A talkative snitch shows us how profitable college hoops can be

It’s almost like an episode of “Law & Order,” a guy gets pinched and he starts singing like a canary.  That’s what happened with Lawrence, KS real estate developer Dave Freeman back in April.  After pleading guilty to a bribery charge he decided he’d let the authorities in on another operation he was a part of: a ticket scalping ring involving the University of Kansas.  And his story is enlightening to say the least.

According to Freeman, the trio of himself, KU director of ticket operations Rodney Jones and influential alum Roger Morningstar (father of Jayhawk guard Brady Morningstar) cashed in on a scheme that was orchestrated by the Pump brothers, Dana and David.

You may or may not have heard of the Pump twins.  They’re the kind of slimeballs that thrive below college basketball’s dark underbelly, sort of like mildew.  They started Double Pump Basketball, an outfit that organizes tournaments for teams on the AAU circuit as well as camps for individual players.  It should be of little surprise that they were groomed by the slimiest of slimeballs, Sonny Vaccaro.

Over the years, a lot of high profile players have cut their teeth on Double Pump’s “elite” travel teams, with Gilbert Arenas, Steve Blake, Mike Dunleavy, Paul Pierce and Mario Chalmers being a few.  This system affords the Pumps a prime position by which they can advise blue chippers as to what their college choices should be.

The brothers, who are backed by Adidas, make a nice amount of scratch off their tournaments.  Just one of their events might feature close to 200 teams that pay close to $1,000 each to participate. But that revenue stream pales in comparison to what they were making in the scalping business, and Freeman’s new willingness to talk shows how profitable it was:

Freeman said the scalping continued through the ensuing 2002 NCAA tournament. He said the dollar amounts and tickets grew exponentially at the Final Four in Atlanta that year, with the sale of “books” of tickets. Books included one ticket for each semifinal game, and one ticket for the national championship.

Shortly after arriving at that Final Four, Freeman said he was summoned to the team hotel by Jones, who handed him 20 books of tickets. Freeman said he took the tickets to a buyer, who paid him $3,000 per book – or $60,000 total. Later that evening, Freeman said Jones called him again and told him he had obtained another 20 books.

“He said ‘Come get ‘em,’” Freeman said.

Freeman said that once Kansas lost to Maryland in the semifinal game, they were awash with tickets for the national championship, as hundreds of Kansas alumni were looking to get rid of their title game seats. He said Jones contacted him and told him he had more tickets to move before the national championship. The going rate: $1,500 each. Freeman said he delivered the tickets to buyers staying at the Hilton, the Hyatt and another hotel in downtown Atlanta.

“There was a ton of them,” Freeman said of the tickets. “We made a half-million dollars [that weekend]. I got on the MARTA with $200,000 in each pocket. It was all in one-hundred dollar bills. Every $10,000 had a paper clip and they were rolled up.

“I met Rodney at the service door behind the Marriott in Buckhead. I counted out [his share] right there: 200 grand.” (Yahoo! Sports)

Mind you, the Pumps have never denied they were in the ticket reselling racket and back in 2005 they told CBSSports.com’s Gregg Doyle that they no longer dealt with Final Four tickets.  Their reason for abandoning the practice was because they had kick-started a new venture: ChampSearch.  Here’s how it’s explained on their own web site:

ChampSearch specializes in intercollegiate athletic searches for athletic directors and men’s and women’s basketball coaching positions. Dana Pump, President of Basketball Operations for ChampSearch, organized the company in 2004. Dana’s relationships with athletic directors and coaches at all levels in the collegiate world are invaluable in providing viable candidates to fill vacant positions. (DoublePump.com)

So a couple of shady characters who wield an inordinate amount of influence over high school recruits now help college programs find their coaches, coaches who will then owe something to the Pump twins.  Nah, there couldn’t be the possibility of any funny business going on there, not by a long shot.  They would NEVER consider steering a recruit to a coach they recommended to a school.

I really need to stumble onto a racket where I can work all ends like this.  There doesn’t seem to be any aspect of the sport of college basketball that the Pump brothers can’t cash in on.  Hell, at this point, I’m wondering if they sold Auburn the bricks to build that school’s new arena.