BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A year ago at this time, LSU coach Will Wade was questioned by the sports writers, bloggers and broadcasters gathered together for the annual Southeastern Conference men’s basketball media day about accusations he had discussed paying for a potential player with wannabe agent Christian Dawkins.
“I’m very proud of everything I’ve done as LSU coach,” the former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Virginia Commonwealth University coach said at that time. “I, or we, have never, ever done business of any kind with Christian Dawkins.”
He sounded pretty sincere that day. Pretty emphatic, too.
But less than five months later, LSU suspended Wade with one game remaining in the regular season and for the entirety of the SEC tournament and the Tigers’ NCAA tourney stay. The reason: The transcript of a wiretap emerged that apparently showed Wade discussing a payment plan to land Baton Rouge native Javonte Smart, who by then was a key freshman for LSU.
Given that dramatic turn of events, the odds of Wade reappearing Wednesday at the Grand Bohemian Hotel for the 2019 edition of SEC media day seemed remote at best. There was this transcript from an FBI wiretap, complete with some pretty raw language. There was Dawkins, who had already been convicted of wire fraud before news of the apparent conversation with Wade leaked. There was, first and foremost, LSU suspending Wade.
In a statement released when Wade was suspended, school president F. King Alexander and Joe Alleva, LSU’s athletic director at the time, said: “Recent media reports regarding Coach Will Wade are without question concerning to all of us.”
However, those concerns were apparently satisfied five weeks later on April 14, when the school reinstated him, with Alleva noting Wade “answered all questions and denied any wrongdoing in connection with recently reported allegations of irregularities in college basketball recruiting. Wade’s explanations and clarifications offered during the meeting, absent actual evidence of misconduct, satisfy his contractual obligation to LSU.”
Here’s where rumor and reality collide: Do the cynical among us hang on the five curious words “absent actual evidence of misconduct,” certain this is some legal mumbo jumbo to protect all parties?
Or was Wade, despite the wiretap transcript, merely on a fishing expedition during his dealings with Dawkins? As in, how down and dirty would he have to be to secure the services of Smart, who, lest Tennessee basketball fans forget, scored 29 on their Volunteers in a game that pretty much delivered LSU its first SEC regular-season crown in 10 years?
Even today, no one knows.
And no one may ever know, though we think we know men’s college basketball may be the biggest cesspool in what we naively refer to as amateur sports.
In fact, Dawkins, while appearing in a Manhattan courtroom in May on separate charges connected to the FBI investigation into bad behavior in college hoops, said of whom he paid in the scandal: “Everybody from a youth basketball coach, a player’s parent – that’s a father, a mother, a sister, a brother. Basically, anybody who was in charge of the kid’s recruitment process was paid.”
He soon added the athletes are “the only people in college that can’t get paid legally.”
On Wednesday, Wade said of the investigation as it pertains to LSU: “The worst is behind us. Moving forward.”
Questioned about details, he responded, “I’ve been ordered not to say anything.”
He did say: “It’s something you never expect. Like everything, there are lessons learned. Sometimes, those are tough lessons.”
But what was it like, watching your team lose its SEC tourney opener without you, watching them advance to the Sweet 16 without you, watching them lose in a regional semifinal without you?
“I watched them on TV,” he said. “I’m not a very good fan. I was yelling at the TV a lot.”
He also said: “You’re always telling guys you’ll be there for them, but because of circumstances I couldn’t. I could contact the coaches, but I tried not to talk to the players unless they called me. I didn’t want to be a distraction.”
Smart was also briefly suspended for the regular-season finale, a home rout of Vanderbilt. But he was back for the Tigers’ SEC tourney quarterfinal loss to Florida and for the entirety of LSU’s NCAA tourney stay.
“I think that whole thing made us closer,” Smart said Wednesday. “When it was announced I was back, everybody came to my room. They said, ‘Let’s go.'”
There are those who think this isn’t over. There is speculation LSU is one of several schools – along with Arizona, Kansas, possibly Auburn and Southern California – who will receive a notice of allegations regarding NCAA rules violations. Kansas, which has already received the allegations, has announced it vehemently denies them and will fight them in court.
Meanwhile, Wade is, at least for the moment, in the clear and ready to move on.
With an easy smile he said of the season ahead, “I’m just worried we’re not going to score as many points as our football team.”
If that really is his biggest worry, Wade should be back at this same place at this same time next year, again representing the LSU men’s basketball program as its head coach.
Whether that’s justice or not probably depends on whether you believe in the NCAA’s rules or whether you believe, as a growing number of people do, that the real injustice is not paying the players – whether that money’s handed out under the table or over it.
Mark WiedmerContact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @TFPWeeds.