Just Another Day In The NCAA: Georgia Tech Hoops Got Hit With A Bunch Of Sanctions Because Of Blackmail And Strip Clubs

[Source] – The first set of violations resulted from the recruitment of a highly touted prospect, according to the committee. While the prospect was on campus for his official visit, a former assistant coach arranged for the prospect and his student-athlete host to interact with a booster, who was a former Georgia Tech basketball student-athlete and at the time played for the local NBA team. The plans included a visit to the booster’s home, a trip to a strip club and a free meal at a lounge owned by a local NBA player. The booster got the prospect and host into the club without paying a cover. Once inside the club, the booster provided the prospect and the host with $300 each to spend at the club. 

The booster also engaged in impermissible recruitment when he texted and called the potential transfer student-athlete. The potential transfer was a student-athlete from the head coach’s previous school, and the booster had maintained a personal friendship with him. The booster made the head coach aware that he continued to communicate with the potential transfer, but the head coach did not report any concern to the compliance office because he did not believe his friend triggered booster status.

When the head coach’s friendship with the booster ended abruptly, the booster informed the head coach about the impermissible benefits provided to the two student-athletes. The head coach immediately notified the associate athletics director and chief compliance officer about the violations when he learned about them.

Just another regular day in the NCAA offices. This time it’s going after Georgia Tech basketball for Jarrett Jack taking Wendell Carter to a strip club and a booster by the name of Ron Bell who then tried to blackmail Josh Pastner. I mean it reads like a madlib.

I’ve blogged about Bell before:

Long story short with Bell, he was a booster and friends with Pastner at Memphis. He followed him to Georgia Tech and there was a falling out between the two. There are reports that Pastner told players to stay away from Bell and that was part of it. But either way Bell straight up tried to blackmail and extort Pastner.

So here’s one violation that the NCAA investigated. The other is a whole hell of a lot funnier. Jarrett Jack and Wendell Carter hitting up a strip club with $300 each. Wendell Carter didn’t even go to Georgia Tech!

This begs a question. How shitty can the Georgia Tech set up be for Carter to go to a strip club in Atlanta with Jarrett Jack and not be sold on Tech? I mean he’s from the Georgia area. He and his mother talked quite a bit about valuing educating and Georgia Tech is a pretty good school. You’re in Atlanta.

I love this from the report though. Isn’t this every strip club throughout the history of time?

Now while Georgia Tech wasn’t going to make the NCAA Tournament (yes, they have decent transfers coming in, but they are still like the 10th team at best in the ACC) it’s bullshit how the NCAA did this. Right before the season started so these transfers are now stuck? This is where the NCAA needs to let people transfer without penalty right away. They didn’t do anything here. It will however, help Georgia Tech fire Josh Pastner if it wants and get out from that contract.

As for what this means for Kansas and others in the FBI investigation:

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The NCAA put down a pretty heavy ruling on Georgia Tech because it was able to prove the boosters, etc. Kansas has been hit with way stronger allegations but it has to prove that Gassnola was a KU booster or not. If they are able to do that, well, we have an idea of some of the penalties Kansas will receive.