Texas State is launching an investigation into men’s head basketball coach Danny Kaspar, who has been accused by two former players of repeatedly hurling racist remarks to the team.

According to former point guard Jaylen Shead, Kaspar said that his players would run faster if a “brown man with a [turban] and an AK-47” was there, that a European player needed to improve or he would be deported and that Shead once was “running like the cops are behind him.”

Shead transferred to Washington State last season after two years at Texas State.

“For me, the experience was shocking,” Shead tweeted. “I could overlook the way coach Kaspar treated players in most regards. I could overlook the lies he fed us to get us there and keep us there. I could overlook the way he disregarded the rules and our health. But I could not turn away from the many racially insensitive things that were said to me and other teammates.

“These things happened so much on a daily bases [sic], we became numb as it was normal.”

Kaspar, 65, has been at Texas State since 2013, previously serving as head coach at Stephen F. Austin for 13 years.

“I personally find these allegations deeply troubling,” athletic director Larry Teis said in a statement. “I, and the entire Department of Athletics staff, take the concerns expressed by our former student-athletes very seriously. At my request, the university has launched a formal investigation through the Office of Equal Opportunity and Title IX. It is our top priority to fully cooperate with the investigation.”

Shead, inspired to speak out by the nationwide protests following George Floyd’s death, said Kaspar would tell black players to “chase that chicken” when the coach wanted them to run faster, and told those struggling academically that they would eventually work at Popeyes.

Former Texas state player Alex Peacock supported Shead’s allegations, saying players stayed silent because they feared the consequences to their basketball careers.

“There is no embellishment in what he said,” Peacock told ESPN. “The first time I heard him tell somebody to ‘chase that bucket of chicken,’ I’m like, ‘Hold on. Being a player, it’s hard to come out when you’re in it, when you’re playing, because you don’t know what the ramifications will be.”

According to Peacock, Kaspar also allegedly told players he could utter slang derived from the N-word, used by players.

“He told the black players that if you can use it, I can use it,” Peacock said. “That’s one of the ones where you’re like, ‘OK … no.’ Those are two different meanings than when we use it.”

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — New Mexico forward Carlton Bragg Jr. has been dismissed from the Lobos basketball team following his arrest on suspicion of driving while intoxicated and possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.

Coach Paul Weir released a statement late Sunday, hours after Bragg’s arrest, saying the embattled player needed to focus on his personal well-being.

“The game of life is much more important than basketball right now,” Weir said. “I still believe in him and hope this next step will allow him to develop into a strong, responsible young adult while also completing his degree here at UNM.”

The arrest came nine days after Bragg, 24, was reinstated to the team following a three-game suspension while university officials investigated sexual misconduct allegations against him by another student. Bragg has not been charged in connection with that incident, which occurred in August, although the Bernalillo County district attorney’s office sent the case to the district attorney’s office in Alamogordo because of a conflict of interest.

Bragg, who was averaging 12.6 points and 10.3 rebounds in 15 games in his second season at New Mexico (15-3), was released from custody later Sunday.

He was detained around 1:20 a.m. in Albuquerque at a sobriety checkpoint, according to a police report.

Officers saw that Bragg “had bloodshot watery eyes and an odor of alcohol emanating from his facial area,” the report said. “Carlton admitted drinking 2 glasses of wine between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m.” The Lobos had beaten Air Force only hours earlier.

Bragg was put through field sobriety testing and “signs of impairment were present during his performance of the sobriety tests,” after which he was arrested and a small amount of marijuana was discovered on his body, the report said.

Bragg later refused to take a breath-alcohol test, police said.

It was not known if he had an attorney who could comment on his behalf.

New Mexico is Bragg’s third school. He played at Kansas, where he was suspended after being arrested and charged with battery against a woman in 2016, although that charge was dropped and the woman who made the claims was later charged after prosecutors reviewed surveillance video.

He also attended Arizona State but was removed from the team in his first semester for violating an unspecified team rule.

Bragg had 11 points and seven rebounds Saturday night in the Lobos’ 84-78 victory.

Tulane Basketball player Bul Ajang has been kicked off the team after being arrested on rape charges, the Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate reports.

According to the report, Ajang’s accuser told investigators that the rape happened after a Sunday night out. The woman called 911 and then went to University Medical Center to be examined.

