We Have Another Twist In The Investigation Into College Basketball But This Time It Could Hurt The NCAA
[Yahoo] – Former Arizona assistant Emanuel “Book” Richardson agreed to a plea deal Monday with federal prosecutors in the college basketball fraud case.
Richardson followed in the footsteps of USC assistant Tony Bland, who pled guilty in December to similar charges. Due to a lower amount of money in his case, Bland is likely to receive probation but no prison time. Both deals come in the wake of prosecutors gaining convictions in October of Dawkins and Adidas executives James Gatto and Merl Code. They will be sentenced in March.
The plea deals likely limit the scope of the upcoming trials and perhaps keep some evidence, testimony and information which could be violations of NCAA bylaws from becoming public. The October case both rocked and enthralled the sport as the dirty laundry of the recruiting game was aired in open court in Lower Manhattan.
This isn’t a surprise as it was talked about for a little bit that we may see some guilty pleas come out in the trial for college hoops. Following former USC assistant coach Tony Bland, former Arizona assistant coach Book Richardson agreed to a plea deal that will keep him out of prison for the potential 60 years that he was facing. Richardson could face 18-24 months after pleading guilty to one count of federal funds bribery in the range of $20,000.
More importantly it means there won’t be a trial for the NCAA to take information from. Now, we don’t know what will be turned over to the NCAA from the FBI or anything like that, but there won’t be a trial. That means Tony Bland and Book Richardson don’t have to talk to the NCAA or anyone associated with the NCAA.
They will be listed as a felon and Bland will get probation but after that first trial this isn’t a surprise. We saw the first four (non-coaches) go to trial and get found guilty. There will be an appeal to that but we saw information come out and more names pop up during the trial. That won’t happen here and while I think it’s bullshit that Bland and Richardson even have to face probation and jail time or be listed as a felon at least it won’t help the NCAA.
The one thing the NCAA could use is anything that Richardson and Bland shared to help the investigation. It was already reported that the NCAA has begun investigations based on the federal trial. The key though as Yahoo reports will still be Christian Dawkins who plans on not pleading and there could be a ton of information that he shares that the NCAA uses.
Good thing we’re limiting when coaches can recruit though.