Former ASU player BJ Freeman under NCAA investigation for alleged violation of gambling rules

An NCAA investigation regarding gambling schemes, including betting against their own team, game manipulation, and sharing information with third parties for gambling purposes, which involves 13 men’s college basketball players from six schools, does include, as Devils Digest learned from an individual close to this matter, former ASU guard BJ Freeman, who allegedly violated NCAA betting restrictions. Some in this group of players, none of whom are part of their teams this year, are also alleged to have refused to participate in the NCAA enforcement staff’s investigation.

The same individual close to the matter indicated to Devils Digest that Freeman was the only former ASU player to allegedly commit this betting violation and that no other former or current ASU players are involved. Former players from Temple, Mississippi Valley State, North Carolina A&T, Eastern Michigan, and New Orleans have also been alleged to have violated NCAA betting restrictions.

The NCAA indicated in its press release that all of these schools and their respective staff are not alleged to have been involved in these violations, nor is the NCAA’s enforcement staff seeking penalties for the institutions.

In his lone season in Tempe, Freeman had a tumultuous tenure with Arizona State. While he was one of the team leaders in scoring, averaging 13.6 points and 3.9 rebounds, he was ejected twice from his team’s games. In the first game on January 2 versus Colorado, he was assessed a Flagrant 2 foul, hitting an opposing player in the groin, although the fact that he did so while fighting through a screen could certainly be deemed unintentional.

A month later, though, his ejection was due to a clearer cut transgression as in a game versus Arizona, he head butted Wildcat player Caleb Love, and his eventual February continued when he allegedly got into a fight with an ASU teammate and consequently was suspended one game, versus Oklahoma State, for conduct detrimental to the team. ‌On February 23, Freeman left the Sun Devils due to that incident and allegedly other similar incidents, although Devils Digest learned that his departure from the team was not due to the alleged violations of betting restrictions. He was the Sun Devils’ leading scorer at the time of his departure.

Later in the spring, Freeman announced that he had joined ASU’s Big 12 foe, UCF. Yet, when the school was informed by the NCAA about their investigation into Freeman, UCF did cut ties with the player, who had never signed with the Knights, and thus, UCF never made an official announcement on Freeman signing with the team.