Ajang says the two had a consensual encounter that ended when she asked to go home. He reportedly told police the woman’s boyfriend attacked him when he dropped her off.

Ajang, a 6’10” center who came from South Sudan to play basketball at Tulane, has seen limited action this season due to injury.

Click here to read more from the Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate.

A female student says Michigan State subjected her to a “hostile educational environment,” failed to advise her of her rights and did not offer adequate resources for help after she told counselors in 2015 that three Spartans basketball players had raped her.

The allegations are made in a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan that also states the woman suffered severe emotional distress and had to temporarily withdraw from classes, change her major, seek psychiatric help and constantly fear running into the three men on campus as a result of the incident and the school’s failure to properly respond.

Neither the woman, who is a current student, nor the three players, who are no longer at the school, are named in the lawsuit. Her attorney said the players are not being named because the focus of the lawsuit is “with the way she was treated by the university.”

The attorney, Karen Truszkowski, told Outside the Lines that her client has not reported the incident to police, but, “I cannot say that she’s not ever going to report it.” The woman spoke to Outside the Lines on the condition she not be identified because she fears revealing her identity publicly. The woman said she did not report the alleged assault to police in 2015 because she and some of her friends, who were younger than 21 at the time, had used fake IDs to get into a bar the night of the alleged incident and she worried they would all get cited with underage drinking charges.

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  Michigan State basketball player Brock Washington has been charged by prosecutors in Ingham County, Michigan, with misdemeanor assault after a criminal sexual conduct investigation.

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  Michigan State officials have provided more information about how the university handled an allegation of sexual assault in 2010, telling Outside the Lines that administrators would “handle it differently” if such an allegation were made today.

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  An Outside the Lines investigation has found a pattern of widespread denial, inaction and information suppression of sexual assault and violence allegations by officials ranging from campus police to the Spartans’ athletic department.

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She said she filed the lawsuit with the hope it would encourage more women to come forward about assault and to send a message to the university.

“I don’t want a girl who’s a senior in high school right now, with her whole life ahead of her, to have to go through the same thing I did,” she said.

The woman’s lawsuit states that “MSU has fostered a culture in which female victims are discouraged from reporting sexual assaults when those assaults are perpetrated by male athletes, thus protecting the university, the male athletics programs, and the male athletes at the expense of the female victims.”

Outside the Lines reached out Monday afternoon to Michigan State spokesperson Emily Gerkin Guerrant, who said the university had no immediate comment.

The lawsuit states the woman met the three basketball players in an East Lansing bar on April 12, 2015. She was a journalism major interested in sports reporting and was eager to talk to team members.

She told Outside the Lines that a player bought her a Long Island iced tea and that shortly after she started to drink it, she began to lose control of her muscles — dropping that drink and another. She said she left the bar with some of the players after being led to believe her roommate had gone to a party at an apartment belonging to one of the players. Once at the apartment — and realizing her roommate wasn’t there — the lawsuit states the woman felt “discombobulated” and “tried to send a phone text, but she could not control her thumbs to formulate a text.”

She said in the interview that one of the players said to her, “You know you’re mine for the night?” to which she responded that she was just trying to find her friend. When another player later invited her into his bedroom to look at his sports memorabilia, she said she went willingly because, as an avid sports fan, “I thought it was pretty cool,” she told Outside the Lines. She remembered being incredibly thirsty, and she was given a glass of water, the lawsuit states, and she was “drinking the water when the room went dark.”

She said in the lawsuit that she was thrown down on a bed, was held down and was unable to move or speak while three players took turns raping her.

“I was crying. I was trying to push myself up, and I couldn’t move,” she told Outside the Lines.

“At no time did she consent to the sexual activity,” the lawsuit states.

She said she woke up on a couch in the apartment the next morning and took a cab back to her residence hall. She told Outside the Lines that she later wondered whether her alcoholic drink and the glass of water she was given had been spiked.

The woman eventually told a friend what had happened, and on April 20, 2015, the friend took her to the Michigan State University Counseling Center, according to the lawsuit. When the woman told the counselor that the three men “were notable MSU athletes on the basketball team,” the counselor told her that she needed someone else in the room and brought in another person whose identity the woman said she did not know, the lawsuit states, and the “counselor’s demeanor completely changed.”

