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College basketball has had small scandals and big scandals but it has never had anything quite as mind-blowing as the 2003 murder of Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy by teammate Carlton Dotson.  In March SHOWTIME premiered its feature-length documentary “Disgraced”, which examines both the murder itself as well as the resulting accusations against both the school and Coach Dave Bliss.  The impact of the film was rather immediate, as Coach Bliss resigned from his job as coach at Southwestern Christian University in early April.  Hoops HD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with award-winning director Pat Kondelis about the crime and the cover-up.

This documentary revisits the 2003 murder of Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy by his teammate Carlton Dotson: why do you think Dotson did it, and why make a documentary about it 14 years later? I do not know why Dotson did it, which was a big motivator in making the film. Once you begin to look at the details and examine the evidence you see that there is way more to this story than what has been reported so far. My goal was to get closer to the truth in what happened in Waco in 2003 and figure out why this happened.

In October 2004 Dotson was declared incompetent to stand trial and sent to a state mental hospital, where psychiatrists said that he appeared to be suffering from hallucinations/psychosis including a belief that people were trying to kill him because he was Jesus: do you think that he was insane at the time of the murder? I really do not know. Dotson had a history of hallucinations and showed signs of paranoia while he was at Baylor. The school even took the step of sending him to a therapist. It is unclear if he was insane at the time of the alleged action, but the steps he took immediately following those alleged actions suggest that he knew right from wrong and was intentionally hiding evidence.

In June 2005 Dotson pled guilty right before his trial and was sentenced to 35 years in prison: do you think that it was a fair sentence? No I do not. IF Dotson pulled the trigger in cold blood then I think he should have received a life sentence. If there is evidence to suggest that he was not alone or that there is more to this, which I think there is, then the trial is where that could come out…but unfortunately that never happened.

Baylor instituted some self-imposed punishments but the NCAA took it up a notch by extending their probation through 2010, eliminating 1 year of non-conference play, and issuing a 10-year show-cause penalty against Coach Dave Bliss (1 of the harshest penalties ever imposed on a D-1 program that did not include a “death penalty”): how do you think the Baylor violations compared to those at SMU almost 2 decades earlier, and how much credit does the school deserve for taking action once the violations came to light (which SMU administrators failed to do after learning of its own school’s violations)? I do not think that Baylor deserves any credit. I think that all of their actions were specifically motivated to avoid the death penalty, which according to inside sources was seriously being considered in this case. You have to look at the history of major athletic scandals at Baylor: it is second to none. The federal prosecution of the entire Baylor men’s basketball coaching staff in 1994 for federal conspiracy/wire fraud/mail fraud, the tennis team scandal in 2000 concerning financial aid/improper benefits, and Bliss in 2003. That is 3 major athletic scandals in a 10-year period.  SMU was more blatant about their pay-for-play scandal and refused to cooperate with the NCAA investigation, but at this point Baylor has far exceeded SMU in the realm of college scandals. The issues at Baylor are far more serious than simply paying students to play sports.

Bliss had reached the limits on team scholarships so he secretly paid a portion of the tuition for Dennehy/teammate Corey Herring that was not covered by financial aid, then later attempted to convince his players to lie to school officials/NCAA investigators by saying that Dennehy was a drug dealer to create reasonable doubt about why Dennehy had received extra cash: is this just a prime example of the adage that “the cover-up is always worse than the crime”? No: the crime is terrible and there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the money Bliss used to pay the tuitions was not his own but in fact came from booster payments. These details are laid out in in amazing detail in the public NCAA report. Bliss had created a basketball booster program called “The Fast Break Club” which he took sole control of, removing it from the standard accounting procedures/oversight of the Athletic Department, and had checks made out to himself personally. According to the NCAA report, Bliss gave 1 AAU team (The Houston Superstars) over $87,000 in 1 year to get their players to sign letters of intent with Baylor. The NCAA found that over $100,000 was given to different AAU teams in a single year. It is my belief that Bliss used money from boosters to pay tuitions.

Bliss also allegedly threatened to fire assistant coach Abar Rouse if he did not go along with the scheme, but Rouse turned whistleblower after recording some conversations on tape: do you feel that the secret recordings are the juiciest part of the film?  There are so many crazy things that happened in this story that it is hard to nail down one as the most important/salacious. The biggest benefit of having the tapes is that they put the audience in the room as the cover-up/conspiracy is unfolding. You get to hear something that most people would have dismissed had they only been told by a witness that Bliss said those things. It is hard to believe without hearing the actual tapes.

