Fox on Adidas college basketball scandal: 'I'm not surpised'

Mark Fox isn’t surprised with Tuesday’s bombshell report in college basketball.

The FBI arrested 10 people in connection with federal corruption charges, which included assistant coaches at programs across the country. Among those arrested was Auburn assistant coach Chuck Person, who is facing six federal charges and had his phone wiretapped during this investigation.

Fox said he wasn’t taken aback by this repory. In fact, it verified his suspicion of what is taking place throughout the sport.

“I'm not surprised,” Fox said. “It confirms what we probably already felt like was happening in our game,” Fox said.

The investigation alleges assistant coaches were taking bribes in exchange for helping prospects land at certain schools, some of those affiliated with the shoe company Adidas. In addition to Person, whose school Auburn is endorsed by Under Armour, Oklahoma State’s Lamont Evans, Arizona’s Emanuel Richardson and USC’s Anthony Bland were named in the report.

James Gatto, the director of global sports marketing for Adidas, also was arrested as he is alleged to have paid families of recruits to sign with institutions repped by his company.

With this sort of cheating and illegality making national news, Fox was asked how his program is able to compete in the overall college basketball landscape.

“We compete just like we always have,” Fox said. “We’re going to do this job in an honorable way. We’re not going to put the university at risk. We’re not going to put our kids at risk. We’re going to work as hard as we can to do this job the right way. We have to find kids who will buy into doing it that way. I think we have a team that certainly bought in this year.”

This story was originally published September 26, 2017 at 2:48 PM with the headline "Fox on Adidas college basketball scandal: 'I'm not surpised'."