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Blog and Media Roundup - Sunday, February 18, 2018; News Roundup
Topic Started: Feb 18 2018, 06:28 AM (123 Views)
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Ominous report on FBI basketball investigation not a concern for UNC, Roy Williams says

By Joe Giglio
jgiglio@newsobserver.com

February 16, 2018 04:12 PM

Updated February 17, 2018 03:59 PM
CHAPEL HILL

A recent Yahoo! Sports article said hall-of-fame coaches and half of the teams in the NCAA tournament’s initial top-16 seeding “should be scared” about the FBI’s next move in the federal probe into college basketball’s recruiting underworld.

Roy Williams is a hall-of-fame coach and North Carolina was one of the teams in the initial seedings but the UNC coach said on Friday he was confident his program was not involved in any wrongdoing with paying recruits.

“I feel very comfortable,” Williams said. “If the phone rings at night, I’m not worried about that. I may worry about a lot of other things but it ain’t about that.”

UNC had a long-running NCAA investigation into an academic scandal wrapped up in October without any penalties from the NCAA.

Four assistant coaches – at Auburn, Arizona, Oklahoma State and Southern California – were arrested on bribery charges in September, accused of delivering players to an agent and financial adviser.

Louisville head coach Rick Pitino was fired after the family of star recruit Brian Bowen was found to have been paid $100,000 by an adidas executive to pick the Cardinals during the recruiting process.

Bowen, who had been recruited by N.C. State, was not cleared by the NCAA and left Louisville before the start of the season. He has since enrolled at South Carolina.

UNC and Louisville meet on Saturday. Williams was asked about the recent Yahoo! Sports report by Pete Thamel, which was published on Thursday.

Efforts to reach Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and N.C. State coach Kevin Keatts for comment on the Yahoo story were unsuccessful.

Thamel, quoting an anonymous source, wrote:

“This goes a lot deeper in college basketball than four corrupt assistant coaches,” said a source who has been briefed on the details of the case. “When this all comes out, Hall of Fame coaches should be scared, lottery picks won’t be eligible to play and almost half of the 16 teams the NCAA showed on its initial NCAA tournament show this weekend should worry about their appearance being vacated.”

Williams is one of six active coaches in Division I who are also enshrined in the Naismith Hall of Fame. Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim are the other two in the ACC. Pitino is also a member of the hall of fame.

In September, the FBI and other federal authorities announced a sweeping investigation into bribery and corruption in college basketball.

At the core of the investigation was money from athletic apparel giant adidas allegedly being used to pay the families of basketball recruits in exchange for attending colleges with adidas deals, to bribe college coaches to veer those players toward certain agents and financial advisers linked to the apparel company.

According to the FBI indictments, families of college basketball recruits were paid $100,000 and more.

UNC does have a commitment from Orlando high school senior Nassir Little, who appears to have been referenced in the FBI report on the recruiting scandal.

An athlete matching Little’s description was mentioned in the initial FBI report as a recruit whose AAU coach was paid by two adidas executives to steer Little to an adidas-sponsored school. Miami, also an ACC school, is described in the FBI report as the school that tried to bribe Little’s coach. UNC has a sneaker and apparel contract with Nike

Miami coach Jim Larranaga has denied the allegations. So have Little and his father, Harold.

I feel very comfortable. If the phone rings at night, I’m not worried about that. I may worry about a lot of other things but it ain’t about that.

UNC coach Roy Williams

Williams said again on Friday that problems in college sports with paying recruits is not a new problem.

The NCAA has had “problems forever,” Williams said.

“In every part of society, there are some things that are going wrong,” Williams said. “And there are some things that are going very, very well.

“I tend to look at it like that right there. When the FBI gets involved, it’s a different level. There’s no question about that.”

Just by pure math, Williams pointed out, the article’s main assumption – that more trouble for high-profile programs was inevitable – was likely correct.

“When you’re talking about four guys (who were arrested), we’ve got 351 programs and everybody has four assistants, so it’s a lot of people,” Williams said.

“I would guess some other things are going to drop at some point.”

Joe Giglio: 919-829-8938, @jwgiglio

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/acc/unc/unc-now/article200583749.html#storylink=cpy
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Baylor has first chance to finally get it right on sexual assault charges

By Mac Engel
tengel@star-telegram.com

February 17, 2018 11:39 AM
Updated February 17, 2018 05:38 PM

Baylor, here is your chance to show that you’re all grown up.

Here is your chance to handle this, and be transparent.

Please write a new chapter rather than stick to the old one.

On Thursday night, a report by KWTX in Waco said a pair of redshirt Baylor football players are currently under investigation for sexually assaulting two members of the Baylor equestrian team.

If this sounds familiar it’s because this report reads like too many of the other incidents that the school failed to adequately address for far too long.

This is what we know – something happened to warrant a police report, and there remains a faction within Baylor that still leans to the side of former football coach Art Briles.

We know when it comes to this subject, Baylor’s credibility is trash.

If another alleged sexual assault at Baylor was going to happen, the question was how would the school deal with the matter.

There is considerable murkiness in this latest report that should create reasonable doubt as to what exactly happened in the early morning of Nov. 12, following Baylor’s game against Texas Tech in Arlington.

The KWTX report said there were “at least two” football players involved, who were redshirts.

If it’s two, say that. If it’s three, say that.

