A former Kansas Jayhawk five-star recruit has made allegations about the program, and that they knew about the Adidas payment scandal from 2018.

 

Billy Preston, a former top prospect out of Los Angeles, never played a regular season game for the Jayhawks. He was benched in the first game of his freshman season for missing curfew and skipping class, and was involved in a minor car accident the next day that sparked an NCAA investigation.

 

Preston was suspended indefinitely after allegations that Adidas made payments to his mother, Nicole Player. Preston was on ESPN's 30 for 30 podcast The Bag Game and says that Kansas knew all about the interactions with Adidas.

 

Adidas associate T.J. Gassnola testified in 2018 that he made sure KU's coaching staff was unaware of the payments, but Preston says they were the ones who set it up.

 

Kansas basketball received five Level 1 violations in 2019, the most severe infractions imposed by the NCAA. Both head coach Bill Self and assistant coach Kurtis Townsend were suspended four games each, with the program also issuing self-imposed sanctions.