Fansided

College basketball recruiting roundup: Bribery scandal fallout

By Chris Stone

CHAPEL HILL, NC - FEBRUARY 22: Head coach Rick Pitino of the Louisville Cardinals coaches against the North Carolina Tar Heels on February 22, 2017 at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. North Carolina won 74-63. (Photo by Peyton Williams/UNC/Getty Images)
CHAPEL HILL, NC - FEBRUARY 22: Head coach Rick Pitino of the Louisville Cardinals coaches against the North Carolina Tar Heels on February 22, 2017 at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. North Carolina won 74-63. (Photo by Peyton Williams/UNC/Getty Images) /
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College basketball’s bribery scandal has spawned plenty of recruiting news

Since the announcement was made on Tuesday, nearly every event in the college basketball world has revolved around the United States Attorney’s Office and Federal Bureau of Investigation’s arrest of 10 figures associated with the world of hoops. Those arrests and the subsequent functional firing of Louisville Cardinals head coach Rick Pitino have obviously spilled over to the world of recruiting.

As we do every week, we’ve put together a list of the biggest stories out of that world with a particular focus on the fallout from the bribery scandal.

Louisville loses out on several recruits

Given the Pitino news, it’s probably not surprising to hear that the biggest recruiting news so far has involved the Cardinals. Both 5-star prospect Anfernee Simmons and 4-star point guard Courtney Ramey have de-committed after initially pledging to Louisville for the Class of 2018.

Additionally, Romeo Langford, a top five prospect in that same class, is no longer considering the Cardinals. That’s brutal news for a program that was expected to be the favorite to land the 6-foot-5 shooting guard. Langford will visit UCLA this weekend.

Certainly losing Pitino is a major ramification of the FBI’s investigation already, but the spillover effect that this situation is having on the Louisville program as a whole could harm it for years to come.

Auburn also loses a 5-star commitment

Louisville wasn’t the only program to lose out on commitments in the aftermath of the arrests. Auburn fell victim as well. After associate head coach Chuck Person was arrested, 5-star power forward EJ Montgomery announced his decision via his father to re-open his recruitment. The 6-foot-10 big man had committed to the Tigers on Sept. 22.

The saga of Nassir Little

This one’s a little odd. Nassir Little is a 5-star forward who played for the 1Family travel team, which is sponsored by Adidas and whose coach, Brad Augustine, was arrested on Tuesday. Now, although players are not named in the complaints, some Internet sleuths determined that one of the players — one who was commanding somewhere around $150,000 for his commitment — mentioned might be Little. Little and those involved with 1Family have obviously denied that the player referenced is him and that he ever asked for money for a commitment.

Now, what makes this situation a bit weirder is that Little tweeted (then quickly deleted) a note this week saying he was re-opening his commitment. The problem? Little hadn’t publicly committed anywhere.

At the time of the arrests, Arizona and Miami, two schools referenced in the complaints were thought to be slugging it out for Little. ESPN’s Jonathan Givony tweeted on Tuesday that it had become clear Little was headed to the Wildcats.

For now, we’ll have to wait and see where this one turns next.

What happens with Jahvon Quinerly?

Like Little, there are no explicit references to 5-star point guard Jahvon Quinerly in any of the complaints, but it’s not hard to connect the dots. Quinerly committed to Arizona on August 8, 2017 and a section of the complaint references a player who committed to “University-4” — Arizona — “on or about August 9, 2017.”

The complaint alleges that Wildcats assistant coach Book Richardson received $20,000 from former ASM sports agent Christian Dawkins and financial adviser Munish Sood that he appears to have divided between himself and “at least one prospective high school basketball player.” That player appears to be Quinerly.

Assuming Quinerly received payment, it would put his collegiate eligibility in doubt, but this is another situation where we’re stuck waiting to see what happens next.

Next: 5 candidates to replace Rick Pitino

R.J. Barrett narrows his list to three

The top recruit in the 2018 class, R.J. Barrett cancelled a scheduled visit to Michigan this weekend as he is no longer considering the school, according to ESPN’s Jeff Borzello. He has also eliminated Arizona from his list following the Wildcats’ involvement in Tuesday’s arrests, according to reports. That leaves Duke, Kentucky and Oregon as options for the 6-foot-7 wing.

At this point, it looks like the Blue Devils are favored to land Barrett to pair with fellow 5-star wing Cameron Reddish as Scout’s Evan Daniels logged a pick for the team on Thursday.