Dick Weiss on College Basketball
The college corruption trial in New York City federal court was less than a week old when 6-7 McDonald’s All-American forward Brian Bowen Sr. dropped a bombshell on the money he was offered or received when his son Brian Bowen II was working his way through the grass roots system and the recruiting process that ended with him committing to Louisville.
The controversial commitment eventually ended the Hall of Fame coaching career of Rick Pitino and got his boss, long time AD Tom Jurich fired, put Bowden’s eligibility in question and prevented him from being cleared to play by the NCAA after he transferred to South Carolina last January. Bowen eventually left college basketball and is now earning money for playing for an Australian professional team. Neither Bowen or his father have been charged but the FBI has indicted Jim Gatto Jr. and Merl Code from Adidas as well as middleman Christian Dawkins in this portion of the trial.
Bowen Sr. testified that Dawkins, a long-time family friend from Saginaw, Mich., told him coaches connected with Arizona, Oklahoma State, Texas and Creighton all offered payments to secure his son’s commitment, exposing the sleazy underbelly of the sport.
There is more to come. Coaching jobs and brand name reputations are at stake here. The NCAA is closely monitoring this trial and will use any information obtained through testimony to pursue investigations into the schools named.
Bowen initially wanted to sign with Arizona but that when both Allonzo Trier and Rawle Alkins decided to return to school there, he felt there would have been a log jam on the roster that would have limited his playing time, opening the door for a bidding war.
Bowen Sr. told the jury Arizona offered him $50,000 via assistant Joe Pasternick, the head at UC-Santa Barbara. Oklahoma State offered $150,000, $8,000 for a car and money for a house from since fired assistant Lamont Evans. Texas assistant Mike Morrell, now the head coach at UNC-Asheville, offered to help him with housing and Creighton assistant Preston Murphy offered him $100,000 and a job.
Bowen said Dawkins originally mentioned they could get $60-$80 thousand from Adidas for going to Louisville and that number expanded to $100,000 by Adidas executives because freshman forward Billy Preston had gotten $100,000 from Adidas for going to Kansas. Preston never played a game for the Jayhawks after the school looked into the financials of a car he was driving around Lawrence. Bowen Sr. admitted he never talked with Pitino about the deal or the $100,000.
Bowen Sr. said he did not accept money from any of those schools as the offers came through Dawkins and said he could not remember what Oregon, which was mentioned in the opening statement, offered. Instead, he said he only took money tied to a school deal in the form of nearly $20,000 in cash from financial advisor Munish Sood in a New Jersey parking lot in July, 2017 after his son enrolled in Louisville.
Bowen said he started selling his son’s talent at the age of 15 through Dawkins, a runner for agent Andy Miller who was trying to build up his reputation in the agent space. Bowen testified people connected to the Michigan Mustangs, an Adidas travel team: and Mean Streets, a Nike EBYL team from Chicago both paid him for his son’s time as did La Lumiere prep school Indiana. Adidas grassroots executive Chris Rivers, who has been on leave from the company since 2017, was specifically mentioned.
The prosecution showed it had wire transfers via Western Union from Dawkins ($4000 total) and from Rivers ($2,000). Bowen Sr. said he accepted $25,000 one year to assure his son would play for the Mustangs, $2,000 a month from then head coach Shane Heirman to play for La Lumiere and between $5,000-$8000 to play a summer with Mean Streets.
