KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It’s another example of how shady it can be behind the scenes of college athletics.
KU won its final five games of the season at the Sprint Center, but KU might be forced to vacate those games, and others, depending on what an NCAA investigation into Ben McLemore discovers.
McLemore’s former AAU coach, Darius Cobb, told USA Today over the weekend that he accepted $10,000 and three free trips to LA to meet with sports agents.
The money and trips came from a middle man out of North Carolina named Rodney Blackstock, who also had aspiration of representing McLemore when he turned pro.
With McLemore projected to go first or second in the NBA draft, his agent will make millions of dollars, so there is a lot of money at stake. To make matters more murky, McLemore gave free game tickets to Blackstock on three occasions.
Cobb told USA Today that McLemore knows nothing about the money and free trips. Also, since McLemore is no longer a student at KU, he doesn’t have to cooperate with the NCAA investigation. If the NCAA finds McLemore knew about this, he could be declared ineligible and KU could be forced to vacate some of its wins from last season. It might not seem fair since KU officials say they knew nothing about it, but the NCAA has punished other college programs for similar infractions.
But right now, there is no proof McLemore knew about the arrangement his AAU coach made with Blackstock. Only time will tell what the NCAA discovers.
