Breaking news: Scandal involving Iowa State Basketball?? What does Greg McDermott know??

This news is just breaking and just now getting some notice...let's see how far it goes and what it entails and if it's even true, but what's available is already pretty impressive and links a cash-for-recruits scandal directly to Iowa State, previous head coach Greg McDermott, maybe even current head coach Fred Hoiberg, and some other schools as well.

The main players in this scandal are all out of Memphis, Tennessee...

-Cedric McAfee is a talented recruit at Memphis Melrose High School.

-His head coach is Jermaine Johnson.

-William Rhoads is a long time Memphis AAU coach and "player" in the recruiting "game" and is also known as a kingpin-type talent-peddler.

-And Carl Reed is a Memphis area "agent" and middleman who lines up connections and helps funnel certain talented players to certain schools who have "interest".

The evidence comes from certain well known facts and sources...and from the testimony of Mr. William Rhoads...whose words are now made available via audio transcripts and interviews in the links below.
Who really knows how credible this guy is, but his words are quite detailed...but maybe he has an axe to grind. I am making no judgements myself, but given all the rceruiting and agent scandals lately, not one thing in all of this sounds impossible to believe.

I will also quote a few lines of significance...
and here are the main sources and links...
http://thenameisdalton.com/archives/328

http://thebiglead.com/index.php/2010/11/05/recruiting-scandal-auburn-verbal-commitment-cedrick-mcafee/

http://thenameisdalton.com/archives/180#comment-58

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recruiting/player-Cedrick-McAfee-86073

This all centers on an outstanding shooting guard who is out of Melrose High School in Memphis, Tennessee who was highly sought-after...Cedric McAfee.
It was alleged that he was shopping his talents via his own head coach and local "agents", and getting payoffs and/or promises of payoffs, then he verballed to FIU (Isiah Thomas) ...the reneged, and reverbaled to Auburn...

Now there are gobs and gobs of allegations of cheating, money offers and payments, and the whole thing is just now blowing up.

You decide...below are the quotes from the various people involved...but they sure do implicate Iowa State and the coaches there of trying to engineer a deal that would hire Cedric McAfee's head coach as an assistant, then pay the guy enough money to then, in turn, funnel at least $50,000 to the player involved, McAfee.
Other schools and coaches such as FIU, Isiah Thomas, and Auburn also appear linked to this scandal


"According to Rhodes, McAfee has been at the
center of what he describes as an ongoing recruiting
scandal / kickbacks which involves Melrose High
basketball coach, Jermaine Johnson (AKA alleged sex
tape enthusiast), and what seems to be an NBA
agent runner named Carl Reed and a slew of others.
Rhodes says he wanted to go public because he’s
tired of essentially being blackballed in the recruiting
world. He claims that he has only the best interest
for these kids but there is a lot of bad apples out
there ruining it. McAfee seems to be one of the good
kids that didn’t bite on any scandalous baits and
Rhodes also seems to be fighting the good fight. For
the record, according to ESPN, Scout and Rivals,
schools that were said to be recruiting McAffee are
as follows: Auburn, Baylor, FIU, Arkansas, Cincinnati,
Miami, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South
Carolina, Iowa State."

William Rhodes, the AAU coach, is adamant that he
has never been involved in any wrong doing and that
he’s doing this because he’s tired of the state of the
recruiting process. And there is nothing showing that
McAfee did any wrong going. These are the
allegations of what one good kid endured throughout
his recruitment.

This first tape goes into how Rhodes initially felt
when McAfee committed to Florida International.
McAfee eventually de-committed and then ultimately
committed to Auburn.

According to Rhodes, no one from Florida
International ever saw McAfee play on the summer
AAU team. So how did FIU end up in McAfee’s
recruitment? It comes down to two guys: Jermaine
Johnson who is the basketball coach at Melrose High
School (where McAfee plays) and a guy named Carl
Reed, who Rhodes describes as a runner for an up
and coming NBA agent.

Here is where Rhodes essentially says that if Carl
Reed is involved, a deal likely exist for Johnson
whereas he can coach at the college level, pending
that Mcafee ends up at the college of Johnson
persuasion (FIU).

Rhodes now clearly states that he wants this story
to be made public because he’s sick of the current
state recruiting; he’s just trying to do what’s best for
his kids. Rhodes now alleges that Reed has been
contacting him to create deals for McAfee’s
recruitment, deals that included Johnson.

Ok, in the next two, Rhodes alleges that schools from
the Big 10, Big 12 and SEC have all actively sought
to create deals for McAfee’s recruitment. Translation:
they wanted to funnel money through Jermaine
Johnson and Carl Reed, down to Rhodes. Again, listed
above are the schools that ESPN, Scout and Rivals
claim were recruiting him at the time. Again, Rhodes
is adamant that he never accepted anything for
McAfee.

According to Rhodes, he’s now an outcast because
he’s unwilling to “play ball” with Reed and now he
brings shoe companies into the mix. Basically, if Reed
and others aren’t getting paid, they blackball you and
the kids aren’t recruited (which further hurts Rhodes
and the kids). The shoe companies come in as they
are often the main source of sponsorship for AAU
teams and High School teams. Basically, if your kids
are being recruited and use Jermaine Johnson and
Carl Reed as mentors, according to Rhodes, they are
in good hands.

Here he discussses what a runner is (for an agent).
Obviously, some people might not be familiar with
what an agent “runner” is. So let the festivities and
purity begin.

Lastly, there is some good in this story, bookmarked
by a whole lot more dirt. Rhodes spent time
discussing how Jermaine Johnson was vying for an
college coaching job by funneling McAfee to one of
the alleged schools. The good is that Josh Pastner,
head coach of the Memphis Tigers, apparently
declined to play the game. But Reed pursued Rhodes
to help Jermaine Johnson (remember, coaching job in
the works and it sounds like cash deals) so that he
could help that recruiting process, but Rhodes
declined."

