Arizona Board of Regents to discuss Arizona basketball at special meeting

Following more information regarding corruption in college basketball, the Arizona Board of Regents is holding a special board meeting to discuss the University of Arizona basketball program on Thursday.

According to the agenda, the board is set to meet from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for “legal advice and discussion regarding University of Arizona Men’s Basketball.”

The special meeting will be held at Arizona State’s downtown Phoenix campus and will be closed to the public.

On Friday, wiretap audio referencing the Wildcats was released by ESPN following guilty verdicts in the first trial of the investigation.

Arizona had already been mentioned prior to and during the trial.

One of the wiretaps released appears to reveal that former Adidas representative Merl Code tells company executive James Gatto that Arizona allegedly offered recruit Nassir Little $150,000 while discussing whether Adidas would match an offer to send Little to Miami instead.

In another of the recordings, Christian Dawkins — who was linked to Arizona in ESPN’s initial report that led to a brief leave of absence for head coach Sean Miller — tells travel-ball director T.J. Gassnola that Little “was going to (expletive) go to Arizona.”

On Sunday, ESPN’s Outside the Lines reported that from May 2017 to July 2017, Dawkins’ phone made or received “at least 13 phone calls involving a cell number belonging to Miller” and nine more associated with a cell phone of Creighton head coach Greg McDermott. All of the calls made to or received from Miller’s number lasted at least five minutes, ESPN said.

The timeline of the calls between Dawkins’ and Miller’s cell phones came during the peak of Brian Bowen II’s recruitment.

Bowen’s father testified during the first trial that ended last week that then-Arizona assistant Joe Pasternack offered $50,000 to land his son.

Gatto, Dawkins and Code were convicted Wednesday of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for funneling money and recruits to Louisville and Kansas. All three will be sentenced on March 5, but the corruption case doesn’t end there.

Former NBA star and Auburn assistant Chuck Person will stand trial in February. Former assistant coaches Emanuel “Book” Richardson of Arizona, Tony Bland of Southern Cal and Lamont Evans of Oklahoma State go to trial in April.

All are accused of funneling apparel company money to recruits and their families.

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