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00:00I hate to see this, though, in college sports, specifically college basketball with allegedly
00:08a player shaving points on a major university.
00:12I thought we were going to get through the end of the year without one of these, but
00:15here we are.
00:16Yeah, just a couple of weeks into the college basketball season already with the first major
00:23scandal you've seen really in college sports in terms of sports betting, you have the former
00:29Temple basketball player, Highshear Miller, allegedly under federal investigation for
00:34an alleged point shaving scandal that took place last year.
00:37ESPN broke this story yesterday that the feds are apparently investigating whether Miller
00:42bet on his own games and manipulated the outcome of multiple games he participated in.
00:48Miller was the leading scorer on Temple last year, but he transferred to Virginia Tech
00:53in the offseason and was actually suspended before the season even started, hadn't played
00:57a game for the Hokies because of this investigation.
01:01They said it was something that happened before he was at our university.
01:04It actually leaves Virginia Tech pretty thin at point guard as the college basketball season
01:09really hits its full stride.
01:11This was, according to the ESPN story, this was first kind of alerted.
01:15This company called U.S. Integrity, which is this firm that exists exactly for this
01:20reason to monitor suspicious betting activity, works with the sportsbooks.
01:24They were alerted by several sportsbooks last year.
01:28There was a game against UAB in which the line moved from a Temple minus two to Temple
01:33minus eight in like just a few hours before it tip off, which is really kind of suspicious.
01:38Usually a line doesn't move by that much in college basketball unless there's huge injury
01:42news or a huge suspension that comes down.
01:45That didn't happen with that game, so a lot of sportsbooks stopped taking money on the
01:48game altogether.
01:49UAB won big 100 to 72, and Miller finished with eight points on three of nine shooting
01:55with three turnovers.
01:57The next day, Temple released a statement saying it's now reviewing suspicious betting
02:01patterns, suspicious betting activity.
02:03Temple's president came out yesterday and sent a post to the letter addressing students
02:08and faculty, acknowledging the situation, acknowledging pretty much there's something
02:12going on.
02:13It involves a guy who's no longer at the school.
02:17And this investigation goes bigger than just the UAB game, according to all the reporting,
02:22though.
02:23One of the letters he placed these big bets on UAB in that game last year reportedly had
02:27been placing bets against Temple all season, mostly the first half spread, mostly the first
02:34half total.
02:35Smaller things than just a big point spread, things that maybe you can manipulate easier
02:41in college basketball.
02:42That's why you have the history of point shaving, where let's win, but let's not try to win
02:46by too much, or let's make sure we don't lose by a certain amount.
02:50And to your point, Greg, this is the first major investigation we've had in a couple
02:54of months in the sports world.
02:56You had Jonte Porter was just banned from the NBA for life for admitting to manipulating
03:02games.
03:03Last year or earlier this year, actually, you had Iowa and Iowa State baseball teams
03:07involved in sports betting scandals.
03:09So this is kind of becoming commonplace in the industry, catching these things.
03:13It's no longer the earth shattering thing we were talking about back when Calvin Ridley
03:17was getting suspended.
03:18People just kill gambling altogether.
03:21But it's sad to see it pop up, especially in college sports when you're talking about,
03:25you know, essentially kids here.
03:27So I'd love to see more of what comes, but definitely not over in terms of the investigation.