"Cedrick McAfee is a combo guard out of Melrose High
School in Memphis being recruited by a slew of D-1
programs. He’s currently verbally committed to
Auburn, but Baylor, FIU, Arkansas, Cincinnati, Miami,
Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Iowa
State are also in the mix.

Rhodes alleges that schools from the Big 10, Big 12
and SEC have all actively sought to create deals for
McAfee’s recruitment. Translation: they wanted to
funnel money through Jermaine Johnson and Carl
Reed, down to Rhodes.

According to Rhodes, he’s now an outcast because
he’s unwilling to “play ball” with Reed and now he
brings shoe companies into the mix. Basically, if Reed
and others aren’t getting paid, they blackball you and
the kids aren’t recruited (which further hurts Rhodes
and the kids). The shoe companies come in as they
are often the main source of sponsorship for AAU
teams and High School teams. Basically, if your kids
are being recruited and use Jermaine Jones and Carl
Reed as mentors, according to Rhodes, they are in
good hands.

"We also got a tip updating us on Jermaine Johnson.
He is, according to a source, currently under
investigation by the Tennessee State Athletic
Association and the MIAA for illegally recruiting two
players by the names of Willie Atwood and Joseph
Northington. This source claims that Johnson put the
two players into a living arrangement at an
apartment complex without supervision in hopes that
it would suffice in clearing them on their move to
Melrose. The things you get in e-mail can get pretty
interesting with these types of stories."


Now -- the latest part that links Iowa State and possibly Greg McDermott or Fred Hoiberg to this whole recruiting scandal...


"UPDATE: Allegations that Iowa State offer $25k for
Cedrick McAfee.

Isiah Thomas, the head coach at FIU, was the first
coach that Rhodes spoke about regarding his player’s
recruitment process where Rhodes details how Isiah
Thomas and others appeared to be up to no good
(NCAA violations if true). How did FIU just randomely
showed up to recruit McAfee one day? According to
Rhodes in the audio I released Friday, Thomas,
Jermaine Johnson and Carl Reed magically appeared
at McAfee’s house one day. Rhodes claims that no
one from the FIU coaching staff, including Thomas,
spent a minute watching McAfee during the July
evaluation period this past summer. So why would
Thomas, Johnson and Reed meet at McAfee’s house
earlier this fall? Rhodes feels that it was just another
attempt to make a deal between Johnson, Reed and
a school.

Now Add Iowa State to the list. If you thought
sports recruiting was a dirty business, if you believe
Rhodes, you now know it is.

In this latest audio from Rhodes, he alleges that Iowa
State offered him $25k through Jermaine Johnson for
Cedrick McAfee’s recruitment. The alleged structured
deal would give Johnson a job with the Cyclones.

According to Rhodes – Jermaine Johnson pitched him
on how he would get money from Iowa State. Rhodes
says that Johnson told him that by Ced McAfee
attending ISU, Johnson would then get hired onto the
ISU coaching staff at a salary of 100k. Johnson then
said that 50k of that salary would funnel down to
Rhodes for helping get McAfee to ISU. Rhodes adds
that shortly after that conversation, Johnson calls
Rhodes again to let him know that Rhodes will get 25K
once McAfee and Johnson are at Iowa State.

Rhodes says in the audio clip that he isn’t going to
push McAfee, or any of his kids, to a school that the
player doesn’t want to attend. In this case – McAfee
wasn’t interested in ISU.

In audio part 6 of the original article, Rhodes explains
schools from the Big 12, Big 10 and SEC were
allegedly putting money on the table for McAfee. It
would now seem that Rhodes confused Iowa State as
being a Big Ten school. I remind you that Rhodes
talks about Carl Reed (NBA agent runner) having a
deal with a Big 12 school. According to various
recruiting services, the only two Big 12 schools
outside of Iowa State recruiting McAfee was Missouri
and Baylor. Interesting? Who is Carl Reed connected
to in the Big 12?

A little update on Carl Reed. Reed seems to be a
proprietor of a business called Reed Athletic
Management. Check them out.

Rhodes is clearly suggesting that Melrose coach
Jermaine Johnson was pitching himself to schools and
that he will bring McAfee with him. Was it to the
highest bidder? The problem that Johnson and Reed
ran into was that Rhodes wasn’t willing to play along,
which angered Johnson and Reed.

In a previous audio clip ...Rhodes talks about
Johnson’s attempts to get a job on a college
coaching staff – and adds that Tennessee and
Arkansas seemed like likely candidates because of
the relationships Johnson has with those staffs.

Last week, much of the focus seemed to revolve
around Auburn University in light of the Cam Newton
debacle, but maybe it shouldn’t? What I find
interesting is Isiah Thomas suddenly wanting to skip
town and go back to the Knicks. Why? Is there more
to his story? Did he offer McAfee cash?

The major issue in all of this is that if guys such as
William Rhodes are trying to do what’s right by the
kids and their respective futures, how can they when
guys like Reed, Johnson and potentially Isiah Thomas
are allegedly dirtying up the process for their own
gains? Nothing is proven, but its something to think
about."


So, is this enough for the NCAA to get interested?? Who knows -- surely if a mid-major is involved they would -- but they did get involved at several other schools recently like USC, North Carolina (football), and Tennessee for recruiting scandals....I guess time will tell..
but from the standpoint of MVC fans, you have to wonder just how much of this is true, how much of this is tied to Greg McDermott when he was at Iowa State, and what does he know about this....it'll be interesting!