Controversy isn’t uncommon in American sports so it comes as no surprise to have controversial players in colleges. Some players managed to overcome these controversies, while some had their lives ruined or derailed. Here are 10 of the most controversial players in college basketball history.
Who Are the Most Controversial Men’s College Basketball Players of All Time?
Carlton Dotson
Scandals, price fixing, and academic fraud are the most common controversies in college basketball, but Dotson committed an actual crime and went to prison for it.
Dotson, a forward at Baylor University, was practicing firearms with Patrick Dennehy, his teammate. The pair got into an argument,t which ended when Dotson shot and killed Dennehy. Dennehy was declared missing for a month. His truck was found at a mall in Virginia with its license plates removed.
Dotson confessed to the killing and was taken into custody, and four days after his arrest, a body was found in advanced decomposition at a gravel pit near Waco. The body, later identified as Dennehy’s, was found decapitated.
Dotson pleaded guilty to Dennehy’s murder two days before the trial. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison. The saddening part of the story was Baylor’s head coach, Dave Bliss, smearing Dennehy’s character by labeling him a drug dealer.
Sherman White
In 1951, Sherman White was named National Player of the Year by The Sporting News. White was arrested the next day in connection to a point-shaving scandal. White was leading the nation in points per game, averaging nearly 28 points per game, and was only 77 points shy of the NCAA single-season scoring record when he was arrested.
Three of White’s teammates at Long Island University were already shaving points for gambler and jeweler Salvatore Sollazzo. White joined the scheme at the end of his junior season and was a full participant during his senior season in 1950/51.
White handed back an envelope containing nearly all the money he had made, approximately $5,500 when he was arrested. White was sent to Rikers Island for nine months and was subsequently banned from the NBA, missing out on a $13,000 contract with the New York Knicks.
John “Hot Rod” Williams
Williams nearly jeopardized his NBA future when he was caught up in a point-shaving scandal. Williams was a dominant player in all his four years at Tulane. He averaged 16 points and seven rebounds throughout his college career, and he won the Metro Conference Player of the Year award in his junior year.
However, he was arrested in his senior season for manipulating spreads in the three final games of his college career. He was paid $8,550 for his efforts. Williams, four teammates and three other Tulane students were implicated in the scheme but Williams escaped a conviction due to the prosecution failing to disclose all of its evidence to the defense.
Williams eventually made it to the NBA and went on to become the second highest-paid athlete in American professional sports. He was the first NBA player to make more than $5 million in a single season in an era that had Hakeem Olajuwon and Michael Jordan.
Eric Manuel
In the 1980s, Eric Manuel drew attention when he failed the ACT test several times in his Georgia hometown before retaking and passing the same test at a high school in Lexington, Kentucky. Manuel made the SEC All-Freshman team in his freshman season.
However, before the start of his sophomore year, the NCAA took a look at his test score as part of a larger probe into the Kentucky program.
It was discovered that a student shared 211 out of 219 answers on the test with Manuel. He was found ineligible to play for Kentucky, but a district court judge later allowed him to play for Oklahoma City University. He won two NAIA titles with Oklahoma before playing professional basketball overseas for several seasons.
Derrick Rose
Former NBA MVP winner, Derrick Rose and two teammates at Simeon High School were found to have had grades altered temporarily just before their transcripts were sent out to their universities of choice, then changed back shortly. Rose had failed his ACT three times in his hometown.
Rose spent a year at the University of Memphis and ended up as the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft. After the NCAA concluded its investigation into Memphis, the 2007-08 season was vacated.
Chris Webber
Chris Webber, along with ex-teammates at the University of Michigan, were found to have received large sums of money from Michigan booster Ed Martin. Webber was indicted on five charges, including obstruction of justice and lying to a grand jury. He was fined $100,000 in addition to 330 hours of community service.
In addition to Michigan vacating the 92-93 season and the entire span from 1995-1999, Webber and the other guilty players have been whitewashed from the school’s record books, and the program was also ordered to disassociate itself from Webber until 2013.
Jamil Terrell
The 6’8″ center arrived at St. Bonaventure from Coastal Georgia Community College with an ineligible certificate. Gothard Lane, the athletic director, knew he was ineligible, but he was overruled by President Robert Wickenheiser, whose son, Kort, was an assistant basketball coach.
When the school’s Board of Trustees asked the NCAA for clarification, Terrell was immediately declared ineligible, and St. Bonaventure forfeited any wins in which he appeared.
Deon Thomas
Thomas was the center of a personal beef between Illinois assistant Jimmy Collins and Iowa assistant coach Bruce Pearl. Both programs tried to recruit him and Pearl sent a complaint to the NCAA claiming that Thomas had told him that Collins had offered $80,000 and a Chevy Blazer in exchange for Thomas’s signature on a letter of intent.
Pearl’s claims were never fully proven, but the NCAA still gave Illinois a two-year probation and a postseason ban in 1991. Thomas still signed with Illinois and became the program’s all-time leading scorer after four years.
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Chris Mills
A package with dollar bills was sent to Mills’ father in a bid to convince him to sign with University of Kentucky although everybody involved denied knowing about such package. Mills eventually signed with Kentucky.
Mills was ruled ineligible by the NCAA after his freshman season, during which he averaged 14 points and eight rebounds per game. He later went to Arizona, where he became an All-American and a first-round NBA draft pick, while Kentucky had a postseason ban for two years.
Boban Savovic
Savovic was the subject of lawsuit filed by Kathleen Salyers who worked as nanny for one the boosters at Ohio State. She claimed she was paid to house and care for Savovic after the University made it known that athletes can’t live with boosters.
Salyers also claimed she wrote school papers for Savovic and even claimed Savovic had sexual relations with the booster’s wife. Ohio State was placed on three years of probation and ordered to vacate every game in which Savovic played.
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