Meet Dana And David Pump: College Basketball’s Cowboys, Or Something

You may remember hearing about a ticket scalping scandal at Kansas University earlier this year, where the culprits netted upwards of $800,000 selling tickets that were supposed to go to family members of the team. From Yahoo! Sports’ report back then:

David Freeman, a Lawrence real estate developer who said he participated in the scheme, told Yahoo! Sports that he, former Kansas director of ticket operations Rodney Jones and high-profile alum Roger Morningstar – the father of Jayhawks guard Brady Morningstar – were following the instructions of the Pump brothers when the trio made hundreds of thousands of dollars scalping tickets during the 2002 and 2003 NCAA tournaments.

Sounds damning, no? And coincidence or not, on the heels of that little dustup, the NCAA outlawed any contact between NCAA coaches and the Pump brothers’ charity. So are the Pump brothers really this nefarious? Is their charity just a conduit for college sports corruption?

No. “We’re cowboys,” says David Pump.

In a recent interview with AOL Fanhouse, the Pump brothers did some damage control:

“I don’t know if the NCAA is trying to scare people. But you know what, that’s not going to affect us. People that know David and Dana know what kind of people we are.”

“How do you knock people when they want to give to a charity for cancer, and they know David and Dana Pump, and they were affected by cancer, and they knew my dad?” David Pump said. “How do you tell coaches that? How do you tell a coach you can’t do that, if they knew Mr. Pump or David and Dana gave me a chance and got me into coaching? Why can’t I send them a check [for cancer research]?”

And that’s fine. Nobody’s going to argue against cancer charities. But that’s not quite the extent of the Pumps presence on the college basketball circuit. To say nothing of whatever went on at Kansas, they run a number of high profile AAU teams, in addition to a consulting business that helps colleges hire coaches. Coaches that support their “charity” in return.

If you can’t see the conflict there, then consider what went down at Tennessee a few years ago. The Pumps were contracted by Tennessee to help them find a new head coach, and the Pumps recommended Bruce Pearl. Shortly after Pearl was hired, a high profile recruit from the Pumps’ AAU team—Wayne Chism from Memphis AAU squad, “Pump N’ Run”—committed to play for Pearl, a coach whose success would directly impact the credibility of the Pumps’ consulting business.

It’s all a convoluted web of conflicted interests and murky allegations, which sort of makes it the perfect microcosm for college basketball’s inevitably failed system. The money quote, here:

“Dana and I have a gift to get people in front of people,” David said. “If it’s an insurance company, if it’s a private plane. We’re in the people business.”

Oh yeah? “A gift to get people in front of people.” That doesn’t sound shady or purposefully vague at all. And I’m sure large amounts of money never impacts their ability to get people in front people. It’s all natural with the Pumps. They just have great connections and a lot of jealous detractors.

...Right. The “people business.” Welcome to the NCAA underworld.

It’s a complicated marketplace. With billions of dollars (and coaching careers and alumni donations and new stadiums and ticket scalping revenues) hinging on the whims of unpaid amateurs, there sure are a lot of people in the “people business” these days.

Even if David and Dana Pump are neutered by the NCAA, do you really think that’ll change?

If you believe that... Perhaps you think the Pumps are only in the charity business, too.