The lawsuit states that the counseling center staff made it clear to her that if she chose to notify police “she faced an uphill battle that would create anxiety and unwanted media attention and publicity as had happened with many other female students who were sexually assaulted by well-known athletes.”

She told Outside the Lines that she told the counselor about how she was scared to report the incident to police because she assumed she would get in trouble for underage drinking.

“She never told me or reassured me that that would not be a factor,” the woman told Outside the Lines.

The lawsuit states she was told, “If you pursue this, you are going to be swimming with some really big fish.”

The lawsuit states that the counseling staff did not notify her of her right to report the incident to MSU’s Office of Institutional Equity, which handles complaints of sexual violence under the Title IX gender equity law, nor did they notify her of her Title IX rights, protections and accommodations.

The woman told Outside the Lines that she was under the impression that by telling the counseling center staff about the alleged assault that she had indeed “reported it” to MSU, and she was unaware that she needed to do anything further to get help. As a result, the lawsuit states, she was not informed of her right to receive a no-contact order to keep the men out of her residence hall, and she suffered “panic and flashbacks” when she saw them in the dining hall.

Her fear persisted into the following semester, and in October 2015 she had “become so traumatized, depressed and withdrawn” that she was admitted to an outpatient psychiatric program for intensive treatment, the lawsuit states.

She told Outside the Lines she couldn’t continue her sports journalism classes because of how she felt.

“Everyone I was in classes with or working with was just all into sports, like ‘bleed green,'” she said. “I’m thinking to myself, ‘If only you could look at them like I have to. If only you knew what it felt like.'”

The lawsuit states she temporarily withdrew from school. To get a refund of her tuition, the lawsuit states she had to explain her assault to more university officials and was not informed of any options for academic assistance.

Counseling, academic assistance, and protection and separation on campus from the alleged perpetrators are among the provisions that colleges should provide to students who report incidents of sexual violence, according to federal Title IX guidelines from the U.S. Department of Education.

The lawsuit states that the counseling center staff did refer her to the MSU Sexual Assault Program, which provides counseling and advocacy specifically for people who report being victims of sexual violence. But because her counseling center experience left her “so discouraged and frightened,” the lawsuit states, the woman did not seek help from the SAP until February 2016, by which time she had resumed classes and changed her major.

Even after she sought help from SAP, the lawsuit states that she was still not notified of her rights under Title IX and her option to report the incident to the Office of Institutional Equity — which would have been required to investigate — even though university protocol at that time required SAP advocates to provide that information.

Truszkowski, the woman’s attorney, also represents two women who have accused MSU football players of sexual assault. One was the victim in a case last week in which three now-former players pleaded guilty to felony charges of seduction, after they had been facing sexual assault charges for having pulled the woman into a bathroom and forced her to perform oral sex.

Truszkowski also filed a Title IX lawsuit on behalf of another woman against MSU in fall 2017 stemming from that woman’s report of being sexually assaulted by former football player Keith Mumphery, who was banned from campus in 2016 after the school reversed an earlier finding that Mumphery was not responsible for assaulting the woman. Mumphery never faced criminal charges. In a January court filing, MSU denied her claims and said its actions did not cause her to suffer any additional harassment. On March 15, the judge in that case ordered the parties to mediation.

Michigan State’s athletic department and the university as a whole have been under scrutiny in part because of an Outside the Lines investigation published Jan. 26. The investigation found a pattern of widespread denial, inaction and information suppression of sexual assault, violence and gender discrimination complaints by officials ranging from campus police to the MSU athletic department.

The report publicized not previously known police reports of sexual or violent incidents involving members of the MSU football team and Tom Izzo’s storied basketball program.

On Friday, Outside the Lines reported that Michigan State basketball player Brock Washington was charged by prosecutors in Ingham County, Michigan, with misdemeanor assault on March 8 after a criminal sexual conduct investigation. Washington had been named as the lone suspect in an alleged forcible sexual contact incident that was reported to have occurred at 3 a.m. on Aug. 29, 2017, in a university residence hall and was reported to police two days later. Sources have told Outside the Lines that a female student told campus police that Washington, who has been unable to be reached for comment, had groped her without her permission.

EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) A walk-on Michigan State basketball player has been charged with misdemeanor assault.

The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press report a state police criminal history database lists 19-year-old guard Brock Washington as being charged last month.

Ingham County prosecutor’s office spokesman Scott Hughes, however, says there is no public record of that charge under Washington’s name in Ingham County.

The Associated Press left a message Friday seeking comment from the school’s Athletics Communications office. The AP could not find a number for Washington.

ESPN first reported the charge against Washington, who joined the team for the 2017-18 season, was redshirted and didn’t play in any games. He attended high school in the Detroit area.

Michigan State basketball player Brock Washington has been charged by prosecutors in Ingham County, Michigan, with misdemeanor assault after a criminal sexual conduct investigation.

Washington was charged under Michigan penal code 750.81 — “assault or assault and battery” — on March 8, according to the criminal history database for the Michigan State Police. The 19-year-old walk-on from Southfield, Michigan, had been named as the lone suspect in an alleged assault that Michigan State campus police last fall classified as fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, sources close to the investigation told Outside the Lines in February.

The case number from the State Police database corresponds to a report in MSU’s Clery Crime and Fire Log, which shows that a forcible sexual contact incident occurred at 3 a.m. on Aug. 29, 2017, in a university residence hall, and was reported to police two days later. Sources have told Outside the Lines that a female student told campus police that Washington had groped her without her permission.

After an investigation, police forwarded their findings to the county prosecutor’s office on Dec. 13. When asked Tuesday about the case, chief assistant prosecuting attorney Lisa McCormick said only that “there was no public record” on which she could comment.

Outside the Lines reached out Wednesday to MSU spokesperson Emily Gerkin Guerrant and to athletic department spokesperson Matt Larson for comment from the university and Washington. Guerrant said Thursday afternoon that she was still trying to gather information and determine what the university could disclose about the case. Outside the Lines followed up Friday morning, but Guerrant could not be reached for comment. An email sent by a reporter Thursday morning to Washington’s student account was not answered.

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  Michigan State officials have provided more information about how the university handled an allegation of sexual assault in 2010, telling Outside the Lines that administrators would “handle it differently” if such an allegation were made today.

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  An Outside the Lines investigation has found a pattern of widespread denial, inaction and information suppression of sexual assault and violence allegations by officials ranging from campus police to the Spartans’ athletic department.

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On Feb. 6, Outside the Lines submitted a public records request for the police report naming Washington; MSU officials asked for an extension, which under Michigan law gave the school until Feb. 28 to respond. On March 7, a day before Washington was formally charged, MSU responded by denying the request. Interim president John Engler upheld that decision last week in a response to an ESPN appeal of that denial, writing that he could not give the specific reason as to why the report was being withheld, because “even naming this statute gives information that the statute specifically was designed to protect.”

In Michigan, an individual accused of a crime can plead guilty to a variety of offenses — including certain felonies — and have the records of the plea and other court proceedings sealed and kept from public view via a handful of deferred judgment programs. One of the deferral options commonly given to college students is known as the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act, under which eligible offenders ages 17 to 23 can avoid having criminal convictions on their records as long as they plead guilty to a crime covered under the act and successfully adhere to court-ordered supervision or probation terms for a set period of time, after which their cases are dismissed.

Penal code 750.81 is covered under HYTA; the State Police database listed no information about whether Washington’s case has been adjudicated within the court system.

On Wednesday, three MSU football players facing sexual assault crimes accepted plea deals to felony charges of seduction under HYTA. Examples of other athletes who have pleaded under HYTA include former MSU-recruit Jayru Campbell who pleaded to misdemeanor aggravated assault and former MSU tight end Dion Sims, who pleaded to felony receiving and concealing stolen property.

In 2017, according to Lansing-area media reports, Michigan Wolverines wide receiver Grant Perry, who faced two charges of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct in Ingham County, agreed to plea under HYTA to felony resisting arrest and misdemeanor assault and battery. The charges stemmed from an incident in October 2016 when Perry was accused of grabbing a female MSU student in a sexual manner in a line at an East Lansing bar and then later resisting arrest. Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh suspended Perry from the team after the incident.

Fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct is considered a high-court misdemeanor in Michigan, meaning the maximum penalty for someone found guilty of the offense is two years of incarceration compared to the typical maximum sentence of one year for a regular misdemeanor. The particular misdemeanor assault code under which Washington was formally charged carries a maximum sentence for a first-time offender of up to 93 days imprisonment and/or a $500 fine.

Washington suited up for coach Tom Izzo’s team every game this season, but as a younger member of an elite team, he did not receive any playing time. In October, Izzo said Washington and another walk-on “are capable of playing someplace” but were, at the time, shining as scout-team players, according to a tweet from a Detroit Free Press reporter. Izzo was not made available to comment for this story.

After a Michigan State University Board of Trustees meeting in February, Engler, the university interim president, criticized Outside the Lines’ reporting on Washington, saying, “The sad thing is, I think we should, probably as a Michigan State community, apologize to this young man and his family who has been named without, at least in that report, any evidence of any wrongdoing.”

On Wednesday, Outside the Lines asked Guerrant whether Engler had any comment about whether he believes Washington is still owed an apology, and whether he had anything to say regarding the alleged victim. Guerrant said Thursday she had not had a chance to speak with Engler.

Izzo, Michigan State’s athletic department and the university as a whole have been under scrutiny in part because of an Outside the Lines investigation published on Jan. 26. The investigation found a pattern of widespread denial, inaction and information suppression of sexual assault, violence and gender discrimination complaints by officials ranging from campus police to the MSU athletic department.

The report publicized not-previously-known police reports of sexual or violent incidents involving members of the MSU football team and Izzo’s storied basketball program, including one report made against Travis Walton, a former undergraduate student-assistant coach who continued coaching after he had been criminally charged with assault and battery after allegedly punching a female MSU student in the face at a bar in 2010. A few months later, after the Spartans qualified for the 2010 Final Four, Walton was accused, in a university document, of having sexually assaulted a different female student.

Engler and former athletic director Mark Hollis have been critical of ESPN, calling the reports inaccurate and sensationalized. On Monday, Outside the Lines reported that Michigan State officials would “handle it differently” if an allegation such as the one made against Walton were to occur today. The Monday report also stated that university officials provided personnel documents that showed Walton had held multiple jobs with the university; MSU officials had previously told ESPN that no such records existed. Walton also had denied he was ever employed by the university.

Walton has denied that he sexually assaulted anyone. He never faced sexual assault charges related to the 2010 allegation. He also denied punching the other woman; that case was dismissed in lieu of him pleading to a civil infraction for littering.

Content associate Alex Eliasof contributed to this report.

A Yahoo Sports report out Friday offers some of the most specific detail yet into the FBI’s college basketball corruption probe, which has unfolded quietly for months.

This report names names.

Reporters Pete Thamel and Pat Forde “viewed hundreds of pages of documents” they say detail payments from people at the center of the scandal. Those parties are former NBA agent Andy Miller, his former business associate Christian Dawkins, and Miller’s agency, ASM Sports. (Miller hasn’t been arrested or charged in the case, but the NBA’s players union took away his agent certification in December, removing him from that business.)

Many of the alleged payments went to players now gone from college.

Many of them took the form of loans, to be recouped by agents once a player became a professional:

• Up to $73,500 to former NC State guard and current Dallas Maverick Dennis Smith, along with “notes about ‘options to recoup the money’” when the agency didn’t land Smith. (It did not. Smith went with another agency.)
• Up to $36,500 in loans to former Kentucky and current Heat center Bam Adebayo. (Adebayo didn’t sign with the agency, and the documents call this a “bad loan”.)
• $26,136 to Isaiah Whitehead, a former Seton Hall guard and current Brooklyn Net. Whitehead also got nearly $40,000 in loans, per the documents. Whitehead signed with and then left the agency.
• At least $16,000 to former LSU guard and current Clippers G-Leaguer Tim Quarterman, who didn’t sign with ASM.
• $14,303 to former Maryland center and current G-Leaguer Diamond Stone, who signed with another agency out of college.
• $10,000 to former Washington guard and 76ers No. 1 overall draft pick Markelle Fultz, who also didn’t sign with ASM.

