BATON ROUGE — When Virginia Commonwealth basketball coach Will Wade was being courted by LSU after the 2016-17 season, a national basketball observer on the East Coast warned that wherever Wade lands, recruiting investigations will follow.
Wade was hired by LSU on March 20, 2017, and for the second time over the last eight months, his name has surfaced as part of an investigation into recruiting.
On Tuesday, Wade's name was linked to possible offers of improper benefits to an elite high school prospect — 7-foot center Balsa Koprivica of Orlando, Florida — by Adidas shoe company defense attorney Casey Donnelly in the ongoing federal college basketball corruption trial in New York City.
Koprivica, who is a senior at Montverde Academy in Orlando, Florida, is the No. 15 center in the nation and No. 67 overall prospect by Rivals.com for the Class of 2019. LSU is among his top possible schools along with Florida State, Illinois, Arizona, Kansas and Georgia Tech, among others.
Donnelly and other attorneys are representing Adidas global marketing executive Jim Gatto, NBA agent assistant Christian Dawkins and former Clemson basketball player and Adidas affiliate Merl Code Jr., who have been charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to funnel money from Adidas to elite recruits.
The United States government says money was funneled to get the highly ranked prospects to attend Adidas-sponsored basketball teams at Kansas, Louisville, Miami and North Carolina State. Closing arguments in the seven-day trial are scheduled for this afternoon.
Donnelly on Tuesday read in court part of a transcript from a phone call between Wade, who was a Clemson assistant from 2005-07, and Dawkins between June 19 and Sept. 15 of 2017, which is the period that the FBI was monitoring a Dawkins' cellular phone.
"So you said to me in Atlanta there was a 2019 kid you wanted to recruit who they can get to LSU, and you would have funded," Dawkins told Wade, according to the transcript Donnelly read.
"Oh, the big kid?" Wade asked, according to Donnelly.
"Yeah," Dawkins answered.
"OK, but there's other (expletive deleted) involved in it," Donnelly said Wade said. "I have got to shut my door. Here's my thing: I can get you what you need, but it's got to work."
On June 21, 2017, the following tweet, "Blessed to say, I have received an offer from LSU," appeared on Koprivica's Twitter.
"This phone call is evidence that Division I coaches do make these offers to Christian (Dawkins)," Donnelly said in court.
U.S. District Court Judge Lewis A. Kaplan denied Donnelly's request that the cellular phone call text be entered as evidence, and the jury was not allowed to listen to it.
Wade was asked about his phone call with Dawkins surfacing in the hearing Tuesday while he was at the Southeastern Conference Media Days in Birmingham, Alabama, on Wednesday afternoon on the Paul Finebaum television show.
"Certainly, I don't want to react to what a defense attorney said yesterday," Wade said. "I get it. And I understand the judge didn't let it in, but what I will say is that I'm very proud of everything I've done as the LSU basketball coach. And I have never, ever done any business of any kind with Christian Dawkins."
Last February, a story by Yahoo Sports said the NCAA had started a preliminary investigation into Wade's recruiting while he was Virginia Commonwealth's coach 2015-17.
"Members of the NCAA enforcement staff have spent parts of the past six months (September 2017-February 2018) looking into the recruiting tactics of LSU coach Will Wade, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the situation," the Yahoo Sports story said. "Wade's early recruiting activity at LSU prompted the NCAA enforcement interest."
In just a few months on the job in 2017, Wade landed the No. 17 recruiting class in the nation by 247 Sports, including No. 10 point guard in the nation Tremont Waters of West Haven, Connecticut, who had been Georgetown bound until Coach John Thompson was fired.
Wade also signed No. 3 junior college prospect Daryl Edwards of Northwest Florida State and No. 42 power forward Mayan Kiir of Bradenton, Florida, who each began being recruited by Wade when he was at VCU. Kiir was kicked off the team last season and transferred to South Florida.
"Wade has cast a national recruiting net and had a spree of success landing blue-chip recruits out of Connecticut and Florida shortly after getting hired in Baton Rouge," the Yahoo Sports story said.
Wade, who had a better first season than expected in 2017-18 at 18-15 and 8-10, followed his first class with the No. 3 class in the nation in 2018 for the 2018-19 season. That includes the nation's No. 2 center and No. 21 overall prospect in 6-10 Nazreon Reid of Asbury Park, New Jersey, and the No. 4 power forward and No. 23 overall prospect in 6-6 Emmitt Washington of Orlando, Florida.
The NCAA has historically taken cursory looks at programs that have a sudden influx of top recruiting classes, and Yahoo's story in February did include a disclaimer.
"It's unlikely the NCAA probe of LSU and Wade intersects with the ongoing federal investigation into basketball corruption," the story said. "That federal investigation has featured multiple links to the LSU program (former players Tim Quarterman and Jarell Martin pre-Wade), though none of those known links are currently associated with Wade's tenure at the school."
Until now.
