College Basketball Hit by Major Point Shaving Scandal

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00:00I hate to see this, though, in college sports, specifically college basketball with allegedly

00:08a player shaving points on a major university.

00:12I thought we were going to get through the end of the year without one of these, but

00:15here we are.

00:16Yeah, just a couple of weeks into the college basketball season already with the first major

00:23scandal you've seen really in college sports in terms of sports betting, you have the former

00:29Temple basketball player, Highshear Miller, allegedly under federal investigation for

00:34an alleged point shaving scandal that took place last year.

00:37ESPN broke this story yesterday that the feds are apparently investigating whether Miller

00:42bet on his own games and manipulated the outcome of multiple games he participated in.

00:48Miller was the leading scorer on Temple last year, but he transferred to Virginia Tech

00:53in the offseason and was actually suspended before the season even started, hadn't played

00:57a game for the Hokies because of this investigation.

01:01They said it was something that happened before he was at our university.

01:04It actually leaves Virginia Tech pretty thin at point guard as the college basketball season

01:09really hits its full stride.

01:11This was, according to the ESPN story, this was first kind of alerted.

01:15This company called U.S. Integrity, which is this firm that exists exactly for this

01:20reason to monitor suspicious betting activity, works with the sportsbooks.

01:24They were alerted by several sportsbooks last year.

01:28There was a game against UAB in which the line moved from a Temple minus two to Temple

01:33minus eight in like just a few hours before it tip off, which is really kind of suspicious.

01:38Usually a line doesn't move by that much in college basketball unless there's huge injury

01:42news or a huge suspension that comes down.

01:45That didn't happen with that game, so a lot of sportsbooks stopped taking money on the

01:48game altogether.

01:49UAB won big 100 to 72, and Miller finished with eight points on three of nine shooting

01:55with three turnovers.

01:57The next day, Temple released a statement saying it's now reviewing suspicious betting

02:01patterns, suspicious betting activity.

02:03Temple's president came out yesterday and sent a post to the letter addressing students

02:08and faculty, acknowledging the situation, acknowledging pretty much there's something

02:12going on.

02:13It involves a guy who's no longer at the school.

02:17And this investigation goes bigger than just the UAB game, according to all the reporting,

02:22though.

02:23One of the letters he placed these big bets on UAB in that game last year reportedly had

02:27been placing bets against Temple all season, mostly the first half spread, mostly the first

02:34half total.

02:35Smaller things than just a big point spread, things that maybe you can manipulate easier

02:41in college basketball.

02:42That's why you have the history of point shaving, where let's win, but let's not try to win

02:46by too much, or let's make sure we don't lose by a certain amount.

02:50And to your point, Greg, this is the first major investigation we've had in a couple

02:54of months in the sports world.

02:56You had Jonte Porter was just banned from the NBA for life for admitting to manipulating

03:02games.

03:03Last year or earlier this year, actually, you had Iowa and Iowa State baseball teams

03:07involved in sports betting scandals.

03:09So this is kind of becoming commonplace in the industry, catching these things.

03:13It's no longer the earth shattering thing we were talking about back when Calvin Ridley

03:17was getting suspended.

03:18People just kill gambling altogether.

03:21But it's sad to see it pop up, especially in college sports when you're talking about,

03:25you know, essentially kids here.

03:27So I'd love to see more of what comes, but definitely not over in terms of the investigation.

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