NEW YORK — Assistant U.S. Attorney Ted Diskant was arguing in front of Judge Lewis A. Kaplan that the three men Diskant convicted back in October of defrauding universities by paying college basketball recruits deserved no leniency here at their sentencing.

Part of the argument was that the impact of the crimes went beyond tangible monetary value, such as the lost scholarship when a player they paid became ineligible. Diskant pointed to Louisville, one defrauded school, and how the university was in the process of trying to build a reputation as "much more than a basketball team."

"Yet it became involved in a basketball scandal," Diskant said.

Judge Kaplan couldn't help but interject, cutting Diskant off.

"They were involved in some problems before," Kaplan noted of the historically scandal-plagued Louisville program.

Diskant had to agree. Facts are facts, after all. Louisville was, indeed, already on NCAA probation and had been stripped of its most recent national championship before Jim Gatto, Merl Code and Christian Dawkins decided to kick some money to the father of Brian Bowen II so the top-30 recruit would play for the Cardinals.

Prior scandals included prostitute-powered parties in the basketball dorm and tabloid personal foibles of Rick Pitino, the school's longtime coach.

Thinking quickly, Diskant noted that even prior mistakes didn't merit being "re-victimized." It was a fair enough point. It also appeared to carry no weight with Kaplan.

Moments later, the judge all but tossed the federal sentencing guidelines out the 21st-floor window of the Daniel Patrick Moynihan federal courthouse and decided to make it clear what he thought about this entire case.

James Gatto, Merl Code and Christian Dawkins were all given lenient sentences in the first of three trials on corruption in college basketball. (AP file photo) More

Gatto, a 48-year-old Adidas executive, was facing a recommended 46 to 57 months in prison. Instead, he got nine months.

Dawkins, a 26-year-old basketball middleman, and Code, a 45-year-old Adidas consultant, were staring at 30 to 37 months. They got six.

Kaplan then afforded them the courtesy of choosing their prison, namely whatever minimum-security federal camp was closest to their homes. How's a few months in Club Fed for you? Not that any of them are due to report until after they exhaust appeals, which could take years. It's not out of the question that the Federal Bureau of Prisons just gives them house arrest. Anything is possible.

Simply put, sentencing day couldn't have gone much better for the convicts.

"It's a fair sentence," said Dawkins’ attorney Steve Haney. "It's a lenient sentence."

As much as Kaplan wanted to take this seriously, as often as he noted that they were clearly guilty and knew what they were doing was wrong and just saying that everyone else does it also isn't a real defense ... well, this is still college basketball. Here at the Southern District of New York, cases are routinely about insider trading, drug-trafficking and terrorism.

It felt like he just couldn't work up the outrage. Louisville as the victim of Adidas, which pays the school $160 million to outfit its athletes?

"You have not seen Louisville or any of the other schools try to get out of its contract with Adidas," said Code's attorney Mark Moore, questioning just how upset everyone really is.

Kaplan said he felt obligated to give Gatto and company some prison time as a deterrent to others — "a great big warning light to the basketball world." That was pretty much the only reason, though. It almost sounded like he wanted to just hand out probation and move on.

The short sentences didn't just take the air out of the government's convictions in a case that began 18 months ago with bold talk and the promise of significant punishments. It sets the stage for the second trial in April, where Dawkins and Code are charged with bribing college assistant coaches to steer top NBA prospects to them for future representation.

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