Former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball coach Will Wade will be featured prominently Tuesday night on HBO, and it's not expected to be a flattering role.
The premium cable network will air "The Scheme," a documentary focusing on Christian Dawkins, who became the central figure in the federal investigation into the corruption of college basketball. Wade, who guided the Mocs during the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons and has since spent two seasons at VCU and three at LSU, will be heard on wiretapped conversations with Dawkins that have not been admitted in the two federal trials that have occurred to this point.
Arizona men's basketball coach Sean Miller also can be heard talking with Dawkins in "The Scheme," which airs at 9.
"We didn't put those calls in there to get Will Wade fired or to get Sean Miller fired, but those calls serve a very distinct purpose," said Pat Kondelis, the director of the documentary. "Christian had very good relationships with both of them, which is very different from the way these coaches portrayed themselves in the press conferences they had. They had very casual relationships with Christian, and they were calling him for help."
AP photo by Rick Scuteri / Arizona men's basketball coach Sean Miller watches the first half of the Wildcats' game against Washington on March 7 in Tucson, Ariz.Dawkins, a former junior-college dropout who became an aspiring agent and ultimately an aspiring business manager, was found guilty in October 2018 of steering recruits to Adidas-sponsored universities in a pay-for-play scheme and was sentenced to six months in prison. That transpired during the first federal trial, and the second one last May resulted in Dawkins being found guilty of bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery.
This past October, a federal judge sentenced Dawkins to one year and one day in prison for each of the two bribery charges, which are to be served concurrently after his original six-month sentence is complete.
News of the federal investigation into college basketball broke in September 2017, when charges were brought against Dawkins and nine other men, including four college assistant coaches. When the subject came up as an opportunity for a documentary, Kondelis jumped at the chance.
"I thought, like everybody else, that this would be a groundbreaking case and that it would really reshape college basketball, and then nothing happened," Kondelis said. "I spent three days with Christian Dawkins, and I found him to be a fascinating character and wildly different from the way he had been described and depicted in reports. He was itching to have his perspective to be told as well."
AP photo by Seth Wenig / Business manager Christian Dawkins arrives at court in New York on March 5, 2019.Speaking clearly
Wade has never endured a losing record during his seven seasons as a college coach, guiding the Mocs to a 40-25 record before leading VCU to a 51-20 mark that included two trips to the NCAA tournament. His first season at LSU yielded an 18-15 record, which was a sharp improvement over the 10-21 mark assembled in the fifth and final season of predecessor Johnny Jones, and Wade's debut was followed by a 2018 signing class that ranked fourth nationally.
And raised some eyebrows.
LSU signed four top-75 players in 2018 - power forward Naz Reid out of Roselle, New Jersey, power forward Emmitt Williams of Orlando, Florida, combo guard Javonte Smart from Baton Rouge and power forward Darius Days of Gainesville, Florida. Williams had been arrested in October 2017 on felony sexual battery charges, but those charges would be dropped two months later.
Yet it was the wiretapped conversation Wade had with Dawkins about Smart that made headlines last March when a transcript from that talk described Wade making a "strong-ass offer" to the hometown talent. Hearing the conversation could prove troubling for Wade, similar to how TMZ's video release of Ray Rice striking his fiancée in an elevator resulted in the NFL coming down with much harsher punishment on the former Baltimore Ravens running back.
"Any objective person who hears the call, it slaps you in the face," Kondelis said. "You know what they're talking about and you know what they're referencing, and there is context provided by Christian about these calls. Any objective person is going to come away from that knowing exactly what is happening and what's being discussed - it's money."
Wade was suspended by LSU last March after Yahoo Sports obtained and released the transcript, but he was reinstated last April. He missed the Tigers wrapping up their Southeastern Conference title with a clinching win over Vanderbilt in the regular-season finale and his 28-7 team reaching the NCAA tournament's Sweet 16, feats that were accomplished under interim coach Tony Benford.
AP photo by Bill Feig / LSU men's basketball coach Will Wade talks strategy with guard Javonte Smart late in the second half of a home game against Kentucky on Feb. 18. Kentucky won 79-76.What happens next?
When Wade was asked about his transcript comments at the SEC spring meetings last May, he told reporters, "I have not heard the recording, so I don't know. I don't think any of us have heard the recordings."
After Tuesday night, everyone who watches "The Scheme" will have heard them. Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde has seen "The Scheme," and he wrote recently that Dawkins had this to say of Wade: "Just the audacity - you've got to take your hat off to him, bro. Will Wade is definitely a (expletive) gangster for what he did."
LSU was 21-10 and headed to another NCAA tournament when this season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kondelis said he reached out to Wade and LSU and to Miller and Arizona but never heard back. He added that Rick Pitino, who lost his job at Louisville during the investigation but is back in coaching at Iona, is included in "The Scheme" but that the documentary does not give much mention to Auburn, Kansas and other schools that have been linked to the investigation.
"The NCAA has no interest in changing things the way things are working for them," Kondelis said. "They make billions of dollars, and it's all tax-free. Louisville has been the most profitable basketball program in the country, making $42 million a year in profit, so they don't want any of this to change. It's why every sports fan knows that the bigger schools aren't going to get hammered.
"I think it's a 50-50 shot whether Will Wade will continue at LSU. The fact that he's still coaching is remarkable."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.