KU ticket scandal

[Coach]

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketb...utickets052610

The story is very long, so I'll just put in the first paragraph of the incident in question.

LAWRENCE, Kan. – A high-ranking member of the University of Kansas athletic department and the father of a prominent Jayhawks’ athlete allegedly made more than $800,000 in a ticket scalping operation that was orchestrated by college basketball power brokers David and Dana Pump, Yahoo! Sports has learned.

[WilliamTheIrish]

Originally Posted by teedubya

William the Doucheish seems to be having lots of fun with this.

IMO, KU should bolt to the Big Ten and leave you guys to the MVC, but we have to carry your broke ass University to whatever conference we go to.

You should be grateful that someone at the Kansas Board of Regents cares about your hillbilly school.

Bolt to the Big 10? You chubby types do have a great sense of humor.

[Mr. Plow]

http://www2.kusports.com/news/2010/j...ens_basketball

Self: AAU players aren’t funneled to KU

Bill Self would disagree strongly with anybody who says AAU basketball players have been funneled to Kansas University.

“You’d think Kansas, with the history and tradition we have, has done a pretty good job recruiting guys on its own,” said Self, set to begin his eighth season as Jayhawk coach.

He was willing to comment Tuesday on the issue of Dana and David Pump summer team-sponsored players playing for KU.

That’s been a hot topic since a Yahoo! Sports story quoted Lawrence real estate developer David Freeman saying he, former KU director of ticket operations Rodney Jones and KU grad Roger Morningstar followed the instruction of the California-based Pump brothers when the five allegedly made money scalping tickets during the 2002 and ’03 NCAA Final Fours.

The story — which did not accuse Pump N Run of any impropriety in sending players to KU — did mention that Morningstar coached KC Pump N Run teams in the past. Also, it mentioned that, since 2002, Pump-sponsored teams have featured at least nine players who have played at KU, including Mario Chalmers, Elijah Johnson, David Padgett, Omar Wilkes, Jeff Withey and KC Pump N Run alums Tyrel Reed, Travis Releford, Brady Morningstar and Conner Teahan.

“I don’t want to say it’s offensive because in recruiting at a high level, people do make assumptions,” Self said “The one thing I will say from an assumption standpoint, though it didn’t state there was any funneling going on, it could be interpreted that was a possibility. By no means in this situation is that remotely accurate. This is a situation where the people in question haven’t had anything to do with the recruitment of any of our prospects since we’ve been at Kansas.”

Self went through the list of Jayhawks who played for Pump-affiliated teams. The KC team is sponsored by adidas, not receiving any money from the Pumps.

“Two players were recruited before we got here, and they did play for the L.A.-based Pump N Run,” Self said of Padgett and Wilkes. “Since then, we’ve gotten seven players that have a Pump N Run-affiliation name. Four of them are from Kansas City: Tyrel’s dad worked KU camps for 25 years; Brady, whose dad attended Kansas and was a player and family lives in Lawrence; Travis, who grew up in Kansas City; and Conner, who is a walk-on for us, born and raised in Kansas City. I think our chances to recruit them would be pretty good regardless of what affiliation they had basketball-wise.

“Mario Chalmers did play for the Alaska Pump N Run team, coached by his dad. I feel Mario, his mom and dad had a lot to do with that recruiting process,” Self added. “The last two are the only two guys we recruited who played for the L.A.-based Pump team. Jeff Withey played a total of two tournaments. His primary AAU team is BBO out of California. Elijah played a total of three tournaments with the L.A.-based team, and his primary team is the Las Vegas Prospects. Those are the facts.”

Self added: “I want to make it very clear I do not think there’s absolutely anything wrong with having a relationship with people that have contact with prospects. That is the definition of recruiting, whether it be high school coaches or AAU coaches, but in this particular situation, they (Pumps) are not coaches, and the Pump teams are sponsored by adidas. It was put out there that there could be funneling of players. I’m here to say that certainly has not been the case.”

It was pointed out in last week’s media reports that Self and athletic director Lew Perkins have attended the Pump brothers’ summer retreat in California.

“I have spoken at it twice in 10 years. I’ve attended it along with many others and very well may speak at it again,” Self said. “It’s one of the best professional development clinics we go to. We hear from great speakers and listen to ideas that may help your ballclub. All proceeds go to cancer research.”

