Michigan State Basketball: Dwayne Stephens’ statement clears the air
Panic surrounding the Michigan State basketball program has subsided on Saturday. Dwayne Stephens’ statement should clear the air even more.
Dwayne Stephens has been a loyal assistant coach of Tom Izzo’s for the past 14 years at Michigan State. However, the former player turned associate head coach was under fire late Friday evening after his name surfaced in email records in the midst of an FBI ‘pay-for-play’ investigation into college basketball’s darkest secrets.
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The report by Yahoo! Sports came later on Friday night after the original story outlined players and family members who received money from Christian Dawkins, an agent’s runner.
It showed some underground emails by Dawkins who named Stephens specifically in one. It stated that he was willing to send Brian Bowen, a five-star recruit, to Michigan State as long as Miles Bridges and Gary Harris signed with ASM, Andy Miller’s agency firm for which he worked.
The email read:
"“Dwayne Stephens – Trying to close the deal on Brian Bowen for Michigan State. Trying to do a trade deal for (Spartans) Gary Harris, Miles Bridges, etc”"
Obviously that stirred up controversy and caused panic around the fan base. This looked as bad as anything in the documents released on Friday, but it showed a one-way negotiation. It never said Stephens was willing to play ball. Moreover, Harris never signed with ASM, Bridges didn’t go pro and Bowen ended up at Louisville.
Stephens cleared the air on Saturday afternoon with a statement:
MSU Associate Head Coach Dwayne Stephens:
— David Harns (@DavidHarns) February 24, 2018
“Throughout my career as a college basketball coach, I’ve been committed to following all NCAA rules, including during the recruiting process. Any insinuation to the contrary is false. I’m confident that I have not committed a violation."
If this doesn’t clear the air, I’m not sure what will. Stephens was direct and to the point, leaving no room for speculation. Essentially, he’s saying that the Dawkins report is false and he never negotiated that type of deal.
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Right now, Michigan State deserves the benefit of the doubt as nothing concrete has come out and the NCAA has cleared Bridges to play on Sunday against Wisconsin.