Welcome to the latest edition of Talking Hoops With Ted Sarandis. It’s been a while since we brought you our thoughts on college basketball, and there have been some interesting happenings in that time.
We begin with a developing story that comes on the heels of developments in the FBI investigation into corruption, and one that will keep the general subject in the news for a while. Controversial attorney Michael Avenatti was arrested and charged with attempting to extort up to $25 million from Nike back in March, right after he threatened to go public with the company allegedly approving payments to top prospects like Zion Williamson, Romeo Langford and Emoni Bates. Evidence that is being released is now bringing the big issue that came up in the FBI investigation right back into the forefront, and it isn’t likely to go away anytime soon given how deep this appears to run. Here, we talk about how this will hit college basketball as well as how it is one of a number of major issues for the NCAA to deal with in the times ahead.
From there, we turn to a story somewhat related in that it is another action taken by the NCAA after the fallout from the FBI investigation. This story is of an action that blew up in the NCAA’s face – a new rule regarding agents that has since been rescinded. The NCAA came out with a new rule for agents wanting to represent players who test the waters for the NBA Draft. It was immediately dubbed the “Rich Paul Rule”, although that is a misnomer and even the agent himself said as much in a thoughtful column for The Athletic about it.
We also touch on a couple of college coaching legal matters, namely with lawsuits involving former UConn head coach Kevin Ollie and former Louisville head coach Rick Pitino. Later, we also get into a few late coaching changes at places like Holy Cross and Cleveland State.
Additionally, we talked a little about the team of Big East stars that represented the United States in the Pan Am Games. They won a bronze medal despite being the youngest team there by far, and it was a big experience for Providence head coach Ed Cooley, who was head coach of this team.
Finally, as we close it out, we talk about the state of Division I as Bellarmine gets set to enter next season and join the Atlantic Sun. The Louisville-based school won the Division II national championship back in 2011. We also take a moment to recognize the recent retirement of long-time ACC media relations director Brian Morrison, who both of us have had the pleasure of dealing with. Simply put, they don’t come any better, as he had a commitment to serving the media like few others in a business that has many great ones that we deal with all the time.
We hope you enjoy the podcast and share it with your fellow college basketball fans. Be sure to tune in again soon for more of our coverage of college basketball.
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