Count Georgia’s Mark Fox as not being a bit shocked by today’s blockbuster news of the corruption charges that’s rocked the college basketball world.
“I’m not surprised,” Fox said Tuesday afternoon. “It confirms what we already felt like was happening in our game.”
Earlier Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney General for the Southern District of New York announced the findings of an FBI probe that resulted in the indictment of 10 men, including assistant coaches from Auburn, Southern Cal, Oklahoma State and Arizona, along with an executive with Adidas, on charges that include steering top high school players to NCAA programs.
Among the assistants named, Auburn’s Chuck Person, as well as Oklahoma State assistant Lamont Evans, Emmanuel Richardson of Arizona and Tony Bland of USC.
Adidas executive Jim Gatto was also named in the indictment, which according to YAHOO also targeted agents and financial planners.
According to the report, kickbacks and other financial payments were paid to individuals for pointing players toward apparel brands and representation once they reached the NBA.
To those who follow college basketball, this kind of news certainly doesn’t come as a surprise, although Fox said the news won’t affect the way his Bulldogs do business moving forward in any way, shape or form.
“We’ll compete just like we always have, we’re doing to do this job in an honorable way, we’re not going to put the University at risk, we’re not going to put our kids at risk and we’re going to work as hard as we can to do this job the right way,” Fox said. “We’ve got to find kids who will buy into doing it that way and I think we’ve found a team that has certainly bought in this year.”