about the recruitment of Brian Bowen Jr. came in a case that prompted Louisville to fire both Johnson and its legendary coach, Rick Pitino. Johnson is now an assistant at La Salle.

Dawkins, former amateur coach Merl Code and former Adidas executive James Gatto, have pleaded not guilty to charges they sought to use under-the-table payments of up to $100,000 from Adidas in exchange for commitments from top prospects to Adidas-sponsored programs seen as a path to the pros. Their lawyers haven’t disputed that payments were offered, but they argue that the schools never suffered any harm.