KC Pump N Run coach L.J. Goolsby told the Journal-World last week that his program has sent more players to Missouri than KU. He said KC Pump N Run has sent players to Big 12, Pac-10, Missouri Valley, SEC, ACC, Southern Conference, Northeast Conference, Horizon League, Ohio Valley, Mid-Con and Mountain West schools.

“Kids that grow in Kansas City should want to play for Missouri, K-State, Kansas,” Self said. “The AAU programs in our area are very, very strong. I think they are very reputable nationwide. I think the (college) coaches that come in contact with these (local) groups see that these coaches are in it for the right reasons and try to do things the right way.”

[kepp]

Originally Posted by Mr. Plow

Self: AAU players aren’t funneled to KU

Thus concludes another ku independent investigation.

[Saulbadguy]

Of course AAU players are funneled to Kansas. AAU players are funneled to K-State, too. Any program worth a shit has players handed to them by AAU coaches/handlers.

Nothing wrong with that at all.

[Pitt Gorilla]

Originally Posted by Saulbadguy

Of course AAU players are funneled to Kansas. AAU players are funneled to K-State, too. Any program worth a shit has players handed to them by AAU coaches/handlers.

Nothing wrong with that at all.

I think there is quite a bit wrong with that.

[Bambi]

Originally Posted by billay

Because your school wants to be Nebraska football.

I would LOVE it if KU was Nebraska football of 20 years ago, agreed.

[Bambi]

Originally Posted by kepp

Thus concludes another ku independent investigation.

lol

[WilliamTheIrish]

Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla

I think there is quite a bit wrong with that.

You can't just shut Pandora's box. AAU 50 years ago was a different entity. The NCAA puts on a good show about grades and says "student athlete" a lot. But that relationship is all one sided.

[Mr. Plow]

Originally Posted by WilliamTheIrish

You can't just shut Pandora's box. AAU 50 years ago was a different entity. The NCAA puts on a good show about grades and says "student athlete" a lot. But that relationship is all one sided.

At some point, I'd like the NCAA to treat these kids for what they actually are instead of what they want them perceived to be.

[WilliamTheIrish]

Originally Posted by Mr. Plow

At some point, I'd like the NCAA to treat these kids for what they actually are instead of what they want them perceived to be.

Shhh. The word professional is not allowed in the same sentence as NCAA.

[Mr. Plow]

Originally Posted by WilliamTheIrish

Shhh. The word professional is not allowed in the same sentence as NCAA.

The student is a very important part of the student-athlete. We'll never run out of PE teachers and high school basketball coaches.

[WilliamTheIrish]

So Lew fired off a 5k check for the equipment. One month before claiming he was blackmailed. Which apparently has happened often in Lew's career.

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/06/02...ctor-made.html

Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins in April mailed a $5,000 personal check to former Medical Outfitters co-owner Mark Glass as a back rental payment for $15,000 worth of exercise equipment he originally borrowed from Glass’ company in 2005 at no cost to Perkins, Glass told The Kansas City Star on Wednesday night.

Glass said Perkins called him in April after Glass had been interviewed by Lawrence police regarding their investigation into the alleged blackmail of Perkins by former KU director of sports medicine William Dent, which centered around the loaned equipment. Glass said he told Perkins that he was not entitled to any money because Medical Outfitters went bankrupt in 2007 and the equipment therefore was no longer his. Still, Glass said Perkins was adamant about sending him the check and that Perkins decided the amount.

Glass instructed Perkins to make the check out to LSI International Inc., the Kansas City, Kan., company that acquired Medical Outfitters out of bankruptcy. On May 27, still unsure who was entitled to the money, Glass said he deposited the check into a holding account, where it will remain until he figures out where it should go.

“I haven’t touched it, I haven’t wanted to touch it,” Glass said. “It’s like a cancer.”

Perkins’ payment was revealed in a statement by KU chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little released late Wednesday afternoon – her first response to the allegation made by Dent in the Topeka Capital-Journal last week that Glass and his partner loaned Perkins the equipment in exchange for premium men’s basketball tickets.

Gray-Little said that she was going to wait for facts to be gathered on the blackmail case and that she had ordered senior university staff to work with Kansas Athletics to fully review the allegations within 10 working days.

“With regard to the exercise equipment in question, Perkins has reported the fact that he returned the equipment more than a year ago and has paid the fair rental value to the company that actually owned the equipment,” Gray-Little said. “I also understand that he has referred this matter to the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission.”

The alleged blackmail has called into question whether Perkins – whom Glass said was not expected to pay him for use of the equipment at any point – had violated Kansas Athletics Inc.’s code of business ethics by accepting such an offer from a vendor.