There were further allegations about widespread abuse of marijuana/alcohol among players that were ignored by Coach Bliss and his staff, as well as recruiting violations when Bliss/assistant coach Rodney Belcher were present during a pickup game involving recruit Harvey Thomas during his official visit to Baylor (which constitutes an “illegal tryout” under NCAA rules): murder is obviously an uncommon occurrence at a college basketball program, but do you feel that the other stuff has become “standard operating procedure” at a majority of D-1 programs around the country? I think they are more common than not. Violations occur at most schools but what happened at Baylor is remarkable. I think this story highlights the pitfalls of a “win at all costs” attitude that most D-1 programs subscribe to.

Toward the end of the film Bliss stands up during an on-camera interview and keeps talking while he thinks the camera is turned off: were you surprised by his admissions during this segment, and does he honestly believe that others are to blame? I was shocked. That was very early on in our filming so I did not know if what he was saying was true or not. We had not interviewed the police yet so when he says that the police knew everything yet did not charge him, he is basically saying that there was a police cover-up. He is also saying that Bill Underwood (the head of the Baylor internal investigative committee) was the source of his lie. Bliss does not think that the camera is off and I never told the crew to stop at all: he just kept talking. I decided to use that because he repeated that statement in the second interview we did and made it clear that it was on the record. It was very important to show that he would say one thing and then completely contradict that to deflect any blame.

Coach Scott Drew had the Bears ranked #1 in the nation last season and reached the Sweet 16 before losing to South Carolina: why did the school choose him to replace Bliss, and how has he been able to turn things around 180 degrees? Coach Drew has done a great job of resurrecting the program but has also been busted for major recruiting violations and just wrapped up a 3-year probation by the NCAA.

In 2015 Baylor again made headlines due to a football sexual assault scandal and announced that it chose not to comment on your film: how have things changed in Waco since 2003, and how much more disgrace is yet to come? I have no clue. I really hope that Baylor steps up and commits to full transparency. Maybe the Texas Rangers law enforcement agency will get that result.

*DISGRACED can be seen on all of Showtime’s video-on-demand services including SHOWTIME ANYTIME, SHOWTIME ON DEMAND, and the SHOWTIME stand-alone streaming service.

The most (in)famous father in next month’s draft is turning out to be LaVar Ball, but his son Lonzo is not the only draft prospect whose dad you should know. Shane Hammink’s father Geert was a 1st round pick by Orlando in the 1993 NBA Draft and played professional basketball for more than a decade. Shane’s own basketball career began overseas at the Canarias Basketball Academy and as part of the Netherlands’ national team. After starting his college career at his dad’s alma mater of LSU, he transferred to Valparaiso and helped his team reach the 2016 NIT title game. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel recently got to chat with Shane about trying to follow in his father’s footsteps and what sets him apart from other shooting guards in the draft.

You were born and raised in the Netherlands and have played for their national basketball team: how big is basketball in your home country, and how is the national team looking these days? It is not that big, as soccer is the most popular sport, but basketball is getting there. Our national team made the European Championships a couple of years ago so we are pretty good, and I think we will remain solid after I return to join the team in the years ahead.

Your father Geert was a 1st round pick by Orlando in the 1993 NBA Draft (2 spots behind Sam Cassell): is he prouder of his time in the NBA or his role as a member of the Indiana Hoosiers in the movie “Blue Chips”?! That movie was awesome…but I think he is prouder of making the NBA. I was pretty young at the time he was drafted but I have been told that I attended a couple of his games. He told me about playing with Shaquille O’Neal and how dominant he was. I remember watching my dad play an All-Star game in Germany once: he had a nice shooting touch.

You previously played at a basketball academy in Spain’s Canary Islands: what is the biggest difference between basketball in the US vs. basketball overseas? The speed/athleticism is the biggest difference. Basketball has become pretty big in Europe so the quality of the game is pretty similar to America, but in the US the players fly down the court and can jump out of the gym.

