Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports wonders if the NCAA should give Louisville the death penalty following the information that was unveiled in federal court earlier today.
Just nine weeks after the NCAA hammered Louisville, assistant coach Kenny Johnson allegedly handed a recruit’s father a wad of cash to help pay for his family’s rent at the Galt House.
Check out Wetzel’s article:
NEW YORK – On June 15, 2017, the NCAA hammered the University of Louisville with major rules violations after players and recruits were found to have received sexual favors in the team dorm from prostitutes hired by a men’s basketball staff member.
Penalties included the vacating of 123 victories, including the 2013 national title, a five-game suspension for head coach Rick Pitino and four years of probation.
On Aug. 23, 2017, just nine weeks later, Louisville associate head coach Kenny Johnson parked his car in front of the Galt House, the famed downtown hotel. That’s where Brian Bowen Sr., the father of incoming Cardinal five-star freshman Brian “Tugs” Bowen, was staying in a $2,300-a-month apartment.
Tuesday, during a federal fraud trial here in Manhattan, Bowen Sr. testified he climbed into Johnson’s car and the assistant coach handed over $1,300 in cash.
With that alleged clandestine transaction comes the obvious question: Will the NCAA investigate Bowen’s claim and if proven as true as his being under oath implies, label Louisville men’s basketball as a repeat violator of major rules and hit it with the death penalty?
Here’s another excerpt from the article that describes incriminating messages between Johnson and Bowen Sr.:
On June 26, Bowen and Johnson connected via text message and set up a meeting at a Shell gas station in downtown Louisville.
Let’s start there. Why would an associate head coach agree to such a meeting place if the intent was innocent? Johnson had a plush office inside the Louisville basketball complex and visiting with the parent of a player would be considered routine. Instead each man arrived at the parking lot of the Bader’s Food Mart attached to the gas station.
Bowen Sr. climbed into Johnson’s car.
“I kind of eased into it,” Bowen testified about bringing up the money. “[I said] ‘I was told by Christian you were supposed to give me $2,000 for rent.’”
Johnson expressed shock at the request, according to Bowen Sr.
“He was flabbergasted,” Bowen Sr. said. “He said he didn’t know anything about it. He couldn’t do that [because] his wife would kill him.”
Bowen said he left empty-handed and called Dawkins, who told Bowen Sr., “[Johnson] should know about it” and “he will take care of it.”
Two months later, Bowen and Johnson texted again, this time with Bowen writing, “Hey Kenny, how’s it going? Wanna get together to square up?”
Rick Bozich believes the death penalty would be extreme:
Death penalty extreme IMO. Coaching staff, AD and President all gone. And if this player was getting $$, just a hunch that some better players were getting $$$$$. https://t.co/lERcLTtRku
— rickbozich (@rickbozich) October 10, 2018