Were they freshmen who were redshirting, or were they players who were listed on the roster as redshirt players, such as sophomores or juniors?

That dynamic changes everything.

A true redshirt is not playing; he’s standing on the sideline in street clothes.

If they were players who were redshirt sophomores, they could have been involved in the incident, and then still played in the Bears’ remaining two games against Iowa State and TCU.

The police reports filed are heavily redacted. There are also several details that are non-specific, including how many assailants were potentially involved.

No arrests were made, nor have any charges been filed.

Sources said Baylor football coach Matt Rhule met with the players in question, and thus far no official action has been taken by the school. The school is investigating the matter.

Sources also said that once this issue became public - one of the people involved reportedly put the video taped act on social media - the issue was immediately turned over to Baylor's Title IX office. And the players in question were immediately removed from all team activities.

Since the last Baylor scandal, college athletic departments are now immediately turning over such matters to the main administration offices, and Title IX departments.

Baylor issued the following statement: "Baylor University takes any allegation of sexual assault seriously. The University is unwavering in our commitment to follow our well-documented Title IX policy and procedures in regards to reporting and responding to incidents of sexual assault. Additionally, the University is required to protect the confidentiality of all parties involved to ensure a fair and equitable process.

“The responsibility of responding to alleged incidents of sexual violence does not rest solely in the hands of any specific individual or unit. It is a University response dictated by our Title IX policy. Baylor University remains committed to providing for the safety and security of our campus community.”

Such a statement doesn't say much, but it's more than the school did under the previous regime.

The timeline would fly at nearly every other university, except the one that for decades refused to acknowledge sex occurs between non-married parties, and worked hard to deny the existence of sexual assault.

Baylor has spent millions and worked to clean up its previous issues, but everything is not perfect; to fully clean this one up requires a shift not in the culture of the football team, but rather that of the university’s administration.

The issue of dealing with sexual assault at Baylor was not just to Briles’ football program, but the entire school. The problem was the football team functioned like a front porch to the university.

Almost immediately after Rhule accepted the job as Briles' full-time replacement, the former Temple coach often spoke of the need to turn over any talk of sexual assault to trained Title IX officers, and the need to respect women.

The rhetoric is appropriate, but did Baylor actually stop to listen to the alleged victims, or are the school’s leaders still running in fear and trying to maintain the status quo in an effort to make bad news just go away?

Did any of the football coaches try to talk to any of the victims? Was there any degree of victim shaming involved? Was there any motivation on the part of anyone involved to protect the football team rather than aid a victim?

This latest incident is full of holes, but something did happen. Something that required a police report. An investigation.

And if the answer to any of these questions is yes, Baylor's tragedy, and scandal, is not over.

It will have just added another chapter.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/latest-news/article200590589.html#storylink=cpy
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http://reason.com/volokh/2018/02/18/justice-ginsburg-criticizes-lack-of-due?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Justice Ginsburg Criticizes Lack of Due Process on Campus
In a wide-ranging interview, the "Notorious RBG" suggests colleges campuses are not providing adequate process to the accused.

Jonathan H. Adler|Feb. 18, 2018 9:01 am

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently sat down for an extensive interview with Jeffrey Rosen of the National Constitution Center. The Atlantic posted an edited transcript.

In the interview, Justice GInsburg spoke about a wide-range of issues, including the #MeToo movement and cases she would like to see overturned. In this discussion, her comments about the lack of Due Process on some college campuses are worth attention, particularly her claim that some colleges provide inadequate process to the accused:

Rosen: There is a debate both among women and among men about what sort of behavior should be sanctionable, and one group is saying that it's wrong to lump together violent behavior like Harvey Weinstein with less dramatic forms of sexual misconduct, and others say that all misconduct is wrong and should be sanctioned.

Ginsburg: Well, there are degrees of conduct, yes. But any time a woman is put in a position where she is inferior, subordinate, there should be—she should complain, she should not be afraid.

Rosen: What about due process for the accused?

Ginsburg: Well, that must not be ignored and it goes beyond sexual harassment. The person who is accused has a right to defend herself or himself, and we certainly should not lose sight of that. Recognizing that these are complaints that should be heard. There's been criticism of some college codes of conduct for not giving the accused person a fair opportunity to be heard, and that's one of the basic tenants of our system, as you know, everyone deserves a fair hearing.

Rosen: Are some of those criticisms of the college codes valid?

Ginsburg: Do I think they are? Yes.

Rosen: I think people are hungry for your thoughts about how to balance the values of due process against the need for increased gender equality.

Ginsburg: It's not one or the other. It's both. We have a system of justice where people who are accused get due process, so it's just applying to this field what we have applied generally.

Rosen also asked Justice Ginsburg about dissenting opinions that she hoped would one day become the basis for majority opinions. In reply, she identified Shelby County v. Holder (invalidating Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act) and Stenberg v. Carhart (upholding the federal prohibition on "partial-birth abortion"). She also suggested she would like to see the COurt overturn Maher v. Roe, which upheld a state law limiting the use of Medicaid funds to pay for abortions.

Jonathan H. Adler is the Johan Verheij Memorial professor of Law at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
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She also suggested she would like to see the Court overturn Maher v. Roe, which upheld a state law limiting the use of Medicaid funds to pay for abortions.


She ought to then recuse herself from any case considering that matter, since she has already
indicated a bias towards the outcome.

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