Dark cloud hangs over NCAA hoops
FBI probe has many wondering about the next shoe to drop
How did we get here? That’s the question on a lot of people’s minds as college basketball season revs up with a dark cloud hanging over the sport.
Since the FBI investigation implicating multiple Power Five schools (and their coaches) in a pay-for-play scheme broke a few weeks ago, I’ve had dozens of conversations with people all over college sports, from coaches to administrators to sneaker executives to club coaches, from people working at Division I to junior college. Everyone is trying to sort through the wreckage of the FBI’s findings, with many wondering what other shoes (and programs) are still to drop.
The only thing we know for sure right now is that this controversy isn’t going away, despite what coaches want. John Calipari made it clear last week at Kentucky’s media day he was not eager to talk about the investigation. Then his beat reporters made it clear they’d be the ones asking the questions and choosing the topics.
The thing I keep coming back to, the word that comes up over and over again in conversations with people in college basketball, is pressure.
Coaches these days are under tremendous amounts of pressure to win — and if you don’t believe me, just look at their contracts. Gone are the days of getting a few hundred thousand dollars to run a premier program. Coaches are paid big bucks in the current era, and it’s not to graduate players, as quaint and old-fashioned as the NCAA wants to sound. The more banners you hang, the better. To win big, you need bigtime talent, and it seems more and more that to get in the room with big-time talent, you better have cash on hand.
“I think if you take a look at the top kids out there and the competition to get those kids and what they can mean to a program, it makes you wonder how it’s been getting done,” former Stanford coach Mike Montgomery told USA TODAY Sports. “I don’t personally know of anybody, for a fact, that got paid. I hear stuff. And a lot of times when somebody doesn’t get a kid they’ll say, ‘How’d they get that kid, well they cheated!’ Well, you don’t know that. That’s just what people will say to get out from not getting that kid.”
USA TODAY Sports on Thursday released the preseason coaches poll. Idaho State’s Bill Evans, the Big Sky representative, opted not to vote for any of the schools implicated in the FBI’s investigation. Evans didn’t want to dismiss any of the allegations or throw anyone under the bus, but he did offer context, pointing out that the pressure in his job is remarkably different from the pressure those assistants face. Evans, in his sixth year at ISU, makes less than $110,000 a season. By comparison, each of the three assis- tants who work at public schools and were arrested by the FBI — Arizona’s Emanuel “Book” Richardson, Auburn’s Chuck Person and Oklahoma State’s Lamont Evans — made more than $250,000 each.
“These guys, they need to produce,” Evans said. “And if they don’t, they’ll be looking for other employment.” Montgomery agreed.
“You look at some of the assistants who have been hired that are paid a lot of money, and you don’t see them on the floor coaching,” Montgomery said. “Well, what is their job then? Their job is to get kids. So if you’re not getting kids or kids aren’t coming, then maybe there is some pressure.”
Last week at the Pac-12 media days, I asked Arizona coach Sean Miller and Southern California coach Andy Enfield if they talk with young coaches about the pressure that comes with premier jobs and the toll that can take on someone’s mental, physical and emotional health (not to mention the toll it can take on their moral compass). Both of them danced around the question, mentioning that pressure comes with every job. Miller pointed out the pressure some people feel to put food on the table and the panic that can come with not knowing if you’ll be able to provide for your family. When I followed up and asked if he thinks some of the country’s top-tier prospects feel that pressure to help out their families and if that’s why they might ask for money during the recruiting process, he paused, then said he was going to stand by the statement he made shortly after the arrests.
Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak, one of the most thoughtful coaches in the league, was more candid.
“It’s easy to try to find some shortcuts,” he said. “It’s hard not to want to do just about whatever it takes to be successful. It’s al- most a little bit like a drug: you get a taste of it, and that (more) can happen.”
I’m not trying to excuse what any coach may or may not have done to lure players to their school. But like Evans at Idaho State, I think context matters. Sports are absolutely a “what have you done for me lately?” business, and it’s not just fans who demand answers to that question. Sometimes, it’s the coaches grilling their staff. A few people I spoke to in the wake of the arrests told me horror stories about head coaches pitting assistants against each other, challenging them in staff meetings to be the coach who brought in the most elite players, or else.
What would you do if your job was on the line?
Sonny Vacarro, a longtime executive at both Nike and Adidas, said there’s more at stake than just million-dollar contracts.
“It’s hard, and the money is high,” he said. “But being the head coach, there’s such a drive to these guys — and it’s not about the money. … It’s about the personal idolatry of winning championships. That’s the drive when you reach a certain level.”
I don’t think everyone cheats. As Montgomery points out, that’s a lazy, blanket statement often rooted more in jealousy than in fact or proof. But I do think most high-profile programs, and highprofile coaches, live in a gray area. As the money mounts, so does the pressure, and then that gray area grows darker and darker, and wider and wider. Before you know it, you’re in a hotel room offering $100,000 for a kid.
The question isn’t how did we get here — it’s how didn’t we see this coming?