Citing evidence obtained from the federal trial into college basketball that concluded last week, ESPN reported that agent Christian Dawkins wrote of a plan to pay Rawle Alkins and his family a total of $50,000 while he was playing for the Arizona Wildcats last season.
Dawkins' email to partner Munish Sood said he planned to pay Alkins $2,500 a month from September 2017 through April 2018, plus another $30,000 in travel expenses for Alkins' family.
Dawkins also wrote that he wanted to give Alkins' cousin, Rodney Labossiere, a share of his new sports management business, ESPN said.
"Rodney will get 25% of net income we generate from Rawle as well as additional players he brings in moving forward," Dawkins wrote, according to ESPN. "Rodney has a bonus structure in his contract as well for delivering players at ($)10,000 for a first round pick. $2,000 for a second round pick."
ESPN noted that the federal complaint about then-UA assistant coach Book Richardson in Sept. 2017 said Dawkins and Richardson were recorded at a meeting in July 2017 in which Richardson "further committed to steer a particular student-athlete ("Player-6") who was on the men's basketball team at (Arizona) to Dawkins and his company, stating, 'I'm telling you (Dawkins is) getting (Player-6) ... there's no if, ands about that. I've already talked with (Player-6's) mom, I've talked with his cousin."
The 2017 complaint also alleged that Dawkins referenced a player on last season's UA team as one who "had already received payments, so we got no expenses there."
In its lengthy report detailing contact between Dawkins and several college coaches, ESPN also reported that phone numbers belonging to Dawkins and UA coach Sean Miller were connected for calls lasting at least five minutes a total of 13 times between May 3 and July 2, 2017.
The report also mentions again the other allegations that have surfaced involving Arizona from the complaint and federal trial: That Brian Bowen Sr. testified that he was told then-UA associate head coach Joe Pasternack was offering $50,000, that Adidas reps spoke of a $150,000 offer from Arizona for Nassir Little and that former travel ball director T.J. Gassnola testified that he gave $15,000 to a friend of Deandre Ayton in an effort to steer him to Kansas.
If Ayton or Alkins were found to have taken five-figure or more amounts as described before or during their time with Arizona, they could be retroactively declared ineligible and all games they played in last season could be vacated.
The allegations also could result in sanctions for Arizona if the NCAA finds them to be proven violations, and Miller could also face NCAA penalties individually even if he is found to not known of them under NCAA bylaw 11.1.1.1, which states that head coaches are responsible for the actions of their direct or indirect reports unless they can βrebut the presumption of responsibility.β
