Dick Weiss on College Basketball
The hits keep on coming at the college corruption trial at the Patrick Moynihan Courthouse in Manhattan.
Former Adidas consultant TJ Gassnola testified Thursday he made two payments to the family of former NC State star Dennis Smith Jr., who is now with the Dallas Mavericks. Gassnola’s first payment came when Smith was a junior in high school. The second came in 2015 when Gassnola delivered $40,000 in cash to then NC State assistant Orlando Early, who delivered it to Smith’s trainer.
Gassnola also testified he paid $15,000 to a family friend of Deandre Ayton that was given to Ayton’s mother in an attempt to establish a relationship and between Ayton and Adidas. Ayton played one year at Arizona before becoming the top ick in the 2018 draft.
Gassnola said under cross examination he attempted to get Ayton’s mother housing to recruit Ayton to Kansas, an Adidas school.
Kansas was a huge topic of discussion Thursday. Gassnola testified he paid $2,500 to current Jayhawks’ forward Silvio De Sousa’s guardian and that he became aware a University of Maryland booster was providing $60,000 to De Sousa’s guardian, Fenny Falmagne. Gassnola was determined to try to pay $20,000 to Falmagne, but then the FBI investigation went public and he couldn’t make the payment.
The relationship between Gassnola and Falmagne began after Kansas assistant Kurtis Townsend asked Gasnola with Adidas, as Falmagne was looking to get product for the Angolan national team. Gassnola said he had a brief conversation with Self about this, but he kept payments to De Sousa’s guardian a secret from the Kansas coaching staff. Gasnola was caught in a tapped phone call with Adidas executive Jim Gatto about De Sousa Sept. 11, 2017, indicating he needed to get Falmagne another $20,000 to get him out of a deal with the booster from Maryland, an Under Armour school.
De Sousa enrolled at Kansas in December and and was finally cleared by the NCAA to play in January. He is currently eligible.
“I obviously can’t really comment on what’s going on,” Self said. “But I can say this, based on the information we have, this thing would have a positive resolution. But that was based on the information that we had. Who knows what could potentially happen. But I’m taking the approach,a s everybody on on our our and we are going to have Silvio De Sousa playing for us this year.”
Gassnola also had dealings with another Kansas player, testifying he paid $90,000 in cash and wire transfers to Bill Preston’s mother and her partner as an inducement to sign with Kansas. Preston signed with the Jayhawks but never played after there were questions about the Dodge Charger he was driving around campus. The defense said the car belonged to Preston’s late grandmother and Kansas accepted the explanation but also pressed Preston’s mother on whether she received money elsewhere, then opted against playing him.
Gassnola also testified he kept the payment to Brian Bowden II from former Louisville coach Rick Pitino.