There are more players listed, including some who have made big names for themselves in the NBA. Raptors guard Kyle Lowry, who went to Villanova, Mavericks center Nerlens Noel (Kentucky), and Knicks forward Kyle O’Quinn (Norfolk State) are among them.

The report and underlying documents included in it don’t make the timetable of all the loans clear. The FBI’s case revolves in large part around agents’ efforts, with the help of other powerful people in the sport, to steer prospects to sign with them upon turning pro.

But a lot of current college players come up, too.

The report says ASM paid at least $2,000 apiece to two USC players, Bennie Boatwright and Chimezie Metu, and their associates.

The highest-profile current player mentioned in the reporter is Michigan State sophomore forward Miles Bridges, a National Player of the Year candidate. The documents cite a $400 advance to Bridges’ mother and a $70 meal for his parents, both in May 2016.

Those payments are disclosed in agency expense reports by Dawkins, Miller’s associate. The documents also list dinners for Dawkins with MSU coach Tom Izzo and “Villanova coaches,” among others. Dawkins is now facing his own bribery and fraud charges.

Current and recent players from Alabama, Duke, North Carolina, Creighton, South Carolina, Utah, Xavier, Clemson, and Kansas, Texas, Notre Dame, Virginia, Iowa State, and Vanderbilt are also mentioned in various capacities. They range from getting ASM’s money to having meetings with Dawkins.

What’s going to happen to the programs named here?

Still unclear, though nothing good.

The NCAA’s enforcement operation can do whatever it wants to schools. But it probably wouldn’t sanction a program unless it had proof the school knew about or was involved in payments to players or recruits.

Thamel reported earlier in February that the scandal would reach a lot of schools, though, and that “NCAA officials are staring at the prospect of a tournament with a winner that will likely be vacating its title.” (Louisville just vacated 2013’s in a separate matter.)

Most of the schools mentioned in the report didn’t respond to Yahoo’s comment requests. Xavier coach Chris Mack denied any connections between his staff and Miller’s agency. Former Musketeer Edmond Sumner and/or his dad are alleged to have gotten at least $7,000 in advance payments while Sumner was at Xavier.

Are these players going to get in any trouble?

It’s an NCAA violation for players to accept money from agents. Any player found to have taken money would be in danger of losing his NCAA eligibility.

The NCAA has declared current players at a couple of programs ineligible. But its jurisdiction over them ends whenever those kids decide to stop playing college hoops, and they’d all have the option of leaving college whenever, anyway. While schools might someday face consequences for playing these players, it’s not clear that the NCAA would suddenly declare any of them ineligible right now.

Payments to players are called “impermissible benefits” by the NCAA. Not all impermissible benefits are created equal. Those with a value under $100 aren’t a big deal, as players can donate that money and retain NCAA eligibility. The dollar figures mentioned in the ASM documents are generally far above that amount.

NCAA president Mark Emmert’s statement on the Yahoo report takes an outraged tone:

These allegations, if true, point to systematic failures that must be fixed and fixed now if we want college sports in America. Simply put, people who engage in this kind of behavior have no place in college sports. They are an affront to all those who play by the rules. Following the Southern District of New York’s indictments last year, the NCAA Board of Governors and I formed the independent Commission on College Basketball, chaired by Condoleezza Rice, to provide recommendations on how to clean up the sport. With these latest allegations, it’s clear this work is more important now than ever. The Board and I are completely committed to making transformational changes to the game and ensuring all involved in college basketball do so with integrity. We also will continue to cooperate with the efforts of federal prosecutors to identify and punish the unscrupulous parties seeking to exploit the system through criminal acts.”

What else do we know about the case?

The FBI’s investigation is ongoing, but at least four former assistants at big programs are already facing charges connected to it: Chuck Person (Auburn), Book Richardson (Arizona), Tony Bland (USC), and Lamont Evans (Oklahoma State).

All were fired over the span of a few months following the FBI’s announcement of indictments in September. The FBI accuses those coaches of fraud and taking bribes to steer players to agents or businesses later on.

Here’s the entire federal case, visualized broadly:

This report isn’t at odds with what we already knew, but it brings more names to light.

U.S. District Court Judge Lewis A. Kaplan on Thursday denied a motion to dismiss federal criminal charges against three of the 10 men arrested for their alleged roles in the FBI’s two-year investigation into college basketball corruption.

