Betting scandal makes USD coach ‘sick’

Eamonn Brennan, ESPN

San Diego coach Bill Grier is living every college basketball coach’s nightmare.

On April 12, the FBI and federal authorities went public with their indictment of former San Diego star Brandon Johnson — the school’s all-time leader in points and assists — in a point-shaving scandal. The indictment also named Thaddeus Brown, a San Diego assistant during the 2006-07 season and Brandon Dowdy, who played at San Diego in the 2006-07 season and at the University of California, Riverside, from 2008 to 2010.

Seven others were also named in the indictment, which alleges that Johnson took a bribe to influence a game in February 2010 and solicited someone else to change the outcome of San Diego games this January while a member of the D-League’s Dakota Wizards.

Grier, who is not implicated in any way in the scandal, learned of this indictment in the scariest possible way: from federal investigators themselves, who paid Grier a 6:30 a.m. visit at his home. Grier was once tabbed as the de facto successor to Gonzaga’s Mark Few; his contract with the Zags even stipulated as much. Now he’s now responsible for picking up the pieces of a program that, at least for the foreseeable future, will be less famous for its hoops than its position as the nexus of a devastating gambling scandal.

To put it mildly: That does not sound like very much fun. So, how is Grier holding up?

On Thursday, the USD coach joined a San Diego sports talk radio station to discuss exactly that. Given the situation, Grier seems determined and focused enough, but he’s clearly still reeling from the mess of all messes:

Rest is here…