A man offered his help to Bill Self, Kansas

NEW YORK – As part of the "Black Ops" division of Adidas America, T.J. Gassnola had explicitly asked his bosses not to detail in writing the payments made to high school and college players on behalf of the company. Adidas did not want information that could end up in an NCAA affair, or even a federal fraud suit, like the one taking place here in Lower Manhattan.

"A dark operation, underground [that] they do not want anyone to know about it, "said Gassnola, a stout and puny coach of the Massachusetts AAU who was called a" bag man. "

However, Adidas needed some documentation of what Gassnola was doing on the road, which could justify his excessive spending. Gassnola has admitted around $ 300,000 a year via first class flights, luxury car rentals and upscale hotel rooms. .

Thus, Gassnola wrote a litany of meetings and works that he carried out over a period of 90 days in 2014 and sent them to his bosses.

He did not mention payments to college players and their families he attended, including Billy Preston (Kansas), Silvio De Sousa (Kansas), Brian Bowen II (Louisville), Dennis Smith Jr. ( North Carolina State) or Deandre Ayton (Arizona).

He noted various meetings with coaches in Adidas schools across the country – NC State, Indiana, UCLA, Miami, etc. In 2014, he traveled to Lawrence, Kansas, to attend the first annual Kansas Jayhawks training session entitled "Late Night in the Phog".

"Meeting with the coach [Bill] Me and his staff, "read Gassnola's note. "… talked about recruitment goals and the upcoming season. Assured us that we are here to help. "

What Gassnola meant exactly by "help" and what Self and his staff said in response to such assurances should be the focus of Thursday's debate. This is particularly the case when Gassnola faces the cross-examination of Adidas' former lawyers, Jim Gatto and Merl Code, as well as the potential agent and intermediary, Christian Dawkins, who are lying behind accusations of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit them.

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The defense wishes to show the jury that the payments to the players or their families were not intended to defraud or harm universities, including Kansas in the case of Preston ($ 90,000) and De Sousa ($ 20,000) Rather, it was to help Adidas' main teenage programs recruit high-level recruits, often from the ranks of the Adidas AAU and high schools. Here is a government witness who says it for them.

"It's important that they go to Adidas schools," Gassnola said about university teams sponsored by the giant of footwear and clothing. "It was important to us in the basic system."

So what exactly does "helping" mean and what does Self and its staff understand exactly? Also, what exactly was talking about recruitment targets? For the purposes of NCAA violations, anything can be summarized as that.

Until now, KU has tried to stay above the fray in this scandal. Although Rick Pitino, his Hall of Fame coach, was fired by the federal government after the outbreak of the federal case last September, Kansas was caught off guard.

A KU compliance official even said on Wednesday that De Sousa had never been suspended by the school although there does not appear to be any conflict between the prosecution and the defense according to which his guardian, Fenny Falmagne , would have been paid $ 20,000 for De Sousa to go to Kansas. De Sousa played with the Final Four Jayhawks team last year.

Kansas even followed the government's initiative and called itself a "victim".

Gassnola's testimony on Thursday may allow us to know if this is correct. That's why Kansas seems to have sent two lawyers to witness the testimony, although on Wednesday the men would only say they came "from somewhere else" and would laugh if "elsewhere" meant a small town on the Plains.

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