UM Hurricanes athletic director discusses Adidas trial: ‘It’s good to have it behind us’

More than a year after an FBI sting led to the arrest of 10 college basketball assistant coaches and apparel company executives, the Miami Hurricanes finally can feel comfortable their connection to the investigation is in the past.

Miami was one of the schools listed — although not by name — in the initial FBI complaint last year and was mentioned several times throughout the ensuing trial last month. The Hurricanes were ultimately redacted from the indictment during one of the final days of the trial, which led to guilty verdicts for Adidas executives James Gatto and Merl Code, and agent Christian Dawkins. Miami is sponsored by Adidas.

“We’re continuing to move forward as we always have,” Hurricanes athletic director Blake James said Thursday, giving his first public statement since United States v. James Gatto began last month in New York. “As I’ve said all along, we have 100 percent confidence in Jim and our coaches in doing things the right way, and we’re just going to continue to move forward as a program. That’s not something that we’ll deal with. It’s good to have it behind us. I’ll say I was happy to see that we were redacted from the case, but beyond that, for us, it’s just continuing to focus on doing the things we need to do as a basketball program and be the best we can be.”

Miami held its basketball media day Thursday in Coral Gables and James spoke for about 10 minutes about a variety of topics surrounding both the men’s and women’s programs. A significant portion of his time was spent discussing the recently concluded trial and NCAA’s response to the college basketball corruption scandal.

The Hurricanes, whom are sponsored by Adidas, were tied to the investigation through their recruitment of Nassir Little, a former five-star recruit now with the North Carolina Tar Heels. The initial complaint alleged an unnamed Miami coach would assist Adidas in funneling money to Little in order to secure his commitment to the Hurricanes. Wire taps presented at the trial, however, did not implicate Miami or Little, instead apparently revealing a plot between Dawkins and Brad Augustine, Little’s Amateur Athletic Union coach, to send Adidas money to Augustine’s AAU program. The wire taps never suggested any Hurricanes coaches were aware of the plan.

Additional trials will still take place in the coming months, and the NCAA plans to conduct additional investigations and levy its own punishments, so James acknowledges Miami is not yet in the clear.

“We’re going to continue to monitor everything. Obviously, there’s more cases to come,” James said. “I believe we’re in a good spot, but I’ve believed we were going to be in a good spot all along. Again, I believe in Jim [Larranaga] and what our staff are doing, and I’m confident that they’re doing things the right way, and until someone shows me something else, I’m going to believe that we’re operating within the guidelines established by the association, that we’re led by a man with great integrity and that we’re going to continue to do the things that we do to give our students the best experience possible.”

Larranaga spoke after James inside the Watsco Center Fieldhouse and essentially deferred comment to his superior.

“What did Blake say?” the coach said when asked about the trial. “He’s my boss, so I agree with him.”

Even as multiple players deal with eligibility questions because of the scandal, James took the same stance many athletic directors and coaches have in recent weeks. The athletic director said he doesn’t feel this is a significant black mark on college basketball as a whole. He also praised the NCAA’s response.

“I don’t know that I would go as far as saying that it’s a major stain on the whole sport,” James said. “I think it was a situation that there was many in the community, whether it’s the basketball community or the community on a whole, that thought there were some things that weren’t happening the right way in basketball. And I think the NCAA did a good job in taking some steps to looking at and addressing some issues through the Rice Commission, and some of the changes that have taken place with that.

“I believe in the collegiate model. We have kids from all over the world that come and play in the United States and the NCAA because of the structure and the setup that we have. You look at our teams and both our men and women have young people from around the world that are coming here because the model that we have in place is the best in the world for young people to compete for championships.”

The Commission on College Basketball — commonly referred to as the “Rice Commission” — was a committee chaired by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, which proposed a series of recommendations to the NCAA in April. Recommendations included expanded opportunities for official visits, allowing select college athletes to hire agents, allowing undrafted players to return to school, and the end of “one and done.”

James feels the suggestions are a good initial response as questions about the viability and ethically of the amateur model swirl.

“They’re great first steps,” James said. “Do I like them? Yes. Do I think that is going to solve all problems? No. It goes back to my answer before. I think we have to continue to look at the game and how do we continue to better the experience for our students, and whether that is experiences before they become student-athletes, or whether it’s the experience after they’ve exhausted their eligibility or moved on from the collegiate game. We have to look at all the areas and how to be better.”

James’ news conference ended with a question about the role of apparel companies in college athletics and AAU’s role in college basketball. James said the NCAA and companies such as Adidas mostly need to communicate better.

“Apparel companies — obviously they’re businesses,” James said, sitting in front of a backdrop dotted with Adidas’ logo. “They have to make business decisions, but at the same time they’re partners and big partners of college athletics. So I think it’s imperative of us to continue to speak with all the apparel companies — again, I think Adidas, Nike and Under Armour are the ones that are referenced most often — but I think just really to have them understand what our rules are and how our association works to make sure that the dialog is ongoing with the apparel companies, recognizing that they’re independent businesses and they’re going to make decisions that are best for their business model. We need to make decisions that are best for college athletics and obviously have them understand why we’re making the decisions that we do.”