The other day, when word came out that Ohio State had abruptly fired head basketball coach Jim O’Brien, I said that there was more to the story than what had come out so far. The word at the time was that O’Brien had given some money to a desperate recruit, but that the recruit had never actually gone to Ohio State. Sounds bad, but not necessarily something you fire someone over immediately.
Well, there was more to the story.
It turns out the the story involves not only paying that player, Aleksandar Radojevic, over $6,000. It also includes allegations of payments to another player, Slobodan Savovic, forging schoolwork, changing grades and illegal contacts with agents. SI.com has a pretty good rundown of the sordid affair, as does espn.com.
As for the guy they paid, Radojevic, O’Brien’s attorney implied that he didn’t choose to attend Ohio State, so the money was really irrelevant. Well, that’s not exactly accurate. In fact, Radojevic signed with the Buckeyes, but was ruled ineligible by the NCAA for playing pro ball in Yugoslavia. I guess he was playing pro ball in the states too. Radojevic was no slouch, as he was later picked #12 in the NBA draft.
Some of the really interesting parts of the details are how much they tried to hide the money trail. An assistant coach, Paul Biancardi, arranged via some boosters, Dan and Kim Roslovic, to have Savovic taken care of (wink, wink) by a friend of theirs. The money flowed indirectly through the coach to Savovic via the third party, Kathleen Salyers, through different means, including a scheme where she’d write checks at a gas station for way more than the price of her tank and get cash back.
The only reason the whole affair was brought to light is that Salyers claims that the Roslovics didn’t repay her for much of what she spent on Savovic. Salyers sued the Roslovics and the depositions of the various parties included most of these claims.
Side note: my favorite part of the details is where booster Dan Roslovic comes down the stairs of his house to find his wife making out with 18-year-old Savovic. Man, what won’t the boosters do for their schools!
So, it’s a pretty seedy mess. And O’Brien was supposed to be one of the good guys in the sport! (thanks for the link, Yoni) With this and last summer’s Baylor scandal, also from a supposed “good guy,” it really makes you wonder. Who’s clean? Who’s dirty? It’s hard to say. One thing for certain though is that if any of these claims can be substantiated, Ohio State is going to take a beating from the NCAA.
ps. One of the allegations is that agent Marc Cornstein had very close access to the Ohio State team. Well, check out the website for Cornstein’s agency. He has about every player out there whose name ends in “ic.” And Scoonie Penn. Obviously Cornstein is tight with a lot of players from the former Yugoslavia. You may notice also that Ohio State has had quite a few players from that region in recent years. At least four of those players, Savovic, Pavlovic, Slobodan Ocokoljic and Velimir Radinovic are clients of Cornstein. Hmmm.