The last 48 hours have seen a seismic shakeup in college basketball and the Maryland Terrapins find themselves as close to the epicenter as possible. Yahoo Sports released an article detailing the dealings of Christian Dawkins, an associate of sports agent Andy Miller and his agency ASM Sports. Dawkins has been a part of the FBI investigation into corruption in college basketball, and his dealings are at the center of the FBI's investigation into the illegal misappropriation of Adidas funds to assistant coaches at Auburn, Arizona, Oklahoma State, and Southern California. Yahoo also released other documents that allude to Dawkins' financial dealings with other players from over 20 other teams. It is unclear at this moment whether or not these players were involved with the Adidas scandal, but one name on that list should have Terps fans very worried about what the future holds for the Maryland Men's Basketball Program. That name is Diamond Stone.
The documents released by Yahoo Sports show that Diamond Stone allegedly received $14,303 from Dawkins as of December 31, 2015. It is unclear when or how this money was given to Stone, but in other documents it is reveled that Stone allegedly received ATM Witdrawal Advances of $1100 on February 11, 2016 and $1000 on March 21, 2016. The documents also detail that Dawkins allegedly paid $53.94 on March 11, 2016 for a "Ride for Diamond Stone to Meeting". In total, the documents provided by Yahoo allege over $16,000 were given to Diamond Stone by someone who is involved in a federal investigation. Terps fans have pleaded for reason in that these are just pieces of paper without any corroboration, and that it is foolish at this point to make any assumptions about what could happen in the wake of this information being made public. It could be that this information is unsubstantiated, but that is looking less likely due to the events unfolding at Arizona.
Here is Mark Turgeon's response to Diamond Stone's name being involved with the ASM investigation (Thank you to Testudo Times for the quote):
“Late last night we were alerted of a report associating one of our former student-athletes with an agent. We are extremely disappointed, and we will fully cooperate with any investigation. I do not have a relationship with Andy Miller or anyone from his agency, and at no time have I ever had a conversation with Andy Miller or his agency regarding any Maryland basketball player. We remain steadfast in upholding a program of integrity that reflects the values of our University community.”
Now here was Sean Miller's response in October 2017 to the information that one of his assistants, Emanuel Richardson, was arrested on federal bribery charges (Thank you to AZcentral for the quote):
“I was devastated to learn last week of the allegations made against Emanuel Richardson. I have expressed to both (University of Arizona President) Dr. Robbins and our Athletic Director Dave Heeke that I fully support the University’s efforts to fully investigate these allegations. As the head basketball coach at the University of Arizona, I recognize my responsibility is not only to establish a culture of success on the basketball court and in the classroom, but as important, to promote and reinforce a culture of compliance. To the best of my ability, I have worked to demonstrate this over the past 8 years and will continue to do so as we move forward.”
Are you worried yet, Terps fans? Miller's comments were made in October, and just this weekend it was revealed that Miller had been recorded on the phone dealing directly with Dawkins about how much money to give to star recruit Deandre Ayton in order to secure a commitment. According to this ESPN article, the FBI intercepted over 3,000 hours of phone conversations made by Dawkins, so one can assume that there may be more conversations that corroborate some of the financial information contained in the documents released by Yahoo. This information, coupled with the information on the Dawkins Documents, should make all Maryland fans very wary of Turgeon's comments. If the Dawkins Documents are proven to be true through phone records, it means that Diamond Stone received a ride to meet with agents from ASM on the day of Maryland's first game of the Big 10 Tournament in 2016, and he received a $1000 payment three days before Maryland was to play Kansas in the Sweet 16. It is hard to believe that Turgeon would be oblivious to this kind of behavior, but even if he was it does not matter. If anyone, ANYONE, within the Maryland framework is found to have facilitated these payments to Diamond Stone at any time during this process it will spell doom for the program, and there is evidence that this could be the case. The February 11, 2016 payments to Diamond Stone had the name Rashaad Moore listed next to the record of payment. The identity of this person, or his significance to Diamond Stone and the University of Maryland, is unknown at this time but it shows that there are more levels to this story that could harm Maryland Basketball for the long term.
With so many schools being implicated in the Dawkins Documents, the NCAA is going to need to bring sacrificial lambs to the alter of public perception when all is said and done. These cannot just be any lambs, but very carefully selected lambs that will give the illusion that justice is being done while not hurting the NCAA's bottom line. Maryland fits this mold perfectly. A program from a Power 5 conference with a rich history, a national championship, and a sordid past when it comes to NCAA violations is just what the doctor ordered for the NCAA to show that they are tough on crime. Diamond stone is one of six player implicated in the Dawkins Documents who allegedly received over $10,000 in payments from ASM Sports, so it stands to reason that if these payouts can be corroborated Maryland will be associated with one of the largest offenders on this list. If it is found that anyone, ANYONE, from Maryland is involved in the paying of Diamond Stone it will be easy for the NCAA to make an example of Maryland. It does not have to be as dramatic as Sean Miller being caught on tape. It does not even have to involve Mark Turgeon. If Rashaad Moore turns out to be a towel boy who was employed by The University of Maryland for more than a week, and facilitated the payments to Diamond Stone, the NCAA will levy their wrath on the Terps. Kicking Maryland off of TV and banning them from post season play will show the public that the NCAA is not afraid to punish "big" programs for lack of institutional control without having to go after programs that draw more water. UNC, Duke, and Kentucky have all been implicated in this scandal, but punishing them may harm NCAA profits because of the viewership they draw on a national level. The Terps would be a perfect scapegoat for the NCAA if they can prove that these payments to Diamond Stone were facilitated by anyone, ANYONE, from the University of Maryland. If the NCAA can prove this they will eviscerate the Maryland Men's Basketball program in the wake of this scandal. Terps fans need to be very worried right now.
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