As the Miami scandal unfolds, a couple of themes have emerged. One which is worth considering is this: can you trust what Nevin Shapiro says about anything? Charles Robinson, who put together the Yahoo exposé, said this about that:
To answer your question, no, there was never anything that Nevin Shapiro told us that we identified as a lie. As weâve told anyone who has asked, he named well over 100 players in our talks, and we trimmed the list to 72 because there were players who we could not get a corroborating piece of information on. So this idea that we just took Nevin Shapiroâs word as gospel is pure fiction. As for the holes that people are attempting to poke in the story, we feel absolutely solid on everything we have reported. The fact is, neither Dan Le Batard nor a fan blog is privy to all the aspects of our reporting. They donât know who our sources are, they donât know who we are protecting, and they have no idea what the content of all of our interviews exposed. Weâre fine with criticism and questions. We endured both when we printed our stories on USC, Ohio State, North Carolina, Uconn and others. And each time, it was proven that we were correct in our reporting. We donât feel any less confident with our Miami coverage.
Time will tell of course.
Being Miami, the overwhelming emphasis is on the football program, with one troubling allegation about the basketball program, which is that the coaching staff, led by Frank Haith, organized a payment of $10,000 to secure DeQuan Jones's commitment.
A couple of things bother us about this.
First of all, inflation. Keith Lee famously got $20,000 in a shoebox - in the '80s. Is it possible to really get a player at an ACC school for just $10,000? Weren't there other bidders? We don't know what Robinson has in this regard either, but it seems awfully cheap and convenient.
Second, unlike a lot of this investigation, there's no paper trail.
Third, prior to this, not that we're in any elevated circles or anything, but we never heard anything to suggest that Haith was corrupt. Generally speaking, he's had a good reputation.
And fourth, whatever the truth is, he can't defend himself.
- Nevin Shapiro Spoke to Prospective Coaches for Miami. Claims He Wasnât On Their Radar Look Increasingly Less Credible.
- Reporter's surreal journey
- Unscrupulous activity: There's no denying it
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