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The defense team in the headline-producing college basketball bribery trial took its turn Friday at questioning the former financial adviser whom the government secretly planted within the sport’s underbelly.

One goal of that cross examination apparently was to bring a new question to the forefront: Exactly who was conning who?

The hoops corruption case centers on two defendants — aspiring agent Christian Dawkins and former Adidas employee Merl Code — and their alleged attempt to bribe college coaches in exchange for influence over players who could be lured to a new sports agency.

One of the coaches identified in the case was Creighton assistant Preston Murphy, who was shown on video in court Thursday picking up an envelope of cash and putting it in his pocket during a 2017 hotel room meeting with Dawkins in Las Vegas. It was a $6,000 bribe, according to the indictment.

But on Friday, the defense team referenced a conversation Dawkins and Murphy had during that same 2017 meeting. Dawkins and Murphy were in the room talking with an undercover FBI agent and Marty Blazer, the government informant who was then still acting as a financial adviser.

And they were all talking about a player who didn’t exist.