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Report: NCAA hoops corruption cases could impact top coaches, players

Posted at 8:14 PM, Feb 15, 2018
and last updated 2018-02-15 20:15:19-05

A general view of the court in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

NEW YORK - Five months after an FBI corruption probe shook the sport with multiple arrests, another set of seismic developments could be coming to NCAA men's basketball.

Pete Thamel of Yahoo! Sports reports another wave of double-digit arrests is on the horizon, and this one will effect every major conference, Hall of Fame coaches, "a score" of current top players and "some of the nation’s most distinguished and respected" programs.

As many as 50 college basketball programs could be on shaky ground from wiretaps, thousands of documents and bank records obtained by raids and confiscated computers. Many of those would widely be considered upper tier program, a source told Yahoo Sports.

A general view of the court before the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)

According to Thamel, until trials begin for cases involving the coaches arrested in the September 2017 probe, "the NCAA tournament will be played amid the soundtrack – TICK, TICK, TICK – of potential chaos. Maybe the next one will, too. University presidents should be losing sleep. Millionaire coaches should be losing hair and plotting escapes to the NBA. And players should be preparing for their dirty laundry – or that of their relatives – to be aired."

The 2018 NCAA men's tournament begins Tuesday March 13th with the First Four. The first-round games will be played Thursday and Friday, March 15th and 16th.