University of Oregon basketball coach Dana Altman and assistant Tony Stubblefield denied offering any payments to land a top basketball recruit last year and contend their Nike-backed program got played to drive up the black-market price for Brian Bowen Jr., according to newly released documents stemming from an internal university investigation.
Altman and Stubblefield told the university's top attorney in October that a middle-man for the Bowen family used a trip to Eugene to leverage more money from Adidas to ensure the five-star recruit played for one of its flagship programs, the University of Louisville.
"We were never going to get him," Stubblefield told University of Oregon General Counsel Kevin Reed, according to a summary of facts from the investigation released to The Oregonian/OregonLive on Friday.