Disgraced assistant coach Emanuel ‘Book’ Richardson was sentenced to three months of jail time on Thursday.
The former Arizona assistant coach, who was one of four assistants implicated in the college basketball bribery scandal in 2017, pled guilty to a single federal bribery charge earlier this year.
Richardson is the first college basketball coach to serve prison time for involvement in NCAA violations, according to CBS Sports.
The federal government was seeking a sentence of 18-24 months for the former assistant to Sean Miller, according to the article.
Lead prosecutor Noah Solowiejczyk told presiding judge Edgardo Ramos that Richardson’s conduct deserves the strictest penalty possible, given his association with aspiring athletes, according to CBS Sports.
“The conduct was serious and has serious consequences,” government prosecutor Noah Solowiejczyk said to Judge Ramos, citing the players and prospects whose eligibility was put into jeopardy because of Richardson’s actions. “His job was to look out for them — he was doing the opposite.”
This article appears in Jun 6-12, 2019.
Book was a fall guy, taking the hit for an entire culture of widespread cheating.
This whole circus is a travesty of law enforcement overreach. Many millions of dollars blown on an elaborate undercover operation to entrap college coaches and grandstand on high-profile prosecutions, and yet the defendants are getting probation, or a few months in prison at the most. Gimme a break.