The college basketball world is filled with adrenaline, roaring spectators, and an overabundance of testosterone among young players. Because of this, it is one of the most riveting and entertaining sports to enjoy.
As with any sport, however, scandals and events taking place behind the scenes shock and bewilder fans whenever they come to light. College basketball has everything from drugs, payoffs, and purposefully losing games to even darker crimes like murder.
Many sports scandals revolve around how money makes players sell out their integrity and the sport they love. As a result, both players and illegal gambling organizations have felt the sting of scandal and seen it all come crashing down.
While most of these scandals aren’t overly serious and can be glossed over, some will live in infamy for many years. We’ve delved into some of these and provided the sordid details below.
Murder Most Foul
In 2003, Baylor University (located in Waco, Texas) was rocked by controversy after one of its star basketball players vanished without a trace. Patrick Dennehy was a high school sports prodigy and one of the opening players heading into the new season.
After he and his teammate Carlton Dotson purchased firearms due to threats from classmates, things quickly went south. The two went out to test their new weapons, and Patrick wasn’t heard from again.
On June 19, after failing to hear from him for Father’s Day, Patrick’s parents, Valorie and Brian, filed a missing persons case. By June 30, an informant contacted the police saying that Carlton had told his cousin details about shooting Patrick after the two had a disagreement while firing their guns.
On July 21, Carlton was arrested and sentenced to prison after Patrick’s body was found four days later on July 25. The autopsy confirmed that Patrick had been killed due to a gunshot wound to the head.
Incredibly, Patrick’s horrific murder wasn’t the only shocking event in this story. It was later revealed that Baylor coach Dave Bliss was aware of the murder and attempted to help Carlton cover it up. More than that, he spread false rumors that the murder occurred due to Patrick being a drug dealer.
After an initial investigation that proved all these claims false, even more scandalous things came to light about Bliss and his time coaching at Baylor. Amongst these was that he was paying for Patrick’s tuition—something not allowed under the rules of the NCCA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) until a new court ruling in 2021—and he was also concealing players’ positive drug test results.
The discovery of all these things led to him being banned from coaching any NCCA sport for ten years. And while he has since returned to the sport, the same cannot be said for Carlton, who remains in prison serving a 35-year sentence.
The Mob Scheme
Taking place decades ago in 1981, the Boston College scandal around match-fixing is still talked about today, as it went far beyond just the team’s players and coaches.
The scandal centered around star athlete Rick Kuhn. Despite being in his last year and one of the top-rated players on the team, he also had a penchant for gambling and had gotten mixed up with local gamblers who gravitated toward sports betting. While gamblers today have many legal options, including sportsbook sites and SlotSource to play in Canada, in the 1980s the options were pretty limited and people sometimes resorted to crooked bookkeepers.
The group, together with Kuhn, devised a brilliant plan in which Kuhn would convince his teammates (and some believe coaches as well) to throw certain games. In doing this, the gamblers and Kuhn could bet on an outcome they knew would happen and earn big.
The pitfalls came when Henry Hill, a mob boss, became involved. Famous for his role in the Lufthansa Airlines heist in 1978, Hill was not a good man to be dealing with. However, the teammates involved in the scandal weren’t too concerned about this, as they were being paid thousands of dollars to ensure they lost when needed.
Everything ended after the FBI arrested Hill, and he admitted to bankrolling the entire syndicate and investing hundreds of thousands into his agreement with the players. As the forerunner of the scheme, Kuhn was sentenced to ten years in prison.
Things Aren’t Fine
Bernie Fine was an associate coach at Syracuse University for almost 34 years when he was fired in 2011. Sadly, his sacking had nothing to do with the team not performing or his coaching abilities. It was due to his sexual assault on players, including the team’s ball boy, Bobby Davis.
Having had enough of the situation, Bobby eventually alerted authorities to what was happening in the locker rooms. More than this, he claimed that the head coach, Jim Boeheim, was well aware of the actions and chose to say nothing about it.
After an initial investigation failed to provide concrete evidence to convict Bernie, more scandal surfaced after it was revealed that his wife, Laurie, was also having sex with multiple team members.
Sadly, because all of the men were of age, her actions had no legal repercussions. However, basketball at Syracuse University suffered immensely due to the scandal and backlash from the community once the story came to light.
Fall From Grace
In the 1950s, one of the biggest names in college basketball was the City College of New York (CCNY). The team achieved massive success and won the NIT (National Invitation Tournament) and NCAA Tournament.
However, their wins were soon overshadowed when the truth about how they played came to light—alongside almost 4,000 sportsbooks. At the time, these were illegally operating, as sports betting was outlawed. These sportsbooks accounted for nearly $300,000 for each game that CCNY played.
The reason for this became apparent after it was revealed that the team was caught up in points-shaving. They purposefully played to ensure the final points favored those betting.
The team, who had their home at Madison Square Garden, was effectively shunned from the sports and given a permanent ban from playing at the famed arena. More than this, multiple players, alongside gambling boss Harry Gross, were arrested and charged for their actions.
Players Who Win
St. Bonaventure University was once home to a solid and successful basketball program. However, in 2003, an investigation by the NCCA into the team representing the university brought everything crashing down.
The investigation brought to light unscrupulous recruiting practices that clearly had not been following the rules that all other teams were following. Rather than ensuring that players had the correct academic achievements and checked all the other boxes required to play, the university recruited any player who could help them achieve a win. This made it a place where many went to be recruited.
One of these players included Jamil Terrel, who was spectacular on the court. However, aside from sporting prowess, he had almost zero academic achievements that would have allowed him to play.
After the investigation concluded, the team was banned from playing and forced to institute and follow proper recruiting procedures. Since then, the team hasn’t enjoyed the victories that they were having and has been shunned due to the scandal.
