Corruption in College Basketball

[BH33]

This AAU guy's kid was a walkon on the team last year, but not listed on the team this year (Ethan Lasko).

[Walking Boot of Doom]

4 minutes ago, Iugradman said:

Not sure but the “willing to do what it takes” remark is disturbing. Does that include improper benefits?

It apparently didn't even include a scholarship offer, so...

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

I'm absolutely certain not another coach or assistant coach in the history of college basketball has ever before used the phrase "willing to do what it takes".    lol     Also, the words weren't from Ostrom's mouth they were from Lasko:

“This is from Lasko to Fenny,” Schachter said, reading the text to Kaplan. “‘Fenny, I am in Indiana and Coach Ostrom asked me for an update. They are super willing to do what it takes to recruit Silvio. Is that something of interest for us?’”

Who knows what, if any, conversations may have actually transpired between Lasko and Ostrom but let's all go jump off the cliff anyway.

[Stromboli]

Well....  It's more likely than not that this is what it appears to be.  Occam's razor and all that.  That said, there's some wiggle room.

 

This Lasko character likely had some incentive to get the deal done with Kansas.  This could have been his nudge to convince them to make the deal.  Lasko seems to want the Kansas deal to happen.  He's feeling froggy and trying to muscle the adidas rep into making the Kansas deal.

 

This could have been a simple attempt by Ostrom to conjure up national interest in Indiana, without any plans to pay any money.  It is well known that programs want to appear to be among the elite, even if they acknowledge they won't get the recruits (the Fran Plan).  Getting headlines that "Silvio de Sousa is showing interest in Indiana" gives some credence to a program trying to recruit Garland and Langford at the time.  This explanation is entirely feasible and does not implicate this coaching staff.  We'd get interest in de Sousa just the same we got interest in Billy Preston.  

 

There's no dollar amount given.  No specifics given.  There's not much incriminating stuff here.  If Indiana were in on all of this, then the text message would be going from Ostrom to the adidas rep, not from Ostrom to the AAU coach of the player to the adidas rep.  There was nothing like "would you pay just as much for an Indiana commitment?"  In this case, adidas is very clearly only interested in helping Kansas get recruits, and it appears that the adidas $$ for recruits hasn't been made available for Indiana to utilize.

 

"No, I didn't."  --- Tom Ostrom, when asked whether or not he tried to pay for Silvio de Sousa to come to Indiana.  

 

"No, they didn't."  -- Silvio de Sousa, when asked whether or not Indiana offered him a scholarship, recruited him, hosted him for a visit, etc.

 

"None."  -- The number of 5* recruits (or even top 50) Indiana has secured commitments from aside from Romeo Langford.  

[Walking Boot of Doom]

47 minutes ago, Iugradman said:

Which is why I think it is important for IU to get ahead of the story and explain what happened. Sterling and Dakich are already talking about it.

Indiana has only ever hurt itself getting out in front of things. Ignore it. Treat it like it's no big deal externally while investigating it internally. 

We all knew that Indiana's name would come up as blueblood and Adidas flagship. Clearly though, not being the favorite son of Adidas helped keep us out of trouble, but also out of recruitments and National Championships.

[mdn82]

Was Indiana even actively recruiting SdeS?

Nope


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[mdn82]

Facepalm. IU owes us an explanation soon. Cheating isn’t tolerated here unlike other schools. The culture is different.

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[JSHoosier]

1 hour ago, Iugradman said:

Which is why I think it is important for IU to get ahead of the story and explain what happened. Sterling and Dakich are already talking about it.

The last time we tried that we got hammered for it.  

[SlamaJamaSisley]

1 hour ago, Iugradman said:

Which is why I think it is important for IU to get ahead of the story and explain what happened. Sterling and Dakich are already talking about it.

Of course.  I'm sure Dakich is talking about it his entire show.  It's what he does.  

[VO5]

I can’t believe some IU fans actually listen to Dakich. He’s a Jekyll/Hyde character that tries to generate clicks. Always has been a hack, always will be. 

[Hoosier987]

There is nothing to see here....

[HoosierAloha]

Let this be the moment where IU removes both hands from its pockets, raises them high in the air, and flies the birds toward Indy.  Let coach Ostrom hold a press conference to tell the entire college basketball world that we will get whatever recruit we want.  Let him, at the same time, tell everyone that he doesn't think this is the true landscape of college basketball!

[Old Friend]

1 hour ago, VO5 said:

I can’t believe some IU fans actually listen to Dakich. He’s a Jekyll/Hyde character that tries to generate clicks. Always has been a hack, always will be. 

VO, he's been right on target a hell of a lot more than he's been wrong.  And he knows the ins and outs. You may not like the delivery or the ego; but if you want truth and the real scoop?  He's the only one giving it to you and he's so spot on about the board of trustees and McRobbie, it's laughable.   

[woodenshoemanHoosierfan]

I'm absolutely certain not another coach or assistant coach in the history of college basketball has ever before used the phrase "willing to do what it takes".    lol     Also, the words weren't from Ostrom's mouth they were from Lasko:
“This is from Lasko to Fenny,” Schachter said, reading the text to Kaplan. “‘Fenny, I am in Indiana and Coach Ostrom asked me for an update. They are super willing to do what it takes to recruit Silvio. Is that something of interest for us?’”
Who knows what, if any, conversations may have actually transpired between Lasko and Ostrom but let's all go jump off the cliff anyway.

It's what some do

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[mdn82]

VO, he's been right on target a hell of a lot more than he's been wrong.  And he knows the ins and outs. You may not like the delivery or the ego; but if you want truth and the real scoop?  He's the only one giving it to you and he's so spot on about the board of trustees and McRobbie, it's laughable.   

Even when you are right you can be wrong. He doesn’t have context or anything beyond what was said. What was the hot take when he was in the same situation as Ostrom? Are we suppose to believe he was 100% clean? Just because he said so?


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[Old Friend]

6 minutes ago, mdn82 said:

Even when you are right you can be wrong. He doesn’t have context or anything beyond what was said. What was the hot take when he was in the same situation as Ostrom? Are we suppose to believe he was 100% clean? Just because he said so?


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Not at all, but Dakich has a pretty good track record of being accurate and telling truths we don't get from other sources.   His delivery can be abrasive and he comes across differently than most; but the guy knows what he's talking about, and I think he's exactly right about everything he says re: IU's administration and the BOT's.

[Brass Cannon]

23 minutes ago, Old Friend said:

Not at all, but Dakich has a pretty good track record of being accurate and telling truths we don't get from other sources.   His delivery can be abrasive and he comes across differently than most; but the guy knows what he's talking about, and I think he's exactly right about everything he says re: IU's administration and the BOT's.

Which is why Steve Alford is our coach right

[Chips&Dipo]

1 minute ago, Brass Cannon said:

Which is why Steve Alford is our coach right

Or Tom Crean is still our coach

[pumpfake]

One thing to consider: This would have occurred last summer.  This staff was just beginning their first recruiting class and Ostrom (presumably) had no experience in recruiting the elite level players.  His idea of being "super willing" might be much different than that of your typical UK, KU, UNC, UL type recruiter.

The fact that the player never visited or was offered give me no reason to be either concerned or suspicious.

[Brass Cannon]

6 minutes ago, pumpfake said:

One thing to consider: This would have occurred last summer.  This staff was just beginning their first recruiting class and Ostrom (presumably) had no experience in recruiting the elite level players.  His idea of being "super willing" might be much different than that of your typical UK, KU, UNC, UL type recruiter.

The fact that the player never visited or was offered give me no reason to be either concerned or suspicious.

Ostrom recruited the players for the last repeat champs