You began your career at your dad’s alma mater of LSU before transferring to Valparaiso: why did you decide to switch, and what made you choose the Crusaders? It was not a great fit for me and I wanted to go somewhere that I could play more minutes. I talked to Coach Bryce Drew and I liked what he told me about my game, which is why I decided to come here.

In the 2016 NIT title game you scored 9 PTS in a loss to GW: what was it like to play in Madison Square Garden, and how close did you come to winning the title? It was amazing to play on the same court that guys like Carmelo Anthony do. We did not play well as a team and GW was the better team that day.

Last February you scored a career-high 25 PTS/9-15 FG in a 10-PT win at Wright State: was it just 1 of those situations where every shot you put up seemed to go in because you were “in the zone”? Kind of, but I was just playing well and fed off of my teammates so it all worked out. It was our 1st game without our best player (Alec Peters) so we did what we had to do as a team to get the win.

After shooting only 50 FT% during 2 years at LSU, you were #6 in the Horizon League last year with 80.8 FT%: how were you able to improve so much over the past 2 years? Just getting into the gym, working hard, and improving my confidence. I never shot FTs that well growing up and would just pray that I made them, but now when I step to the line I am much more confident.

You have also added a 3-PT shot to your arsenal after only making 5 during your time in Baton Rouge: what is your secret for making shots from behind the arc? There is no secret: just like with FTs you have to work on your shot and improve your confidence. I started something like 1-20 last year from 3-PT range but then everything eventually started falling for me. I knew that I could shoot so I just kept going to the gym and my teammates kept telling me that my shots would start going in at some point.

What part of your skill set makes you different from other guards in this year’s draft, and what would you be able to bring to an NBA team? I am pretty tall for a guard at 6’7”. I can shoot as well as drive to create shots for other people. I will do whatever a coach asks me to. I always dreamed of going to the NBA as a kid but it never became a real possibility until this season.

Do you have a favorite NBA team/current player, and which NBA player is your game most similar to? My favorite player is LeBron James. I do not have a favorite team but I think that Golden State is the best team due to all of their great shooters. I see myself as a taller version of Manu Ginobili: I love his Eurostep.

Peter Jok finished his Iowa career as 1 of the best shooters in school history: his 216 3PM is #4 in Hawkeye history and his 88.1 FT% is #1 all-time.  As a result the awards started rolling in: 1st-team All-Big Ten, AP Honorable Mention All-American, and 1 of 5 finalists for Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year.  Now he is preparing for the next stage of his long journey: the 2017 NBA Draft on June 22nd.  HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel recently got to chat with Peter about being the best scorer in the Big 10 and what it would mean to him to get drafted next month. 

You were born in Sudan where your father was a general for the People’s Liberation Army: how did you 1st get into basketball, and how difficult was your transition after moving to the US? I first got into basketball because of my friends back in 5th grade: I only joined the metro team for our elementary school to hang out with my friends. My current guardian had wanted me to play for his AAU team along with his son and a bunch of his friends: they were called the Riders. At first I only played for him because he would take us out to McDonald’s after practices, but then I started falling in love with the game. The transition was difficult at first because of the weather, but I have adapted as the years went by. The community we were living in also made it a lot easier for me to adapt to my new life.

Last November you scored a career-high 42 PTS/8-11 3PM for Iowa in an 8-PT loss to Memphis: was it just 1 of those scenarios where every shot you put up seemed to go in because you were “in the zone”? Yes and no. The night before that game I had a bad game as we got manhandled by Virginia so I stayed up all night watching film of that game as well as of Memphis. My mindset going into the Memphis game was to go for 50 PTS. I got hot pretty early and my teammates kept finding me so it did not hurt that I was making everything.

In the 2017 NIT you scored 22 PTS/5-10 3PM in a 2-PT OT loss to TCU in the final game of your career: how close did you come to beating the eventual champs? We came very close. They played great in that game and I knew afterwards that they were going to win it all. We had a few possessions that did not go our way…but that is the game of basketball.

As a senior you led the Big 10 with 19.9 PPG: what is the key to being a great scorer? The key is knowing your strengths/weaknesses on offense and always taking what the defense gives you. Make the game simple and do not try to do too much. You also need to have the right mindset: never let a missed shot get to you. Shooters shoot and scorers score.

