Kansas basketball vs. NCAA saga continues to twist and turn

The Kansas basketball vs. NCAA story just developed another plot line: Bill Self vs. the NCAA.

It seems like every month or so, there’s another major development stemming from the NCAA’s allegations against Kansas basketball. This time, it has to do directly with the Jayhawks’ head coach Bill Self, who notified the NCAA of possible legal action.

Overall, Kansas basketball fans seem to be very pleased with this move, and for good reason. Whether or not Self really wants to go after the NCAA legally is irrelevant, but this move does give Self and his lawyer, Scott Thompsett some more leverage over the NCAA, in addition to another chance to defend their side of the story.

Thompsett and Self are focusing on the NCAA’s claim that Adidas is a booster, and this is how it was addressed by Self and his legal team:

"“To put it bluntly, the NCAA enforcement staff is attempting to end Mr. Self’s long and very successful coaching career for conduct which all coaches engage in and which the NCAA has known for many years is commonplace and permissible.”"

This is a strong statement that alleges Self is a personal target of the NCAA, which isn’t far off. Some may remember that the NCAA included a line in their amended notice of allegations that implied that they were upset about him wearing an Adidas shirt in a promo video for Late Night in the Phog.

Then of course, there’s the NCAA trying to put forth the idea of Adidas being a booster. To support his claim that Kansas’ relationship with Adidas was commonplace, Thompsett included this quote from Notre Dame basketball head coach Mike Brey: “Every one of us works the shoe company angle to help get us players. I speak to those guys as much as I would speak to parents.”

For Kansas basketball, the future is far from clear. The next step will likely be a date with the IARP, an independent panel to try and get this situation resolved once and for all.