Don’t forget: Zion’s dad is on an FBI wiretap soliciting extra benefits

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This is not true.

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Favorite Team: Duke

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Hey," said Code, according to his attorney, Mark Moore. "Between me and you, you know, he asked about some stuff. You know?" Who is "he?" Zion Williamson's father, per Moore's courtroom account. "I know what he's asking for," Code continued. "He's asking for opportunities from an occupational perspective, he's asking for cash in the pocket and he's asking for housing for him and his family."

If this was to follow the basics that played out over the past 2½ weeks here as the underground economy of college athletics was laid bare in a federal fraud trial, that meant a job (lucrative with little to no work), a lot of cash (six figures, minimum) and an apartment or house (rent-free, of course). If you've seen Zion play, you'd know that isn't a bad deal. Which might be why Townsend sounded unfazed. "I've got to just try to work and figure out a way because if that's what it takes to get him here for 10 months, we're going to have to do it some way," Townsend said.

Code's message to Townsend isn't a clean look for Williamson's family, nor are these calls something that can quickly be explained away by the coaches caught on wiretap. So the big matter here, as it pertains to the schools, is what the NCAA thinks of this and what it ultimately decides to do.

And if it's to take information corroborated, or even strongly alleged, within the esteemed halls of federal court and apply it to its own investigations, then many of the most important programs in college basketball stand to face inquiry. (Let's all agree that it would be poor PR strategy for the NCAA to cherrypick which schools to investigate and which to not.)

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