Calipari reacts: ‘Neither my staff nor I utilized any agent’ to provide benefits to players

Kentucky men’s basketball Coach John Calipari said Friday he has no relationship with the sports agents implicated in the FBI investigation into alleged college basketball corruption after a Yahoo Sports story released earlier in the morning included seized documents naming one of his current and two of his former players.

“I have no relationship with Andy Miller or any of his associates,” Calipari said. “Neither my staff nor I utilized any agent, including Andy Miller or any of his associates, to provide any financial benefits to a current or former Kentucky student-athlete. We will cooperate fully with the appropriate authorities.”

At his normal pre-game press conference Friday, Calipari and UK’s deputy director of athletics DeWayne Peevy said UK had nothing more to add beyond earlier statements made Calipari, president Eli Capilouto and athletics director Mitch Barnhart.

“I know nothing more than you guys know, that’s why there’s no reason for me to speak on it,” Calipari said. “You guys know what I know. ... The statement I made is for me where I stand on this and how I feel about it.”

When asked if he thought the controversy would be a distraction for his players, Calipari said, “I haven’t met with them yet, so I don’t know.”

UK did not make players any available for comment Friday, a break from its normal pre-game routine. Kentucky plays Missouri on Saturday.

In a story released by Yahoo Sports Friday, current Kentucky player Kevin Knox and former players Edrice “Bam” Adebayo and Nerlens Noel were named in court documents and bank records obtained during the federal investigation into college basketball.

This is the first time that Kentucky has been linked to the federal investigation announced last September that implicated a number of assistant coaches and programs, including the University of Louisville.

Knox’s name appears in a list of players and families said to have had dinner or met with sports agent Christian Dawkins. Adebayo and Noel are listed on other documents, including one where they are shown under the heading “Loans to Players.”

The documents list expenditures of former NBA agent Andy Miller, his former associate Dawkins and his agency, ASM Sports, according to Yahoo Sports. They appear to outline potential impermissible benefits and preferential treatment for players and families of players at Duke, North Carolina, Texas, Kentucky, Michigan State, USC, Alabama and a host of other schools, Yahoo Sports reported.

The documents tie some of the biggest names and programs in the sport to activity that appears to violate the NCAA’s amateurism rules, and could cast a pall over the NCAA tournament because of eligibility rules, Yahoo Sports reported.

University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto said that the school will conduct an internal review and cooperate with authorities after a Yahoo Sports report that linked past and current UK basketball players to an FBI investigation into college basketball.

This story was originally published February 23, 2018 at 11:14 AM with the headline "Calipari reacts: ‘Neither my staff nor I utilized any agent’ to provide benefits to players."