Attorneys representing former Adidas executives James Gatto and Merl Code and former sports agent Christian Dawkins argued in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Thursday morning that what their clients are accused of doing — allegedly funneling money from Adidas to the families of high-profile recruits to ensure that the players signed with Adidas-sponsored schools, and then Adidas and certain sports agents and financial planners once they turned pro — doesn’t constitute a federal crime.

Their attorneys also challenged the government’s argument that the victims in the case are the universities where the players signed, because the players certified that they were eligible to play when they weren’t, after they or their families accepted improper benefits.

Gatto, Code and Dawkins face one felony count each of wire fraud. The trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 1.

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  The federal government has dropped charges against Jonathan Augustine, a former AAU basketball director from Florida, in the Adidas scandal case.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York dropped federal charges against Jonathan Brad Augustine, a former AAU director in Orlando, Florida, who was accused of conspiring with the others to persuade two high school players to sign with Louisville and one with Miami.

“It’s not surprising to me that the case has issues because it should have never been brought,” said New York-based attorney Jeffrey Einhorn, who represents former USC assistant Tony Bland in a separate federal case related to the FBI probe. “Everything about this case stinks.”

Regardless of what happens with the criminal cases, sources with knowledge of the FBI investigation told ESPN this week that the clandestine probe could result in potential NCAA violations for as many as three dozen Division I programs, based on information included in wiretap conversations from the defendants and financial records, emails and cell phone records seized from NBA agent Andy Miller. His office was raided on the same day the FBI arrested 10 men, including four assistant coaches, in late September.

“It’s not the mid-major programs who were trying to buy players to get to the top,” a source told ESPN. “It’s the teams that are already there.”

Miller, the president and founder of ASM Sports in New Jersey, relinquished his NBA agent certification in December. He represented NBA stars such as Kevin Garnett, Kristaps Porzingis, Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka.

The sources told ESPN that many of the alleged incidents involve illegal cash payments to prospects and their families, as well as players and their families receiving tens of thousands of dollars from agents while they were still playing in college. In some cases, according to the sources, NCAA head coaches were aware of the payments, while others didn’t have knowledge of the schemes.

“At some point, the NCAA is going to see this stuff,” the source said. “What are they going to do? They can’t sit on their hands. If one kid is getting punished at USC for taking money, then the kid taking money at another school has to be punished, too.”

Code, Dawkins and Gatto are accused of scheming to send $100,000 to the family of five-star prospect Brian Bowen to ensure that he would sign with Louisville last summer. The FBI alleges Bowen’s father accepted the money; Bowen says he was unaware of the scheme.

The FBI investigation led to the firings of longtime Cardinals coach Rick Pitino and athletics director Tom Jurich.

Sources close to the investigation told ESPN that Augustine’s charges were dismissed because evidence showed that he never gave the money he received from the defendants to a high school player they wanted to sign with Miami. Instead, Augustine kept the money for himself.

Attorneys for Gatto, Code and Dawkins have filed motions in an attempt to suppress wiretap interceptions made during the FBI’s investigation. Among other issues, according to the attorneys, is that the U.S. Attorney’s application for the wiretap was improper.

Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that one of the FBI undercover agents involved in the corruption probe is accused of using the government’s money on gambling, food and drinks, and was taken off the assignment once his behavior was discovered.

“The things that are happening in this case don’t happen in a federal case that’s done properly,” Einhorn said. “I’m not going to comment about the FBI agent, but what’s next?”

Bland and three other former assistant coaches — Oklahoma State’s Lamont Evans, Arizona assistant Emanuel “Book” Richardson and Auburn’s Chuck Person — are charged in separate cases related to the FBI probe, along with former NBA referee and Atlanta clothier Rashan Michel and financial planner Munish Sood. The government alleges they also conspired to funnel money from Adidas to players and their families.

“The wrong people were charged,” Einhorn said. “These people are part of a situation that is much bigger than them. It’s hard for me to say with a straight face that these people charged are outliers. This is what NCAA basketball is, and it’s been that way for a long time.”

A U.S. District Court judge in New York will hear arguments Thursday morning about whether a federal criminal case against three of the 10 men indicted for their alleged roles in the FBI’s two-year investigation into college basketball corruption should continue.

