Fansided

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby has no answers for Kansas amid hoops trial verdict

By Wendell Barnhouse

MANHATTAN, KS - OCTOBER 13: Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby before a Big 12 football game between the Oklahoma State Cowboys and Kansas State Wildcats on October 13, 2018 at Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan, KS. (Photo by Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
MANHATTAN, KS - OCTOBER 13: Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby before a Big 12 football game between the Oklahoma State Cowboys and Kansas State Wildcats on October 13, 2018 at Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan, KS. (Photo by Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Big 12 commissioner and Kansas coach Bill Self have no answers to FBI probe questions.

As 12 jurors in New York City debated a verdict in the trial of FBI allegations regarding illegal payments for high school players, Big 12 Conference commissioner Bob Bowlsby was surrounded by about 30 reporters peppering him with pointed questions.

Bowslby started the league’s men’s basketball media day Wednesday with sunny side up announcements about a scheduling agreement with the Big East Conference and the extension of keeping the Big 12 championship here at the Sprint Center through 2024.

But with Kansas, the Big 12’s flagship program, mired in accusations and testimony about its involvement with under-the-table deals allegedly involving the recruitment of Billy Preston and Silvio De Sousa, Bowlsby spent over 15 minutes bobbing and weaving and responding to questions with no answers.

Bowlsby’s decision to talk out of both sides of his mouth was the perfect definition of leading from behind.

“We don’t, I don’t, have any information that’s any more that has been reported,” he said. “The NCAA has intentionally stayed out of this until the federal process is complete. There is certainly reason to pay attention and try to learn as much as possible. I’m certainly not going to prejudge outcomes. It’s a linear process, a sequential process. We’re going to respect that sequential process. And it sounds as if they’re getting to the end of the process in New York.

“I haven’t read the transcripts and I haven’t read the testimony verbatim. What gets said around court cases … is not necessarily gospel. I’ll react to those allegations when they become matters of fact. At this point, they are not that.”

Regardless of the trial’s outcome, the NCAA has new legislation that allows for its investigators to use information from outside sources. NCAA investigators lack subpoena power so accessing testimony under oath or information obtained thanks to a subpoena could be invaluable.

Bowlsby said he talked with Kansas coach Bill Self Tuesday night but the FBI trial wasn’t brought up. “The Kansas folks are not at liberty to share information and they haven’t had a lot of information shared with them. I would never ask (Self about the allegations) because I know that he can’t respond to this.”

Self, who was the last coach to take the podium Wednesday, started his remarks that he has been mandated to not discuss Kansas and its involvement in the FBI investigation.

The first hint of impact on this season came Wednesday when Self announced that De Sousa, a 6-foot-9 sophomore who became eligible in the second half of the season and helped the Jayhawks reach the Final Four, won’t play in the Jayhawks’ exhibition game Thursday against Emporia State and will be withheld from competition “pending the outcome of an eligibility review.” Self said the timetable for the review is undetermined.

Adidas consultant and government witness Thomas “T.J.” Gassnola, testified in the FBI trial that payments were made to DeSousa’s guardian. DeSousa was originally planning to attend Maryland, an Under Armour school but signed with Kansas, which has an apparel deal with Addidas.

Bowlsby said any NCAA investigation based on information discovered by the FBI won’t begin until the trials are complete. There are two more court cases scheduled for 2019.  He acknowledged there could be repercussions but that any NCAA allegations/justice won’t be swift. He doesn’t believe that it’s apocalypse soon.

“We certainly have always known all the best parts of college athletics and all the worst parts of college athletics are embedded in the sport of men’s college basketball,” Bowlsby said. “Lots of high-risk academic people and high-risk social people and lots of third-parties involved, and I think it’s impossible to know at this point how far this goes or who might be involved in it.”

“I think it’s easy to paint all of college basketball with a with a dark brush. And that’s not fair. I think it’s very easy to say everything is wrong with college basketball everything’s not wrong. Horatio Alger is alive and well and living in the NCAA tournament.”

Alger, the American writer who became famous during the 1800s with his rags to riches tales, might have a tough time crafting a story that would paint college basketball in a positive light.