The code states: “Kansas Athletics personnel may not accept gifts, payments, entertainment, privileges or other favors which might influence future decisions made by Kansas Athletics. All gifts and payments received or disbursements made on behalf of Kansas Athletics must be fully and accurately reflected in Kansas Athletics records.”

On Tuesday, The Star requested documentation of the loan from Kansas Athletics. KU associate athletic director for external relations Jim Marchiony said he did not know if KU had possession of such a document and that he had forwarded the request onto KU corporate counsel Judy Pottorff.

Perkins’ attorney, Stephen McAllister of Lawrence, confirmed to The Star on Wednesday night that the back rental payment to Glass was one of the steps Perkins has taken to remedy ethical concerns about the loaned equipment.

Lynn Bretz, a spokesperson for Gray-Little, spoke generally to The Star about why a state employee would make such a payment.

“If a gift is called into question that perhaps is not appropriate,” Bretz said, “one way individuals deal with that is to pay for the gift.”

Marchiony said Kansas Athletics would have no further comment because of the ongoing police investigation.

Dent told the Topeka Capital-Journal last week that Glass and fellow co-owner Patrick Carpenter were awarded premium men’s basketball tickets in exchange for the loan of the exercise equipment. Dent, who was Glass’ primary contact in his company’s business with KU, threatened to go public with the alleged ticket swap unless he was compensated for the cost of storing the equipment, which Perkins gave to Dent in April 2009 for unknown reasons.

Dent resigned from KU in November 2007, a month before he was scheduled to appear in court for two counts of aggravated assault and one count of criminal threat relating to an April 2007 domestic incident.

The Lawrence Police Department released a report on its Web site Friday indicating that Perkins was the victim of an alleged blackmail.

Glass refuted Dent’s account of the alleged ticket swap, telling The Star that he and Carpenter went through the Select-a-Seat process like all Williams Fund donors and that their seats were far from premium – near the baseline and high into the rafters of Allen Fieldhouse.

The details of the blackmail case emerged just days after KU released a report detailing the results of its two-month investigation of the Williams Fund and the KU ticket office. The report revealed that five former KU employees and a consultant sold nearly 20,000 men’s basketball and football tickets worth $1-3 million for personal profit during 2005-10.

Perkins has accepted responsibility for the scam happening under his watch but not for any criminal wrongdoing. A federal investigation into the ticket scam is ongoing.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/06/02...#ixzz0pqabePnP

[WilliamTheIrish]

Good photo of the Chancellor Little and Lew. Not real flattering.

[Saulbadguy]

This guy just has an axe to grind...clearly he is a "low-life"..

http://cjonline.com/news/local/2010-...ield_questions

Search of items reveals letter seeking return of one device or payment
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By Tully Corcoran, James Carlson
Created June 3, 2010 at 9:54pm
Updated June 3, 2010 at 11:42pm

The storage facility is small, but its contents reveal a wealth of exercise equipment that once rested in Lew Perkins' basement.

The Topeka Capital-Journal on Thursday obtained a key to the storage facility William Dent said housed the exercise and medical equipment that the Kansas athletic director may have received as either a gift or a loan.

Dent, director of sports medicine at KU from 2004-07, said he made the initial arrangements for Perkins to acquire the equipment because Perkins had been inundating Dent with requests for personal treatment during Dent's working hours, requests Dent said were interfering with his ability to treat KU's athletes. Kansas state ethical guidelines prohibit state employees from accepting "any gift, economic opportunity, loan, gratuity, special discount or service provided because of such person's official position." Penalties are a fine of $5,000 all the way up to termination of employment.

Inside the facility was a collection of medical equipment that research by The Capital-Journal indicated was worth at least $23,000 when new. The items The Capital-Journal wasn't able to independently price were a hydro collator Dent valued at $375 and several components for an ultrasound generator. The collective value of those components, according to Dent's research, is $9,375.

The newspaper's search also revealed a letter from a rehabilitation products company called Empi, of St. Paul, Minn. The letter, which was sent to Perkins' home and dated April 11, 2005, was requesting Perkins either return a piece of equipment or be billed for it.

The letter read, in part, "... we do not show that the CERVICAL HOMETRAC device has been returned to Empi. Enclosed with the devise was a preaddressed postage paid US MAIL Priority mailbag label for the return. It is very important to return the device by 04/25/05 or we will invoice you for the purchase of the Cervical Hometrac."

