Kansas basketball: Three reasons fans shouldn’t worry about NCAA allegations right now
On Friday, September 20, the Kansas City Star reported that Kansas basketball should expect major rule violations by the NCAA. However, Jayhawks fans shouldn’t overreact right now.
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This isn’t the first time Kansas basketball has been under the microscope and to be honest, it probably won’t be the last. Still, Kansas fans shouldn’t be super concerned, at least not at the moment.
It’s important to remember that this is speculation of allegations and punishment. Nothing is concrete as of right now, and it’s possible that the KC Star jumped the gun. So, here are three reasons not to worry about the possibility of sanctions.
1. Most of the KC Star article is speculation.
In usual fashion, the Star went with the classic Friday news dump to report the possible allegations. Other than stating that “sources” have said “the NCAA is preparing to issue a notice of allegation,” the article doesn’t say anything else about incoming allegations. It goes on to talk about previous scenarios revolving around Billy Preston and Silvio De Sousa, but nothing specific. Nothing concrete is laid out which begs the question: what will the NCAA punish Kansas for?
2. What is the NCAA going to punish that hasn’t already been addressed?
The only cases the Star mentions are the aforementioned Preston and De Sousa examples, but isn’t that old news? Not to mention, Billy Preston never played a game for Kansas, and Silvio De Sousa was cleared by the NCAA earlier this year after successfully appealing his suspension.
The biggest liability for Kansas is head coach Bill Self and assistant Kurtis Townsend’s connection to T.J. Gassnola, a previous Adidas employee who was responsible for funneling Adidas money to Silvio De Sousa’s guardian and Billy Preston’s mother. Still, Gassnola testified the Self had no knowledge of the payments.
3. No timeline for the notice allegations was mentioned.
While the Star mentioned how the official allegation process works, there’s no specific timeline in terms of Kansas basketball. According to the article, Kansas hasn’t even received a notice from the NCAA yet, and the NCAA was unable to comment due to its rules.
With basketball right around the corner, it’s hard to believe the NCAA still hasn’t made the allegations if they’re going to, considering there’s a multi-month process to even levy a punishment after allegations have been made. While I wouldn’t put it past the NCAA, the timing of all this would be extremely weird and detrimental for everyone including the NCAA.
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The bottom line is that there isn’t anything certain about this situation. It’s been shrouded in vagueness and a lack of understanding since the moment the NCAA claimed they were preparing to issue major allegations to six unnamed schools earlier this Summer.
The only school to have received an official notice of allegations thus far is NC State, and that was back in July. For having six or more schools to issue allegations to, the NCAA sure is taking their sweet time in letting teams know.
When it comes to Kansas basketball and these NCAA allegations, there’s not a whole lot fans or coaches can do. Everyone will just have to wait and see if and when the NCAA decides to act, and respond accordingly.
Hopefully, whatever happens, the 2019-20 team and their ability to compete in the tournament isn’t affected. The team has a chance to make a deep run, and it’d be a terrible shame to have past events affect the future.