A Grip on Sports: The FBI swoops in again in New York and throws a brick through the NBA’s glass house built on legalized gambling
A GRIP ON SPORTS • It’s a non-descript Thursday in late October. The NFL game tonight pits two mediocre teams. The World Series begins Friday. Real college hoops is a ways away. College football? That’s still mainly a Saturday thing, thank goodness. What does that leave us? Notes, of course. On all of it. More. Heck, even an FBI gambling arrest or two.
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• The NCAA on Wednesday quietly announced a change in its rules. Athletes and administrators will now be allowed, with caveats, to do what everyone else is allowed to do: bet on pro sporting events. Talk about poor timing. Oh, well. It is a traditional trait for the bureaucracy that governs college athletics.
This morning, as the sun was rising, the FBI swooped into a few spots and arrested at least two people connected to the NBA, alleging they were involved in an illegal gambling scheme.
That’s bad enough. But as the charges were revealed in New York this morning, the FBI alleged more. A betting conspiracy based on confidential information. The arrests of Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, Miami guard Terry Rozier and others revolve around high-stakes poker games allegedly run by organized crime members, which led directly to successful bets based on information not available to the general public.
Those are words no one in the NBA hierarchy wants to read.
I’m shocked – shocked – to find cheating is going on as legal sports gambling explodes throughout the world.
• Of course there would be a dig at the NCAA and poor timing. It’s easy. It’s also easy to poke fun of the organization’s legal teams. And their poor track record. House v. NCAA anyone? Tennessee and Virginia v. NCAA ring a bell? How about NCAA v. Alston, the biggest loss of all in the highest court of the land?
Scattered in the wake of high-profile cases are the minutia of other court battles and judges are asked to rein in the organization as it seems to ignore the precedents set in previous rulings.
One of those will begin to play out today in Spokane. You may have heard of it. Gonzaga basketball transfer Tyon Grant-Foster was told by the NCAA his college playing says were done. His lawyers believe that’s the wrong decision. A lawsuit has been filed in District Court. A hearing is scheduled. The NCAA’s reps will be there, claiming the judge has no jurisdiction, asking for a move to Federal Court.
Stay tuned.
• Most of us has someone in our life who helped open our eyes to the wide world of sports. It might have been mom. Dad. An older sibling. A buddy two houses down. Or maybe it was a grandparent.
GU’s Graham Ike is in that last category. His maternal grandfather, Tom Graham, played football at Oregon. In the NFL. And was one of the guiding forces for his grandson’s basketball journey. Oh, and he taught him how to fish.
That’s the impetus for a small change this season on the Gonzaga roster. A change that Theo Lawson explains while chronicling the deep relationship between a man and his daughter’s son.
• Sometimes my memory betrays me these days. It did this week. In a small way.
The San Francisco Giants announced the hiring of a new manager Wednesday. Nothing odd in that, especially for a franchise who expects excellence. Or the Giants.
Anyhow, the guy in charge in San Francisco, former star catcher Buster Posey, decided to think outside the box this time. Or, as Chronicle columnist Scott Ostler put it, outside the warehouse where the boxes are stored.
Posey picked Tony Vitello as the new manager. Not a former player. Not a longtime coach. Not even a minor league hotshot.
Vitello is, or more precisely, was, the head coach at the University of Tennessee. He is now in charge of the second-longest tenured West Coast MLB team. From Knoxville, where he won the 2024 NCAA title and posted a 341-131 record, to the Bay Area without a single moment of professional baseball experience on his resume – but his fingerprints on quite a few MLB players, including a handful of Giants.
It is the first time someone has made the leap from college head coach to MLB manager without some sort of pro background. And that’s where my memory betrayed me. Bobby Winkles popped in my head immediately on hearing yesterday’s news. He went directly from Arizona State to the Angels’ job in 1973.
Didn’t he? No, he didn’t. Turns out Winkles, who I watched manage in Anaheim often, left ASU in 1972. Spent a year on the Angels’ bench. Then was moved up.
Thank goodness for Google or there would have been 17 emails in my inbox by tomorrow morning.
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WSU: The Cougars’ running game is better. Not perfect. Not even great. But improving. Having more of an impact. Becoming a force. Greg Woods explains how that has happened. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, John Canzano emptied his notebook yesterday. He also has coverage of the NBA scandal that is still an unfolding story.
• Here are the rest of the (current, old and future) Pac-12 games this week, listed chronologically. All are on Saturday unless noted. The schedule below also includes any game in which finding news turned out to be nearly impossible.
