College basketball corruption trial under way

By J-W Staff Report     Oct 1, 2018

A University of Kansas basketball player wears an adidas practice jersey in this file photo from March 2016.

According to a Yahoo report from Dan Wetzel, jury selection in the college basketball bribery case began on Monday and the University of Kansas came up on a couple of occasions.

First, KU was one of a dozen schools mentioned to potential jurors as schools that could come up in the upcoming trial, which begins with opening arguments today.

The other schools mentioned were: Arizona, Creighton, DePaul, LSU, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina State, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Southern California and Texas.

Second, the names of three Kansas officials surfaced on a list of as names that might come up during the trial as witnesses or in testimony.

Kansas chancellor Doug Girod, deputy athletics director Sean Lester and senior associate AD for compliance, David Reed, were the three names tied to Kansas that were listed.

The report also states that KU coach Bill Self and current KU forward Silvio De Sousa could be mentioned during the trial. Self and De Sousa, along with KU assistant Kurtis Townsend, former KU forward Billy Preston, Preston’s mother, Nicole Player, and De Sousa guardian Fenny Falmagne landed on a list dubbed “Other Relevant Individuals.”

The report indicates that the mere listing of these names and universities does not indicate wrongdoing and the specific names were provided as a way to eliminate any potential conflicts of interest during the jury selection process. It also said the lengthy list was a sign of “how wide of a net the feds cast during their three-year, FBI investigation” into corruption in college basketball.

The trial against defendants James Gatto and Merl Code, both former Adidas executives and associate, Christian Dawkins, is the first of three trials expected to take place in the next year or so in the Southern District of New York.

All three have pleaded not guilty.

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