Black coaches were ‘low-hanging fruit’ in FBI college hoops case that wrecked careers, then fizzled

By Eddie Pells | The Associated Press Book Richardson, director of the New York Gauchos boy’s basketball program, speaks with his players in the locker room at the Gaucho Gym, Monday, March 11, 2024, in the Bronx borough of New York. (AP Photo/Peter K. Afriyie)NEW YORK (AP) — Book Richardson doesn’t sleep much past 5:30 a.m. anymore.That was around the time seven years ago that FBI agents pounded on his door, barged in, handcuffed him and dragged him away while his 16-year-old son, E.J., looked on helplessly.“Ever since then, everyone looks at me differently,” the former University of Arizona assistant coach told The Associated Press about his arrest,& part of a sting& designed to clean up college basketball. “And I don’t fall back to sleep when I see that time come up on the clock.”He is one of four assistant coaches — along with a group of six agents, their financial backers and shoe company representatives — who were arrested in the 2017 federal probe aimed at rooting out an entrenched system of off-the-books payments to players and their families that, at the time, was against NCAA rules.All four assistants — Richardson, Lamont Evans, Tony Bland and Chuck Person —...