That device is valued at $725.

Presented with Perkins' account number, which was taken off the letter, a spokesman for Empi said the account was in good standing but wouldn't say when it was paid or by whom, citing HIPAA laws.

Dent said he thought Perkins' insurance may have paid for the device and believed Perkins owned it. But it sits in the facility Dent is renting.

"Why did he give it to me?" Dent asked.

The search of the facility came a day after University of Kansas chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little released a statement saying Perkins paid $5,000 in rental fees for all of the equipment Dent said Perkins had installed in his basement.

The Capital-Journal learned Wednesday that no company has received Perkins' payment, which sits in an account belonging to Mark Glass, Glass said Wednesday.

Glass once was part owner of the bankrupt Medical Outfitters, which installed the equipment in Perkins' basement. Glass said he told Perkins in April not to send him the money because he isn't entitled to it and doesn't know who is, but he said Perkins insisted.

Attempts to reach Stephen McAllister, Perkins' attorney, on Thursday were unsuccessful.

Just how a company other than Medical Outfitters became involved is something for Glass to explain. Glass said Thursday his company, Medical Outfitters, was a wholesale distributor that bought equipment from various manufacturers and sold them to an end user.

It often worked with the buyer to purchase specific pieces but sometimes sold pieces from its modest inventory to end buyers.

That means Medical Outfitters and the company that obtained its assets after bankruptcy, LSI, aren't the only companies involved.

Kansas associate athletic director Jim Marchiony said Thursday he wouldn't approach Perkins with questions about Dent's allegations.

"We are done talking about this case," Marchiony said. "This is a case being investigated by the police. They've asked us to not talk about it."

In 2007, Dent resigned from KU after being charged with six crimes, including felony aggravated assault as a result of a domestic incident involving his then-wife and another man. Dent was never convicted and entered a two-year diversion program that ended in January.

Dent said shortly after he had been hired at KU in 2004, Perkins would, for example, return from a cross-country flight and early the next morning request a massage or stretching from Dent.

"What was I gonna do?" Dent said. "Say no?"

But as the requests became more frequent and time-consuming, Dent said he began feeling he couldn't effectively do his job, which was to treat athletes.

Dent later brought this up in his correspondence with Perkins. In a letter dated Sept. 26, 2009, addressed to Perkins and copied to McAllister and KU corporate counsel Judy Pottorff, Dent wrote:

"I personally performed Physical Therapy services for you at your home at no charge on my personal time on four (4) occasions. However, the majority of the approximately 40 to 45 Physical Therapy sessions (records of which can be found on the KA, Inc. server) I personally performed were done during business hours at Kansas Athletics, Inc. These sessions were done in either the Athletic Training Room or the Aquatic Rehabilitation Center. In addition, I also can site a multitude of occasions that I delivered Kansas Athletics, Inc. equipment to you at your home or in your office for personal use at no cost per your instructions."

At least one of the pieces of equipment viewed by The Capital-Journal on Thursday showed signs of KU ownership — a stamp that read, for example, "University of Kansas." Dent said all of the exercise equipment in the storage facility, including that piece, came out of Perkins' home.

On Thursday, Dent said the requests from Perkins had begun to overwhelm his job duties.

"Nowhere in my job description am I supposed to be his personal therapist and masseuse," Dent said. "Trying to take care of him was so overwhelming, I had to do something to get him off my case."

So he contacted Glass and suggested Glass install some equipment in Perkins' house, which would allow Perkins to be treated at home, on his own time and, Dent said, preferably by someone else.

He suggested Glass install it at no initial charge on a trial basis, thinking once Perkins tried it, he would want to buy it.

"Somewhere along the line, buying it was thrown out the window," Dent said. "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours."

The back-scratching, Dent says, involved Glass and his partner Patrick Carpenter, through a third-party Williams Fund member, receiving men's basketball tickets that otherwise shouldn't have been available to them.

Glass said this wasn't true. He said his tickets were commensurate with his contributions to KU and didn't think he had done anything underhanded.

Attempts to reach Carpenter have been unsuccessful.

Dent believes Glass was mostly uninvolved in the negotiation for tickets.

"I feel bad for Mark because I never saw him as that kind of guy," Dent said.

[Bambi]

Originally Posted by WilliamTheIrish

Good photo of the Chancellor Little and Lew. Not real flattering.

Photos of Champions usually aren't flattering.

just sayin