Former DePaul players alleged to have fixed 3 Big East games in 20-person basketball gambling indictment – Hartford Courant

Two former DePaul men’s basketball players were among 20 people indicted Wednesday in an alleged gambling and game-fixing scandal that spans more than a dozen college teams.

Former Blue Demons guard Jalen Terry and forward Da’Sean Nelson are accused of fixing the first halves of games by underperforming in Big East games in February and March 2024. Forward Micawber “Mac” Etienne also is named in the indictment, which says he is charged elsewhere. A fourth DePaul player, named only as “Person #6,” also is alleged to have been involved.

The indictment lists a Feb. 24 game against Georgetown, a March 2 game against Butler and a March 5 game against St. John’s as games that potentially were affected. DePaul lost all of those games, part of its record 39-game Big East regular-season losing streak.

The games in the indictment were played after DePaul fired coach Tony Stubblefield in January 2024. Matt Brady, currently an assistant coach at Boston University, was the interim coach.

The Blue Demons finished that season 3-29 overall and 0-20 in the Big East. DePaul hired former Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann shortly after the season ended in March 2024.

DePaul said in a statement Thursday that it was “deeply disappointed that former student-athletes were named in the indictment for alleged gambling activities during the 2023-2024 men’s basketball season.”

The department noted that no current student-athletes were members of that team.

Fifteen of the 20 people charged Wednesday in federal court in Philadelphia played NCAA Division I basketball as recently as the 2024-25 season. The other five were characterized as a group of fixers.

They allegedly ran a point-shaving scheme that involved 39 players on 17 Division I teams in 29 games. They are charged with bribery in sporting contests, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aiding and abetting.

Prosecutors allege those fixers, who include former Chicago Bulls guard Antonio Blakeney, got Etienne to agree to the scheme in February 2024 and recruit fellow players.

The four DePaul players were alleged to have taken bribes, including $40,000 in cash for both the Georgetown and St. John’s games, to underperform in the first halves so that the Blue Demons wouldn’t cover the spread.

At halftime of the game against Georgetown, which was favored by 2½ points in the first half, DePaul trailed 41-28. According to the indictment, a fixer texted Etienne in the middle of the game: “l love Jalen terry he perfected his job … Sh*t Nelson snapped too.”

Terry was scoreless in the first half of that game and scored 16 points in the second half. Georgetown won 77-76.

At least $123,789 in bets were placed at various sportsbooks for Butler to cover the 6½-point first-half spread on March 2, 2024. The wagers also included parlays with other games alleged to have been fixed. Butler led DePaul 45-27 at halftime and won 82-63.

The indictment alleges that during the St. John’s game, a fixer texted Etienne that one of his teammates was playing too well. Etienne texted back during the game “that the DePaul players involved in the scheme were keeping the ball away from that player and preventing him from scoring,” according to the indictment.

Nelson, from Toledo, Ohio, averaged 9.8 points and 4.2 rebounds over 64 games in two seasons at DePaul after two seasons at a junior college. His numbers in 2023-24 were slightly down from his average.

Terry, from Flint, Mich., averaged 7.5 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists over 74 games in three seasons at DePaul after transferring from Oregon, where Stubblefield had been an assistant coach. In 2023-24 he averaged 8.5 points, four rebounds and 2.5 assists.

Etienne, from New York, averaged 1.6 points and 2.3 rebounds in 22 games in his lone season at DePaul after transferring from UCLA.

Terry and Nelson transferred to Eastern Michigan after the 2023-24 season amid the coaching change, and Etienne transferred to LaSalle. Prosecutors allege Terry and Nelson continued to fix games at Eastern Michigan last season.

DePaul said in its statement that “the university has a long-standing commitment to educating our athletics community about the dangers and consequences of sports gambling.” It noted that the school participates in wagering monitoring through Integrity Compliance 360 and a gambling education program with EPIC Risk Management.

“We will continue to evaluate and strengthen our education, monitoring and compliance efforts to protect the integrity of competition and the well-being of our student-athletes,” the university said.

Blakeney, who played in 76 games for the Bulls from 2017-19, was not named as a defendant, but the indictment says he is charged elsewhere. He is named in the indictment, first as having been recruited to fix games in the Chinese Basketball Association and then as having recruited college athletes to help fix NCAA games.

The indictment alleges fixing incidents involving players from Nicholls State, Tulane, Northwestern State in Louisiana, Saint Louis, La Salle, Fordham, Buffalo, Robert Morris, Southern Mississippi, North Carolina A&T, Kennesaw State, Coppin State, New Orleans, Abilene Christian, Eastern Michigan and Alabama State.

NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a statement Thursday that “the pattern of college basketball game integrity conduct revealed by law enforcement today is not entirely new information to the NCAA.” He said college sports’ governing body has finished or has open investigations into “almost all” of the schools listed in the indictment.

The NCAA’s enforcement staff has opened sports betting investigations into 40 student-athletes from 20 schools in the last year alone. Eleven athletes from seven schools were found to have bet on their own performances, shared information with bettors or engaged in game manipulation to influence betting outcomes. They all lost eligibility.

Baker has been vocal about banning proposition bets — wagers on a specific event during a game and not the final score — on college sports nationally, and he made that argument again in his statement.

“The Association has and will continue to aggressively pursue sports betting violations in college athletics using a layered integrity monitoring program that covers over 22,000 contests,” he said. “But we still need the remaining states, regulators and gaming companies to eliminate threats to integrity — such as collegiate prop bets — to better protect athletes and leagues from integrity risks and predatory bettors.

“We also will continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement. We urge all student-athletes to make well-informed choices to avoid jeopardizing the game and their eligibility.”