NCAA president and former Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker made a stand against college sports prop betting on Wednesday, saying in a statement that he wants to see it banned in all states where sports betting is legal.
“This week we will be contacting officials across the country in states that still allow these bets and ask them to join Ohio, Vermont, Maryland and many others and remove college prop bets from all betting markets,” Baker said. “The NCAA is drawing the line on sports betting to protect student-athletes and to protect the integrity of the game – issues across the country these last several days show there is more work to be done.”
Baker’s statement comes in the wake of the NBA’s investigation into Raptors player Jontay Porter, who is the subject of unusual betting activity involving his own prop bets. Those bets allow fans to bet on a player’s individual statistics in a game, like points and rebounds.
In his statement, Baker said that issues with prop betting have led to college and professional athletes getting harassed. On Wednesday at TD Garden, ahead of Thursday’s Sweet 16 matchups, coaches stood with Baker in his call to remove prop betting from college sports.
“I don’t really know what a prop bet is, but social media is vicious,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said. “So anything we can do just to make it less vicious, I would be all for that relative to Charlie Baker.”
Illinois coach Brad Underwood said he supports Baker’s stance to protect the competitive integrity of the sport.
“I think that’s the one thing that we can never jeopardize,” Underwood said. “I would hate to see the day where nobody jumps for the jump ball because of a prop bet. To me the greatness of college athletics is the competitive integrity that we have, and we should be able to keep that.”
Staying silent
Illinois star Terrence Shannon Jr. is one of the hottest players in the country – scoring at least 25 points in his last six games – but he won’t be talking publicly as his Fighting Illini compete for a spot in the Final Four in Boston this week. Shannon Jr., who’s a projected first-round pick in this year’s NBA draft, was charged with one count of rape or an alternative count of sexual battery in December and was suspended by the team indefinitely.
Shannon Jr., who filed a lawsuit challenging the suspension, was cleared to return after missing six games and has been unavailable to the media since. On Tuesday, Illinois issued a statement that Shannon Jr. will remain unavailable “pursuant to the advice of his legal counsel.”
Underwood said he has no issue with it.
“That’s obviously a very serious situation,” Underwood said. “We’re very well aware of that. I think that there’s – I think there’s communication that he has to have with his legal counsel and so on and so forth to be aware of what’s in his best interest and moving forward. We’re going to adhere to that.
“The university has put out their statements on those situations, and we’re going to adhere to all that, and we’re going play basketball and do it to the best of our ability and keep trying to win games.”
A special homecoming
UConn forward Alex Karaban, a Southborough native, isn’t the only player coming home for the East Regional. Iowa State forward Hason Ward, a former star at Springfield Central High School, will be playing his first game at TD Garden and said he’s a handful of friends and family making the trip from Springfield for Thursday night’s game – most notably his aunt.
Ward, a key bench player in his second season with the Cyclones, said this will be the first time his friends and family see him in an Iowa State uniform. Ward started his career at VCU and got to see them in visits to UMass.
“It means a lot because being (at) Iowa State, it’s pretty far so they can’t really get out as much, so that hour and a half away is a no-brainer that they’ll be here,” Ward said. “It feels good to know that my people are going to be here.”
Tip-ins
Hurley had the quote of the day as he discussed his feelings about college basketball’s ongoing transfer portal. The UConn coach doesn’t like how players can enter the transfer portal before the conclusion of the season, nor does he think student-athletes should be allowed to transfer schools multiple times without restrictions.
“I don’t think you should play in five schools in four years or four schools in four years,” Hurley said. “I don’t think that’s healthy for the individual for the long-term 50, 60-year life after their playing career is over because there’s no connection with our university, a coaching staff, a network of alumni that can help create opportunities once basketball is over. …
“I don’t like the window being open right now. I just don’t think it’s healthy for somebody to be able to change schools like underwear.” …
Boston is certainly not a common stop for several schools in this regional, but there was an appreciation for the city’s basketball history.
“All you have to do is look up at the rafters,” Underwood said. “You start looking up through, I don’t know, ’57 or ’59 and all the consecutive world championships and know what this city is about in terms of basketball. Larry Bird and Red Auerbach and Bill Russell, John Havlicek. You go right on down the list, and those are all names that are synonymous with the greats. …
“It’s great that it’s here in Boston, it’s in this iconic building and place, and it coincides with the fact the Celtics are really good again this year, but we’re doing it in the Sweet 16. So really excited about all that.”
