There’s always a trail
Yet another basketball player has been permanently banned from participating in college athletics for violating NCAA gambling rules. On Wednesday, the NCAA announced that former University of San Francisco basketball player Marcus Williams knowingly provided information to a player at another school for betting purposes. After agreeing to a negotiated solution with the NCAA, Williams has been declared permanently ineligible.
According to the NCAA, Williams’ violations were discovered during the investigation of former Fresno State basketball player, Mykell Robinson. When reviewing Robinson’s phone records, investigators found nine communications between him and Robinson from November 2024 to January 2025. In those conversations, Williams gave information to Robinson, telling him to bet the overs on his (Williams’) prop bets.
Robinson bet on Williams, not through traditional sportsbooks, but through a daily fantasy sports account. Williams initially denied having a DFS account, even though it was under his name and e-mail address, but later admitted to what he did.
Williams, Robinson have plenty of time to talk bets now
Mykell Robinson was one of three players banned by the NCAA three months ago. He and former roommate Steven Vasquez (who at the time of the violations played at San Jose State) bet on Robinson to hit the unders on his own prop bets in a January 7, 2025 game against Colorado State. Vasquez and a “sportsbook trader” placed $2,200 in bets and made $15,950 profit.
The NCAA determined that Robinson intentionally played poorly enough to miss the prop bet targets and this allow the wagers to win. He also placed 13 of his own bets from December 11, 2024 to January 11, 2025.
Robinson discussed betting lines with the third banned player, teammate Jalen Weaver; they placed wagers on themselves and each other.
Agent apologizes
Williams’ case is slightly different than what we are used to with these recent basketball betting scandals. In most, if not all, of the cases, such as Robinson’s and former NBA player Jontay Porter’s, the players manipulate their play or playing time to have their stats come in under the prop bet marks. Porter, for instance, faked injury so that he would leave games early, allowing the under wagers to come through.
Williams, perhaps interestingly, told Robinson to take the over on the bets. It could be as innocent as just being confident in his abilities, but it could have been that he knew something the public didn’t know or that he was going to manipulate his play to try to do more in a way that could potentially hurt the team.
“Marcus regrets that he responded with confidence when a friend and former AAU teammate reached out to him about published betting lines for his stats [over/unders] on various games, but he certainly never told anyone to bet on his under[s] or told anyone to bet against his team,” Williams’ agent, Paolo Zamorano, told ESPN.
“Unfortunately, Marcus did not appreciate the seriousness of the interactions with his friend and former AAU teammate and he would like to apologize to the University of San Francisco for this negative attention,” he added.
The post Former University of San Francisco Men’s Basketball Player Banned for Betting Violations appeared first on Poker News Daily.
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