You also led the conference with 91.1 FT%: what is the secret to making FTs? To be honest I do not think there is really any secret: it is all about your mindset and not overthinking it when you are on the line. When you are shooting by yourself you do not think about everything around you, so when you are on that line just shoot it. I also try to take less dribbles than some other players and keep it simple.

You were named 1st-team All-Conference and honorable mention All-American: what did it mean to you to win such outstanding honors? It was a blessing to earn all of those honors but I did not reach all of the goals I had set for the season.

1 of your biggest strengths is outside shooting (career 37.8 3P%): what did it mean to you to win the 2017 College 3-PT Contest on your 23rd birthday? I was not picked to win it by any of the announcers so that gave me extra motivation to win.  I have been an underdog my whole life so it always feels good when you can achieve something that people do not think you can.

Your brother Jo Jo played college football, your brother Dau played basketball at Penn, your uncle was Manute Bol, and Luol Deng is 1 of your mother’s cousins: who is the best athlete in the family? That is a tough one. I would have to say either Jo Jo (who has 2 football state championships) or Luol (who is one of the elite lock-down defenders in the NBA).

Do you have a favorite NBA team/current player, and how amazing would it be to end up joining them? I used to be a big Lakers fan because Kobe Bryant is my all-time favorite player, but now I like to watch the Clippers (because of Jamal Crawford) and the Wariors (because of Klay Thompson). It would be amazing to play with either of those 2 teams, especially Golden State because I have a similar game to Klay and would learn so much from him.

What would it mean to you to get drafted: a validation of your college career, the realization of a lifelong dream of reaching the NBA, or other? I would call my college career a process. From the first day that I stepped onto campus until now everything has been a process. I got better every year both on and off the court. I went from being a lost freshmen who thought basketball was all about scoring to becoming the leader/captain of the team. It was a great 4 years and I would not go back and change anything. Being drafted would mean everything just because of the journey I have been through, and to be able to beat all the odds would mean a lot. Additionally, it would be a blessing to be able to take care of my family and help people back home in South Sudan.

Every sport has its own kind of perfection: Don Larsen in baseball, the 1972 Miami Dolphins in football, etc.  When it comes to college basketball there have been several teams who went undefeated but it has not happened since Indiana coach Bob Knight led his Hoosiers to an undefeated NCAA title in 1976.  Earlier this year Showtime premiered the documentary “Perfect In ‘76” produced by former HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg, who now has a production company that create some of the most compelling sports stories on television.  In addition to producing the film, he is an executive-in-residence and a faculty member of the Iona College School of Business.  After their undefeated season in 1975 was ruined by Kentucky in the Elite 8, Coach Knight came back the following year on a mission to win every single game.  Thanks to a lineup featuring several future 1st round draft picks (Scott May/Quinn Buckner/Bob Wilkerson/Kent Benson), the Hoosiers beat Michigan in the 1976 title game to finish a perfect 32-0.  HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Ross earlier today about how the idea for the documentary came about and whether he thinks we will ever see another undefeated team in college basketball.  

How did the idea of making this film come about, and how were you able to get John Mellencamp to narrate it? Bob Knight is represented by an agent named Sandy Montag, and I have gotten to know them both very well over the years. I wanted to focus on Knight’s time at Indiana but he was reluctant because most people only care about the chair that he threw across the court against Purdue in 1985. I came up with the idea to focus on the 1976 season after Kentucky made their own run toward perfection a couple of years ago. Bob agreed to do it, we sold it to Showtime, and were able to put it together 1 year later.  We are very proud of the finished product. Our director George Roy mentioned that Mellencamp lived in Bloomington and was passionate about the Hoosiers. I approached John’s agent and not only did John say that he would be happy to do it, but he even offered to open up his music library if we wanted any songs for the film.

The documentary features audio recordings from some of Knight’s coaching mentors: what impact did Hall of Famers like Red Auerbach/Pete Newell have on him either on or off the court? They both had a huge impact on him. He counted on them for personal counsel as well as words of wisdom to share with his players. He would record his mentor’s words on a recording device and then play it back for his players in the locker room: we had the photos of that. He loved having mentors and credited those 2 and many others (including Hall of Fame coach Hank Iba) as having an impact on him as a coach.

