Kansas basketball assistant knowingly violated NCAA rules, per report

The Kansas Jayhawks basketball program was one of the ones wrapped up in the Adidas scandal that broke two and a half years ago. The Jayhawks and university officials denied any wrongdoing and said that they were unaware of any of Adidas’ involvement.

Now, that is turning out to be not true. According to Dana O’Neil and Bruce Feldman, a court opinion filed this month “references a recorded phone call involving an unnamed Kansas assistant.”

According to The Athletic, a Kansas assistant was supposedly going to ask James Gatto, former Adidas rep who was convicted, to help get funds to the family of a Kansas recruit in hopes of securing a commitment for the Jayhawks. The assistant in question admitted in a call that he also knew that paying for a recruits brother to visit the university was against NCAA rules.

“In the call the coach admitted that he knew that paying for a recruit’s brother to visit the school violated the NCAA rules, yet he planned to ask “Jimmy” (convicted Adidas rep James Gatto) for help in routing funds to the family through an amateur team, all in the hopes of getting the recruit to eventually commit to Kansas because “it’s (his) job” to do so. … (Had) the jury heard this call, it may have believed that the coach did call Gatto to ask him to provide the money”

Kansas and coach Bill Self were given five Level-I violations by the NCAA in 2019. The NCAA stated that the actions of both Self and assistant coach Kurtis Townsend were “severe” and “egregious.”

Kansas has yet to receive a punishment from the NCAA, but if this report, plus the previous five Level-I violations don’t get the hammer dropped on the Jayhawks, then I am not sure what will.