– California at Virginia Tech (Friday, 4:30 p.m., ESPN): The Bears are the underdog this week, despite their 5-2 record, one win away from bowl eligibility. The host Hokies are 2-5. The odds seem weird. Or very-Cal-like.
– Boise State at Nevada (Friday, 7, CBS Sports): Even though the Wolf Pack has just one win, over an FCS school, they have been known to give the Broncos trouble in Reno before.
– UCLA at Indiana (9 a.m., Fox): A movie reference from the school near to Hollywood? Well, that’s new. Not.
– Utah State at New Mexico (noon, Mountain West Network): If former UNM coach Bronco Mendenhall is to be believed, this game is just like any other. We’re not sure that true for his Aggies or his former players.
– No. 23 Illinois at Washington (12:30 p.m., Big Ten): The Huskies are always trying to build depth on the lines. How have they done?
– San Diego State at Fresno State (12:30, FS1): When these two schools enter the Pac-12 next year, they have a built-in rival. Each other.
– Wisconsin at No. 6 Oregon (4, FS1): Bold predictions for a game that should be a rout? We’re all in.
– Stanford at No. 9 Miami (4, ESPN): Poor Stanford. The Hurricanes are coming off their first loss and seem a little ticked off.
– Colorado State at Wyoming (4:30, CBS Sports): The player who began the season as the Rams’ starting quarterback is no longer with the team. Another shakeup in a season of them.
– Houston at No. 24 Arizona State (5, ESPN2): The Sun Devils’ most-talented player is Jordyn Tyson. The receiver is hurt and will not play Saturday.
– Colorado at Utah (7:15, ESPN): The Buffs have some players returning from injury after the bye week. But more are still out.
• In basketball news, the Mountain West preseason polls will be released today. … Colorado’s men don’t expect to finish in the Big 12 basement again. … Utah expects quite a bit of a jump as well. … Bobby Hurley is in the final year of his contract at Arizona State. … Even I did not know Don Monson almost became the coach at Arizona.
Gonzaga: We mentioned and linked Theo’s story about Ike and his deceased grandfather above. And we link it again here. But that’s not his only story in this morning’s S-R. He also has one on today’s hearing in the Grant-Foster lawsuit. We linked it above and here as well. … In news that seems more normal, Theo has a story on the Zag men’s ranking in the USA Today Coaches Poll released yesterday. They were slotted 20th. … The WCC media day is in Las Vegas today. The coaches’ poll for the women was released early this morning, with Oregon State picked to win and Gonzaga, led by sophomore Allie Turner, in the second spot. There will be more as the day rolls along.
EWU and Idaho: Trevor Thurman has been in Cheney for a long time. It shows. No, not in that he knows the fastest way to get to Zips. In how he’s played this season. Dan Thompson has this story on Eastern’s senior defensive end. … Dan also has this coverage of the men’s and women’s basketball polls released Wednesday. … Elsewhere in the (current and future) Big Sky, Cal Poly is playing better this season, in large part due to defensive improvements. … There is another award nomination for a Montana football player. … It is not sports related, per se, but what is going on at Sacramento State? … We can pass along stories about the basketball preseason polls from Northern Colorado women and men, the same from Montana State and the women and men at Montana.
Preps: West Valley’s soccer team has been a juggernaut offensively. The girls have scored 113 goals this season while yielding none. The key cog in the impressive offense? Senior Jenna Howe, the subject of Dave Nichols’ story this morning. … Cheryl Nichols has the roundup of Wednesday’s action, which includes 4A/3A soccer results.
Indians: Dave returns with a story that mixes the Indians’ front office history with the Mariners’ current staff. See, Tyler Thompson is part of both, having started out selling programs at Avista and now in charge of all the entertainment during games at T-Mobile.
Mariners: Josh Naylor needs to be re-signed. But will he? Discuss among yourselves. I’m in the no-way-the-M’s-spend-the-money camp.
Seahawks: How are the players doing who left Seattle in the offseason? … Russell Wilson finally decided not to turn the other cheek.
Sounders: After last night’s play-in matches, the MLS playoffs are set. Seattle, the fifth seed in the West, has No. 4 Minnesota, while Portland, who knocked off Real Salt Lake on Wednesday, faces top-seed San Diego. If both win, they would meet in the second round.
Storm: The biggest coaching name on the WNBA market has signed elsewhere. Seattle still is looking.
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• A quick, early note. Not going to be here Sunday. Life is intervening. We’ll cover the runup to the Cougars’ home game against Toledo on Saturday (12:30 p.m., The CW Network). But we will have to catch up with the coverage Monday. At least the Seahawks have a bye this week so there is nothing to interfere in that regard. Until later …