Documentary unveils phone calls detailing Nassir Little’s recruitment. UM is mentioned.
It has been more than two years since FBI assistant director William Sweeney uttered the now infamously confident words at a news conference in New York. “We have your playbook,” he said, touting the supposed mountain of evidence the FBI had compiled to potentially upend college basketball.
Christian Dawkins, whose cellphone the FBI tapped to accrue much of the evidence, was one of 10 people arrested on Sept. 26, 2017, along with coaches for the Auburn Tigers, Oklahoma State Cowboys, Arizona Wildcats and Southern California Trojans.
In all, about two dozen teams were eventually roped into the corruption scandal, including the Miami Hurricanes. Miami was identified only as “University-7” in the initial FBI complaint, and the Hurricanes’ involvement centered upon their recruitment of Nassir Little.
“The Scheme,” a new documentary about Dawkins and the scandal debuting Tuesday on HBO, gives a new glimpse behind the scenes of Little’s recruitment through a damning recorded phone call between Dawkins and Arizona coach Sean Miller.
Miami was ultimately cleared of wrongdoing in the case when charges were dropped against Brad Augustine, the director of Little’s Amateur Athletic Union program in Orlando.
The Hurricanes were initially dragged because Augustine was accused of funneling money to Little in order to convince him to go to Miami, but evidence eventually revealed Augustine kept the money for himself.
Little and his father both signed a sworn affidavit saying they were never approached by anyone with the Hurricanes about receiving money. All mentions of the university were eventually redacted from the indictment at the case’s trial in 2018.
Little’s recruitment, at the time of this undated conversation, was a two-team battle between Miami and the Wildcats. In documentary, Dawkins said he told Miller what he thought “needed to happen for the kid to come to Arizona.”
“Christian, explain to me the difference, in real talk, between Brad and Darryl [Hardin, Little’s Amateur Athletic union coach],” Miller said to Dawkins in the recorded conversation. “Who do I deal with?”
Dawkins responded: “They definitely want to get some [expletive] for themselves because they’ve been taking care of this kid and they [expletive] like — ”
Said Miller: “Miami doesn’t have an advantage over us in that area, do they?”
Said Dawkins: “Well, I’ll say this: What Miami does have is Adidas.”
In the documentary, Dawkins said he believes he and Miller were discussing money — a damning conversation for Miller and one which seems to indicate the coach did not believe the Hurricanes would be a threat if the recruitment came down to whoever was offering money.
Little ultimately committed to the North Carolina Tar Heels and played one year in college before becoming a first-round NBA draft pick by the Portland Trail Blazers last year.
Miami didn’t sign a single player in Little’s Class of 2018 and has missed the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back seasons, its roster depth gutted by a wasted recruiting cycle. The Hurricanes were ultimately nothing more than a footnote in a case which ultimately, as the documentary posits, wound up as nothing more than a waste of time and taxpayer money.
This story was originally published March 30, 2020 at 1:46 PM.
