There are significant problems brewing for the University of Louisville basketball team. According to a report from WDRB-TV in Louisville, the University of Louisville acknowledged on Tuesday that its men’s basketball program is involved in the wide ranging federal bribery probe into college basketball recruiting.
While no coach has been indicted, or the university formally named in court documents, the report states that court records state a coach for a university that matches U of L’s description was caught on an undercover FBI video negotiating payments in a Las Vegas hotel room for a recruit. The coach, who is not named, acknowledged that his school was on probation at the time and said, ‘we gotta be very low key.’
Officials at U of L have stated that they will cooperate fully with the investigation. In a separate case connected to the same investigation, ten people, including assistant coaches at Oklahoma State, Auburn, Arizona, and an official with apparel company Adidas have been charged. The investigation has reportedly been going on since 2015.
According to documents released Tuesday, the complaints accuse four men of funneling about $100,000 to a high school player for about five months this year to assist one or more coaches in recruiting a player. So far, 10 people, including four assistant coaches across the country have been charged in federal court in New York. Three of those charge are reportedly affiliated with Adidas.
While not mentioning U of L specifically, the report from WDRB notes that the accusations involve a “public research university” in Kentucky with 22,640 students and more than 7,000 faculty and staff. Those figures do not match the University of Kentucky’s description, but do match the University of Louisville.
The report further notes that the complaint possibly involving U of L says four men, at the request of a coach, agreed to provide $100,000 from an unnamed company, alleged to be Adidas, to the player’s family. The complaint also adds that shortly after the agreement in May and June, the player publicly committed to the school.
A statement from Interim President Greg Postel regarding a federal investigation related to men’s basketball recruiting: pic.twitter.com/MTE3xAZvKi
— UofL News (@uofl) September 26, 2017