Attorneys representing former Adidas executives James Gatto and Merl Code and former sports agent Christian Dawkins are expected to argue in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York that what their clients are accused of doing — allegedly funneling money from Adidas to the families of high-profile recruits to ensure that the players signed with Adidas-sponsored schools, and then Adidas and certain sports agents and financial planners once they turned pro — doesn’t constitute a federal crime.

Gatto, Code and Dawkins face one felony count each of wire fraud. Their attorneys will also challenge the government’s argument that the victims in the case are the universities where the players signed, because the players certified that they were eligible to play when they weren’t after they or their families accepted improper benefits.

U.S. District Court Judge Lewis A. Kaplan is expected to rule on the defendants’ motion to dismiss the charges as early as Thursday. The trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 1.

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  The federal government has dropped charges against Jonathan Augustine, a former AAU basketball director from Florida, in the Adidas scandal case.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York dropped federal charges against Jonathan Brad Augustine, a former AAU director in Orlando, Florida, who was accused of conspiring with the others to persuade two high school players to sign with Louisville and one with Miami.

“It’s not surprising to me that the case has issues because it should have never been brought,” said New York-based attorney Jeffrey Einhorn, who represents former USC assistant Tony Bland in a separate federal case related to the FBI probe. “Everything about this case stinks.”

Regardless what happens with the criminal cases, sources with knowledge of the FBI investigation told ESPN this week that the clandestine probe could result in potential NCAA violations for as many as three dozen Division I programs, based on information included in wiretap conversations from the defendants and financial records, emails and cell phone records seized from NBA agent Andy Miller. His office was raided on the same day the FBI arrested 10 men, including four assistant coaches, in late September.

“It’s not the mid-major programs who were trying to buy players to get to the top,” a source told ESPN. “It’s the teams that are already there.”

Miller, the president and founder of ASM Sports in New Jersey, relinquished his NBA agent certification in December. He represented NBA stars such as Kevin Garnett, Kristaps Porzingis, Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka.

The sources told ESPN that many of the alleged incidents involve illegal cash payments to prospects and their families, as well as players and their families receiving tens of thousands of dollars from agents while they were still playing in college. In some cases, according to the sources, NCAA head coaches were aware of the payments, while others didn’t have knowledge of the schemes.

“At some point, the NCAA is going to see this stuff,” the source said. “What are they going to do? They can’t sit on their hands. If one kid is getting punished at USC for taking money, then the kid taking money at another school has to be punished, too.”

Code, Dawkins and Gatto are accused of scheming to send $100,000 to the family of five-star prospect Brian Bowen to ensure that he would sign with Louisville last summer. The FBI alleges Bowen’s father accepted the money; Bowen says he was unaware of the scheme.

The FBI investigation led to the firings of longtime Cardinals coach Rick Pitino and athletics director Tom Jurich.

Sources close to the investigation told ESPN that Augustine’s charges were dismissed because evidence showed that he never gave the money he received from the defendants to a high school player they wanted to sign with Miami. Instead, Augustine kept the money for himself.

Attorneys for Gatto, Code and Dawkins have filed motions in an attempt to suppress wiretap interceptions made during the FBI’s investigation. Among other issues, according to the attorneys, is that the U.S. Attorney’s application for the wiretap was improper.

Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that one of the FBI undercover agents involved in the corruption probe is accused of using the government’s money on gambling, food and drinks, and was taken off the assignment once his behavior was discovered.

“The things that are happening in this case don’t happen in a federal case that’s done properly,” Einhorn said. “I’m not going to comment about the FBI agent, but what’s next?”

Bland and three other former assistant coaches — Oklahoma State’s Lamont Evans, Arizona assistant Emanuel “Book” Richardson and Auburn’s Chuck Person — are charged in separate cases related to the FBI probe, along with former NBA referee and Atlanta clothier Rashan Michel and financial planner Munish Sood. The government alleges they also conspired to funnel money from Adidas to players and their families.

“The wrong people were charged,” Einhorn said. “These people are part of a situation that is much bigger than them. It’s hard for me to say with a straight face that these people charged are outliers. This is what NCAA basketball is, and it’s been that way for a long time.”