Knight is known for both his fiery temper as well as being a Hall of Fame coach who had a strong relationship with his players: how was he able to balance the dual roles of patting them on the back and kicking them in the butt? He definitely said that there were callous times when his players would wonder why he was upset with them after they won a game by 20 PTS, but that was because he demanded perfection out of them. His players also demanded a lot of themselves and they would not accept anything less. The balance was easy to achieve with that group of players because they bought into it and enjoyed being driven to the max. He wanted them to play strong defense and instilled that via arduous practices. His players admitted that they could not have gone undefeated without him.

He conducted brutal practices including drills on how to take a charge: was that part of his Army mentality or his defensive-1st philosophy or other? He definitely emphasized defense, which was a result of the disciplinary approach he picked up at West Point. It was a logical step to bring that to Indiana and give it a shot. The players talked about how relentless their practices were and how their coach barked at them, but they accepted it because they knew it would make them better on the court.

The seeds of the 1976 Indiana team were planted during the spring of 1975 when the Hoosiers made it all the way to the Elite 8 before a 92-90 loss to Kentucky gave them their only defeat of the season: do you think that they would have gone undefeated in 1975 if Scott May had not broken his left arm, and do you agree with Knight’s belief that the 1975 version was the best team he ever coached? I do agree with Coach Knight because he had some outstanding seniors: even though he returned 4 starters in 1976 he blamed himself for separating 2 of the best defensive guards in history to cover for the loss of May. It definitely set up 1976 because he stewed over the loss for several months. The day before practice started in the fall of 1975 he challenged them not just to win a Big 10 title or NCAA title but to go undefeated, and I do not think that he would have done that had he not suffered through the Kentucky loss.

In November of 1975 the Hoosiers beat the reigning world champion Soviet National team 94–78 in a preseason exhibition game (Scott May scored 34 PTS/13-15 FG): how much of a home-court advantage did they have at a sold-out Market Square Arena? The place was in a frenzy. We could have built up that story a little more after the US had an Olympic gold medal stolen from them in the 1972 Olympics, which was a horrible loss for Coach Iba. Knight had so much respect for Iba that he wanted to bring in the same Soviet team and give them a thrashing on American soil. It was a hostile arena and the fans got behind their local team but make no mistake: even though the Hoosiers were college kids playing against grown men who were essentially professionals from overseas, they were still the better team.

Indiana dominated the Big 10 with an average winning margin of 23 PPG in conference play: was it just a down year for the conference or were the Hoosiers just that much better than everyone else? They faced Michigan twice in conference play and almost lost to them during the regular season before a miraculous tip-in by Kent Benson helped them beat the Wolverines in OT on February 7th. Nobody can say they had a “patsy” schedule: they also beat defending national champ UCLA in their regular season debut. I think their dominance was due to their incredible play and the fact that team had been together for virtually 4 years: they were not a mid-major team with a soft schedule.

Knight ran a motion offense to get his guys open shots and instilled a man-to-man defense whose 64.8 PPG allowed was #12 in the nation: was the key to their success the offense or defense or both? Both: he demanded they play great defense and but he had guys who played well at both ends of the court. Wilkerson in particular might have been 1 of the greatest defenders in NCAA history but they were also a scoring machine on the offensive end. They constantly moved the basketball and had great leaders like Quinn Buckner.

The Hoosiers trailed conference rival Michigan by 6 PTS at halftime of the NCAA title game, but came out and scored an NCAA record 57 PTS in the 2nd half to win by a final score of 86-68: how where they able to play what Knight later referred to as “the perfect half”? He did not give a volatile halftime speech: Knight just told his players that they had 20 minutes left to prove they were the best…and they did. They took the court and simply played the most flawless 2nd half in the history of college basketball, which put an exclamation point on their dominance. If you cannot get a chill up your spine when watching that part of the film then you are soulless: there was such a love affair between the coach and players that is 1 of the best parts of sports.

That legendary squad remains the last college basketball team to go undefeated despite some close calls in the past few years (2014 Wichita State went 35-1 and 2015 Kentucky went 38-1): do you think that we will ever see another team achieve perfection? I would imagine there might be another perfect team someday because Kentucky came so close and had the talent to do it. However, over time we will have to see if the current “1-and-done” mentality will ever enable a coach to mold a team over 4 years like Coach Knight did back in 1976. When your best freshmen leave after 1 year it crushes the ability of a team to mold itself into a dominant squad in such a short period of time…but having said that, the achievement is possible.