Kansas and Self named in College Basketball Court Case

Happy Tuesday Nova Nation! I’m sure the legal minds among you that read this site daily are probably paying close attention to the court proceedings happening up in New York the past week or so. But even someone like myself who’s just been monitoring from a distance couldn’t help but notice that Kansas and Bill Self were both named as having some degree of knowledge of the “pay to play” situations with some of the Kansas players. Now I’m not going to go more into the court case, I’ll leave that up to the experts. I’m a little more curious as to what these allegations mean for Villanova.

Don’t worry, I’m not talking about any legal complications. But there could be action taken by the NCAA that could effect Kansas, and in a much lesser way Villanova. First it’s important to understand that anything I’m about to bring up won’t likely happen soon. There are still other court cases upcoming as far as a year out, so we may not be hearing from the NCAA until everything in the courtroom is said and done. But once they do get around to it, Kansas may be hit with sanctions that could effect the Wildcats.

First up is the Final Four game this past season in San Antonio. Silvia De Sousa, one of the players named in the court case, played in that game for Kansas. Any win he played in that season could be forfeited, and the records stricken from the NCAA’s books. But don’t worry Nova fans, it turns out Kansas lost to Villanova. Losses are not vacated by NCAA sanctions, so everything about that game would stay in place. Villanova would retain its victory, as well as the statistical records that were set that night.

Next is the home and home series that Villanova and Kansas start this season. It’s unlikely that these proceedings will have any effect on this year’s game, other than to stir up some additional media buzz. However, in a worst case scenario for the JayHawks, it’s possible that they would have to move on from Bill Self before they make the return trip to Philadelphia the following season. While playing Kansas is still a big draw, playing them without their Hall of Fame coach would be a step down, especially if NCAA sanctions impact the caliber of team Kansas is able to put on the court.

And speaking of players, that may be where the most immediate impact is felt. As our own Chris Lane pointed out on twitter, these proceedings could certainly impact how 2019 and 2020 recruits are looking at the JayHawks:

It’s hard to imagine that this news is helping Kansas with recruiting, even if it doesn’t hurt them. Either way, it certainly makes the recruiting of players like Robinson-Earl who were considering both Kansas and Villanova more interesting for the Wildcats. We’ll have to keep a close eye and see how this plays out.

In other “news”, Coach K says something foolish, Ryan Arcidiacono beats out a Kentucky guy for the last spot on the Bulls, and Vegas thinks Nova has a 23.5% shot at the title. Enjoy!

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