What Diamond Stone receiving money from an agent means for Maryland right now

For the first time in this season’s wave of exposed college basketball corruption, Maryland’s name has surfaced.

Diamond Stone, who played just one season for the Terps, received a $14,303 from agency ASM sports, according to documents released by Yahoo Sports on Friday morning. The report details a lengthy history of corruption by ASM, run by former NBA agent Andy Miller and his associate, Christian Dawkins.

The payment to Stone is Maryland’s only involvement in this report, and Mark Turgeon and his staff have no other known ties to Miller or his agency. This appears to have been an unsuccessful effort by the agency to recruit him as a client; Stone instead inked with Tandem Sports + Entertainment in April 2016.

It’s too soon to tell what this means for Maryland, who has no recent history of any semblance of corruption and was most likely unaware of the reported payment. Current and former players from dozens of prominent programs are included in the report—which centers on just one agency—in some capacity. It will be a long time before any punishment comes Maryland’s way because of Stone, if it ever does.

Here’s Turgeon’s statement, released Friday afternoon:

“Late last night we were alerted of a report associating one of our former student-athletes with an agent. We are extremely disappointed, and we will fully cooperate with any investigation. I do not have a relationship with Andy Miller or anyone from his agency, and at no time have I ever had a conversation with Andy Miller or his agency regarding any Maryland basketball player. We remain steadfast in upholding a program of integrity that reflects the values of our University community.”

We will provide updates as more information becomes available.

Why Maryland fans should (and shouldn’t) be worried

It’s never a good look to have your name included in reports like this one, and Stone’s reported payment is the fifth-largest in this ASM document, behind loans to Dennis Smith Jr., Isaiah Whitehead, Bam Adebayo and Tim Quarterman. This is the first time Maryland has been implicated in any form since the FBI opened the investigative floodgates in September, and it’s very possibly not the last.

As long as Turgeon and the staff didn’t know about this particular payment, though, any sanctions coming from the information presently known would most likely be light. Stone played one season at Maryland, and if him accepting money from an agent is the Terps’ worst black eye in this sea of corruption, then they should escape relatively unscathed compared to other programs. Maryland’s recruiting under Turgeon hasn’t been implicated yet.

Of course, college basketball corruption doesn’t end with agencies like ASM, just as it didn’t end with apparel companies funneling money to players through grassroots programs. More information will trickle out, and it’s unclear how much of it will have ties to College Park. But Maryland’s name is now on the massive board.

This story has been updated to include Turgeon’s statement.