Louisville freshman Brian Bowen, the former five-star recruit who was suspended indefinitely this week following a report from the FBI alleging an improper payment was made to his family to get him to sign with the school, has retained an attorney in an effort to gain reinstatement.
According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, Bowen has retained Jason Setchen – a Miami-based attorney who specializes in NCAA eligibility cases and has succeeded recently in a case involving an ACC player.
Setchen helped former Miami basketball player DeQuan Jones gain reinstatement in 2011 in a case which involved Miami booster Nevin Shapiro, who admitted to paying $10,000 to get Jones to sign with Miami. After the school initially announced that Jones would sit out the 2011-12 season, Miami reinstated Jones just 10 games into the season.
According to the FBI's report from last Tuesday, representatives of Adidas agreed to funnel $100,000 to the family of Bowen in an effort to steer him to Louisville. And while Bowen wasn't named specifically, the documents named an "All-American high school basketball player" who committed to a school Adidas sponsors in June. And the only All-American who committed to a school Adidas sponsors in June was Brian Bowen.
Louisville coach Rick Pitino was placed on unpaid leave and was "effectively fired" following the FBI's report, which indicated Pitino, identified as "Coach-2" in the documents, was intimately involved in the funneling of money to Bowen. In the report, "Coach-2" spoke with Bowen about getting more money to secure his commitment to Louisville.
