The college basketball world has turned upside down this week after the downfall of Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino of Louisville, a string of arrests and FBI accusations of bribery, fraud and corruption. At Georgia Tech, coach Josh Pastner met with athletic director Todd Stansbury and his senior administration staff, including compliance chief Shoshanna Engel, to discuss the proceedings.
“I’ve met with Todd and Shoshanna to discuss what recently happened in college basketball and to ensure that we have all the right safeguards in place to make sure that we’re doing everything in our power to have an atmosphere of compliance every day in our program,” Pastner told the AJC. “Regarding the FBI investigation, I’m 100 percent confident that there has been no wrongdoing at Georgia Tech.”
Pastner reiterated his commitment to following NCAA rules, acknowledging that minor rules violations will occur, but that he is zealously committed to creating and working in a culture of compliance. That particularly includes the sort of activity that led to the FBI’s investigation and resulted in the arrest of 10 individuals with ties to the college basketball world, including four assistant coaches – paying prospects, either directly or through a third party, or accepting bribes to influence team members who are pro prospects to sign with specific agents or financial advisers. He also included academic fraud among the major violations that he won’t tolerate.
“I’ve always said from my days at Memphis – those are things that are absolute no-no’s,” Pastner said. “Zero. Zilch. Not allowed.”
Pastner, once described in an article by the Commercial Appeal of Memphis, Tenn., as a “compliance freak,” also vouched for his staff.
“I trust my assistant coaches 100 percent,” he said. “If I didn’t trust them, I wouldn’t hire them.”
One topic of conversation in his meeting with Stansbury, Engel and the senior staff likely was Tech’s recruitment of Nassir Little, a five-star prospect from Orange Park, Fla. One of Little’s AAU coaches, Jonathan Brad Augustine, was one of the 10 men arrested and was accused of having a role in a scheme to pay players’ families in exchange for directing players to sign with schools sponsored by Adidas. Tech agreed to a six-year apparel deal with Adidas in August.
Little’s team released a statement Thursday that “the Little family did not ask for, nor were offered money by any institution or individual. They were completely unaware of any of the alleged offenses that may have mentioned or contained their son’s name.”
Tech is competing with Duke, North Carolina, Arizona and Miami for Little’s commitment.
Pastner said that he will continue to be proactive and transparent with Tech’s compliance office as he and his staff recruit, though it won’t preclude him from recruiting players with AAU teams sponsored by shoe companies, such as Little.
“We’ve got to continue to recruit at a high level,” he said.
