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The most powerful man in college basketball this winter is not a Hall of Fame coach, a future lottery pick, or even the administrator who sows the seed of the NCAA championship.
He is a 38-year-old US attorney, educated at Yale and dressed flawlessly from Manhattan, where he upset the sport by leading the federal prosecution team that sentenced three men to the basketball fraud trial university.
Now, Edward "Ted" Diskant can decide where he wants to try to bring the case. And college basketball may be wondering what will follow if it does.
A jury said Wednesday the leaders of Adidas, Jim Gatto and Merl Code, and basketball agent Christian Dawkins, guilty of all counts of fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud for having paid the families of the best high school recruits and have driven them to Adidas sponsored colleges.
The team of Diskant, which included Noah Solowiejczyk, Eli Mark and Aline Flodr, had to convince the colleges that were sent to hire five-star recruits to help them win their matches and make them earn money. in a way, victims and not benefactors.
Most people who know the winking nature of sports have found the theory dubious, but the government has made it work. Now, everyone in basketball wonders if this means that anyone who has done anything that would theoretically have made an ineligible player would also not have violated the federal fraud laws.
A trial in February is already scheduled for Chuck Person, former NBA star and Auburn assistant, and his co-defendant Rashan Michel, a draper from Atlanta. Another trial involving Code, Dawkins and three former university assistants, Tony Bland (USC), Lamont Evans (Oklahoma State) and Emanuel "Book" Richardson (Arizona) – is expected to open in April.
Christian Dawkins, Merl Code and James Gatto were all convicted in federal court on Wednesday. (AP)
The US Attorney's Office may choose to try these cases, which would lead to new waves of potential NCAA infractions involving countless schools and coaches. Or he could offer, especially given the strong position that Wednesday's beliefs provide, plea agreements and eventually conclude that without additional effort, sparing a lot of secrets.
At any time, this can allow the NCAA to begin an investigation and use the mountains of evidence gathered in the case. Although many hearings were heard in court in the last month, there were others – phone tapping, allegations of under-oath, documents – that were not included because they were not suitable for prosecution. or had not been admitted by Justice Lewis A. Kaplan.
The US Attorney's Office could also try to overthrow anyone still involved and look for even more prominent names – including potentially lead coaches who have escaped prosecution.
At this point, there is no one in basketball who does not respect, if not fear, the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.
"Ted is in the driver's seat right now, there is no doubt," said a lawyer involved in the case. "It could be the end, or it could be the beginning."
The most important cooperation objective would be Dawkins, the 25-year-old budding agent who was in the midst of endless recruiting and agent selection contracts. He knows, as they say, where the bodies are buried and could help this case to reach all kinds of unexpected places.
Dawkins, though, might be impossible to crack. He has so far rejected all attempts to tilt it and he may prefer to spend his time with some dignity.
"Christian has been offered the opportunity to testify against other people and has chosen not to do so," Dawkins lawyer Steve Haney said on Wednesday. "He can keep his head up knowing that he has faced his own actions and fought the merits of the allegations".
Dawkins is not the only weapon here, though. Gatto and Code are also facing the trouble. In addition, the government already has cooperation agreements with TJ Gassnola, director of the AUA connected team and so-called "man of the bag" Adidas, perhaps a wealth of information on university programs. Financial planner Munish Sood also testified as part of this deal under a cooperation agreement and suggested to the booth to know the years of payments to agent-related agents.
How many other people were launched when they were contacted, especially now with the government holding a high-profile victory and a sentencing date on March 5 for Gatto, Code and Dawkins, to the day before the NCAA tournament?
It's unclear how important this could be … if the South District wanted to gain ground, or at least a lot bigger than two employees of a shoe company, mostly anonymous, and a street vendor, too ambitious. College fans have mainly yawned at this.
This decision will not remain, or even most of the time, with Diskant. He has bosses, but they seemed satisfied with his work on Wednesday.
"The defendants not only cheated the universities by giving them scholarships under false pretenses, but deprived them of their economic rights and tarnished an ideal that makes college sport a beloved tradition of many fans around the world. Said the Deputy Attorney General of the United States, Robert S. Khuzami.
Basketball fans can look towards that feeling of who is or not to be a victim, or how much the ideal of amateurism is worshiped, but if the Justice Department really cares about such things, well, there are many more culprits waiting to be pursued.
And Ted Diskant can probably do it, quite easily now.
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