Ashton Hagans’ father slams Christian Dawkins and denies any wrongdoing

Light has been shed on the latest of the ESPN reports concerning NCAA basketball athletes being paid.

Mark Schlabach, a senior writer for ESPN, released a story including names related to the University of Kentucky, such as Ashton Hagans and Jarred Vanderbilt.

Hagans, a reclassifying freshman, started in Tuesday night’s season-opener against Duke and following the game, his father gave clarification on the report.

According to Jerry Tipton of the Lexington Herald-Leader, Marvin Hagans had this to say regarding the story.

“I don’t understand why everybody is trying to make something of it,” Marvin Hagans said Thursday. “Clearly, in the article, (Dawkins) said he planned (to pay players). ‘Planned’ means that’s what he wanted to do.”

Ashton’s father went on to say that his son doesn’t need anything from anyone, including a “fool” like Dawkins.

“We don’t know this guy. We never met this fool a day in our life.”

Vanderbilt, now with the Denver Nuggets, barely saw the court in his lone season at Kentucky. According to Tipton, his representatives could not be reached for comment.

The story also included Collin Sexton, who played at Alabama last season and is now a Cleveland Cavalier. Mississippi State’s Lamar Peters and both of Louisville’s Ray Spalding (former) as well as V.J. King (current) were also mentioned.

For now, it appears nothing will come of this since there’s nothing to suggest Hagans or his family actually communicated with Dawkins. We will keep you posted if any more comes of this.