College basketball is attempting to regain its footing from last week’s federal probe that resulted in the arrest of 10 men, including sneaker executives, an AAU coach, sports agents, financial planners and four assistant coaches from major programs. There are almost universal calls for discussion and reform, as many publicly acknowledge the long-standing reality of the sport.

“We’ve had this underworld as part of the fabric [of college basketball] for a long, long time,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey told the Indianapolis Star. “A long, long time.”

Yet not everyone appears to agree. University of Connecticut president Susan Herbst said “nothing like that” could occur at her school. And North Carolina coach Roy Williams told ESPN the scandal “was just a shock to me.”

“They’ve never helped me get any player, never insinuated, never done anything,” Williams said of his relationship with Nike. Williams built a Hall of Fame career coaching at Nike schools Kansas (1988-2003) and UNC (2003-present). “We never even discuss things like that. So I know it’s foreign to me.”

View photos Roy Williams, center, says college basketball’s sneaker underworld is “foreign to me.” (AP) More

In Kansas City, where 17 years ago federal prosecutors gained a guilty plea from AAU coach Myron Piggie in a scandal that involved top recruits, Nike, sports agents and a prominent University of Kansas booster, the U.S. Attorney who handled the case wonders how anyone could doubt history is repeating itself.

“No person that close to the events in 1999 could or should miss the significance of that investigation and the relevancy to today,” said Stephen L. Hill, now a partner at the Kansas City branch of the global law firm Dentons.

“Our April of 2000 indictment outlining the conspiracy laid out everything in detail and was closely covered by local and national media,” Hill told Yahoo Sports. “Mr. Piggie’s May of 2000 guilty plea was also well covered and documented the scheme. I can’t imagine any coach not following those events closely.”

Or, as Piggie put it on Tuesday when he heard of Williams’ quotes:

“Well, that’s [expletive],” Piggie told Yahoo Sports. “I mean, come on. Come on. You know Roy knew. He was in the mix. He knew what was going on. Roy’s got amnesia.”

When asked by Yahoo Sports for clarification, UNC spokesman Steve Kirschner said the “shock” Williams expressed came from the explosive nature of the story. “He was shocked that last Tuesday he came to work and heard about FBI informants and wiretaps and coaches getting arrested,” Kirschner said. “It was out of the blue that this story came out. I think that’s the shock we all had. Unless you had knowledge of the FBI investigation, I’d say last Tuesday shocked everyone.”

In 2000, Piggie pleaded guilty to a federal felony charge of mail and wire fraud after running the Children’s Mercy Hospital 76ers, a powerhouse AAU team full of some of the best players in the Midwest. Nike, a Kansas booster and multiple sports agents funded the operation. The feds said Piggie funneled $35,500 to his players, which included top recruits JaRon and Kareem Rush, Corey Maggette and Korleone Young.

“Piggie admitted that he used his players to obtain a total of $420,401 from various sources, including $184,435 in salary and team sponsorship money from Kansas City area booster Tom Grant, $159,866 from the Nike Corporation and $76,100 from sports agents Jerome Stanley and Kevin Poston,” the feds said when announcing the plea deal.

Piggie said prosecutors offered him probation if, as part of his guilty plea, he would name names in college basketball and extend the investigation to the programs involved with his heavily recruited players.

A tough-minded former drug dealer, Piggie, then 39, refused to cooperate. He instead served 37 months in federal prisons in Kansas and Arkansas to maintain what he deemed his self-respect by not snitching, even if it was just on college athletics.

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