Point-Shaving Scandal Hits Games Involving McNeese State, No Wrong-Doing For Cowboys
(KNGT-FM) - In today's landscape of college athletics, nothing will surprise you anymore. A major FBI investigation into college basketball gambling has led to charges against 26 people and multiple teams from Louisiana.
Federal prosecutors say the group was involved in a point-shaving scheme, where players were paid to lose by a certain number of points or not play their best. The goal was to help sports gamblers win bets. According to court documents, the scheme affected more than 29 games between September 2022 and February 2025.
Louisiana Players Involved in College Basketball Gambling Scandal
Investigators say players from at least 17 NCAA Division I men’s basketball teams were involved. Games tied to McNeese State and other Louisiana programs were listed as part of the investigation. Other Louisiana schools named include Nicholls State, Tulane, Northwestern State, and New Orleans.
Several players with Louisiana college ties were named in the federal indictments. Carlos Hart, Cedquavious Hunter, and Dyquavion Short all previously played at the University of New Orleans. Kevin Cross played at Tulane, and Oumar Koureissi played at Nicholls State.
None of these players is currently with these schools; Hart and Koureissi both remain in college basketball and are currently playing. Hart at Eastern Michigan and Koureissi at Texas Southern.
How McNeese State Is Connected to the Investigation
Prosecutors say the scheme moved into U.S. college basketball during the 2023–24 and 2024–25 seasons, with players allegedly paid between $10,000 and $30,000 per game to underperform so gamblers could win bets.
According to a report from NBC, gamblers recruited Oumar Koureissi and Diante Smith of Nicholls State to allegedly underperform in a Feb. 17, 2024, game against McNeese. That night, McNeese won 74-47 and easily covered the 12-point spread. Smith, who is not named in the indictment, scored 13 points after averaging 16 per game that season, while Koureissi scored zero points after averaging 4.1.
A second incident took place on December 28, 2024, in Lake Charles, when New Orleans faced the Cowboys. McNeese was favored widely by 23 points, which they won 86-61, covering the spread and the bettors winning their bets.
McNeese is not accused of any wrongdoing, and no McNeese players or staff are named in the case. The school is listed only because it was the opponent in a game investigators believe was affected. The investigation remains focused on individual players, not the McNeese basketball program.
On Thursday, NCAA President Charlie Baker released a statement on the incident:
The NCAA runs one of the largest integrity monitoring programs in the world and has implored states to eliminate prop bets because of the integrity risks those bets pose. The Association also has no commercial partnership with any betting company of any kind.
Protecting competition integrity is of the utmost importance for the NCAA. We are thankful for law enforcement agencies working to detect and combat integrity issues and match manipulation in college sports.
The pattern of college basketball game integrity conduct revealed by law enforcement today is not entirely new information to the NCAA. Through helpful collaboration and with industry regulators, we have finished or have open investigations into almost all of the teams in today’s indictment.
Our enforcement staff has opened sports betting integrity investigations into approximately 40 student-athletes from 20 schools over the past year. While some of the investigations are ongoing, 11 student-athletes from seven schools were recently found to have bet on their own performances, shared information with known bettors, and/or engaged in game manipulation to collect on bets they — or others — placed. This behavior resulted in a permanent loss of NCAA eligibility for all of them. Additionally, 13 student-athletes from eight schools (including some of those identified above) were found to have failed to cooperate in the sports betting integrity investigation by providing false or misleading information, failing to provide relevant documentation and/or refusing to be interviewed by the enforcement staff. None of them are competing today.
The Association has and will continue to aggressively pursue sports betting violations in college athletics using a layered integrity monitoring program that covers over 22,000 contests, but we still need the remaining states, regulators and gaming companies to eliminate threats to integrity — such as collegiate prop bets — to better protect athletes and leagues from integrity risks and predatory bettors. We also will continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement. We urge all student-athletes to make well-informed choices to avoid jeopardizing the game and their eligibility.