A recording that claims LSU basketball coach Will Wade allegedly offered 300,000 dollars in an effort to recruit LSU forward Naz Reid was featured Monday at a federal trial on NCAA corruption. Tiger Rag assistant editor Tyler Nunez says it’s another recruiting allegation against the 36-year-old coach.
“The more of these stories and recordings that come out, the harder is for him to justify and claim that he is completely innocent in all of this. There’s no other coach that is in the bind that he has put himself in, or these recordings have put himself in.”
The video aired in court is former Arizona assistant Book Richardson, who was reportedly caught on tape saying Wade offered him a job to help with the recruiting of Reid, and quoted Wade as saying “There’s a deal in place, I got 300,000 for him.” Richardson allegedly responded saying “Give me half, and I’ll make sure the kid goes there”.
After being reinstated, Wade agreed to a provision in his contract that would give LSU cause to fire him if he was found in violation of a level one or two NCAA violation. Nunez says this fits the bill, if the allegation is true…
“If he really did have 300,000 dollars waiting for Naz Reid, then it’s pretty much over from there, you can’t really recover from that, if there’s corroborating evidence, which is really the missing piece to all of these allegations.”
Reid was instrumental in helping LSU win an SEC regular season title and a trip to the Sweet 16. Nunez says along with potentially ending Will Wade’s time at LSU, the ongoing trial could reveal just how much illegal money is flowing into basketball recruiting.
“It’s a problem that is kind of endemic of the entire college basketball landscape right now, and it’s a problem that we are going to get see more and more as this trial continues.”
LSU responded, saying “We are continuing to monitor the situation, and will refrain from commenting until further notice.”
