Eastern Michigan Basketball Players Investigated By NCAA Denied Interview Requests

Three players were under investigation for their part in a gambling probe

Three players involved in a college basketball betting scandal did little to help themselves as they were being investigated.

In August, OutKick’s Trey Wallace reported on an ongoing federal investigation that looked into a point-shaving probe in college basketball that involved schools like Eastern Michigan, Temple, and Fresno State.

Just over a month after that initial report, Wallace again wrote for the site that the NCAA acknowledged that it was investigating 13 athletes at six different schools that were related to this scandal.

With a scandal of this magnitude, you would think that all the student athletes investigated would cooperate to the utmost with the authorities. 

But that’s not the case.

Chris Vannini, a writer with The Athletic, tweeted a report from the NCAA, in which the organization requested to interview three Eastern Michigan students, who were in their final year of eligibility. The players, who remained anonymous, had their phones imaged and then received numerous requests to interview with the investigators. 

However, they denied every request and even asked authorities to destroy the evidence they had gathered.

“On March 17, 10 days after the school’s basketball season concluded, the student-athletes’ counsel notified NCAA enforcement staff that the student-athletes would not participate in the process and instructed the vendor to destroy the images,” the NCAA News website wrote.

That’s obviously not a good look. What becomes of these students remains unclear, as this case is far from over.