Ten months ago, Tony Bland woke up in a hotel room in Reno, Nevada, and came to a dramatic realization: He had slept through the night. “I went for a five-mile run because I had so much energy,” Bland told Hoops HQ. “It was like, I made it through. My body just finally decompressed and said, everything is okay.”
Bland was an assistant coach for Washington at the time, and the team was in town to play at Nevada that night. Over the previous eight years, he had done everything he could to avoid sleeping in a hotel. When he had to do so, he tried to get someone to stay with him. And when a roommate wasn’t available, he barely slept.
The source of all that restlessness arrived on Sept. 26, 2017, when Bland, who was then an Associate Head Coach at USC, was staying at the Ritz-Carlton in Tampa during a recruiting trip. He was awakened not by a burst of sunlight but rather a very loud knock. When he opened the door, Bland was swarmed by a team of FBI agents. He had no idea why.
“Try to imagine what that was like,” he said. “You’ve got automatic machine rifles pointed at your head and you have no idea what’s going on. You’re getting slammed against the wall, you’re getting handcuffed, people in riot gear are running through the hotel room. For that to happen, especially where I’m from, that was a very traumatic experience.”
The operation was part of a nationwide sweep that led to the arrests of 10 men, including four assistant college basketball coaches, who were subsequently charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York on multiple counts of bribery, fraud and conspiracy. Later that afternoon, a prosecutor from the SDNY proclaimed in a press conference that his office was poised to blow open widescale corruption in the sport. (“We have your playbook,” he declared.) It took nearly two years, but eventually the case fizzled out and produced no more arrests, although seven of the 10 men who were pinched that day served prison time.
In the months that followed, it was hard to imagine that Bland could have a future in college coaching, much less at a blue-chip program. But that is exactly where he has landed, having accepted an assistant’s job at Kansas on Aug. 20. “There was a long time where I thought I was going to have to change career paths,” Bland said. “I hoped I would be back on the sideline one day and really didn’t care where it was. I didn’t know it would be at a place like Kansas. The people here have really wrapped their arms around me and supported me. It feels like home.”
That is a remarkable destination considering the long and torturous road that preceded it. Six weeks after his arrest, Bland was charged in a federal indictment with accepting a $13,000 bribe in exchange for directing USC players to financial agents. Two months later, he was fired by USC. In January 2019, Bland pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. The amount cited was $4,100. Bland insisted from the start that he did not accept any money, and he maintains that he only accepted his plea deal so he could avoid prison and dispose his case. He was eventually sentenced to two years’ probation and 100 hours of community service.
Once all the SDNY cases were concluded, the NCAA launched its own investigation using information that was unearthed at the trials. That verdict arrived on April 15, 2021, when the NCAA placed USC on two years’ probation and levied Bland with a three-year show-cause penalty.
As Bland was slogging through his legal troubles and draining his 401(k), his wife Tasia suggested he find some work in philanthropy to keep himself busy and inspired. Together they launched Y-Not (his first name spelled backwards), a foundation aimed at using sports to help at-risk youth. Bland was considered to be at-risk himself while growing up in the Watts section of Los Angeles. He became a star at Westchester High School and went on to play for Syracuse and San Diego State before getting into coaching. “Starting that foundation really helped me get back into the swing of things of helping kids,” Bland said. “It allowed me to get out and get back into the community.”
Every time Bland thought he was at a dead end, a path forward materialized. He got a big dose of help from Trevor Ariza, the 18-year NBA veteran who also played for Westchester High and offered to cover Bland’s legal fees. When Ariza pressed Bland on why he didn’t ask for help, Bland replied, “Because everybody asks you for money.”
“Yeah, but everybody didn’t help me make it,” Ariza said.
Bland’s work with Y-Not connected him with a larger organization in L.A. called Brotherhood Crusade, which serves 100,000 inner city youth each year. During the 2020-21 basketball season, the coach at St. Bernard High School, a private Catholic school based in Playa del Rey, asked Bland if he would hang around the team and offer advice. When the coach left for a job in Nebraska, the principal tapped Bland as his replacement. Just like that, he was back on the sideline.
During Bland’s first season as head coach, he led St. Bernard to a Division 1 Southern Section championship. He also served as athletic director and did some substitute teaching. As Bland was making his way through his basketball purgatory, he heard from many friends around the industry who sought to keep his spirits up. It made him wonder whether he might get a second chance after all.
One of those friends was Danny Sprinkle, who got to know Bland while Sprinkle was an assistant coach at Cal State Northridge and Cal State Fullerton. During the final season of Bland’s show-cause, Sprinkle, who was then the head coach at Utah State, let Bland know that he would be interested in having him on his staff. When Sprinkle got hired by Washington in the spring of 2024, he made good on his promise.
“Everybody knew he was a superstar,” Sprinkle told Hoops HQ. “I know how passionate he is about helping kids. I enjoy giving second chances, but I don’t just hand them out. I know Tony’s character, I know what type of guy he is, and I knew he could impact our program.”
Bland was worried that Sprinkle might get resistance from his new bosses, but that was not the case. “The people at Washington from day one were amazing,” Bland said. “I hoped that they would respond that way, but it was still nerve wracking.”
The Huskies struggled to a last-place finish during their first season in the Big Ten, but after it ended, Bland helped Sprinkle put together a top-five transfer portal class. Washington’s hefty NIL budget was a big reason, but the haul reminded people that Bland was still one of the best in the business at procuring talent.
He was preparing for his second season in Seattle when he got a surprise phone call in August from Kurtis Townsend, the longtime assistant at Kansas. The KU staff had an unexpected opening after Chase Buford left to join the Denver Nuggets. Townsend wanted to know if Bland would be interested. Bland wanted to jump at the opportunity, not least because it came with a hefty pay raise, but he dreaded the specter of abandoning Sprinkle after just one season.
Bland called Sprinkle and started to stumble his way through an explanation. Sprinkle stopped him before he could finish. “Kansas?” he said. “You’ve got to take that.”
The next day, Bland was in a dentist’s chair when Self called to offer the job. When Self asked when he could get to Lawrence, Bland replied, “How many hours do you need?” Bland went home, packed a few bags, and was on a plane the next morning. “I would have flown out that day if it wasn’t so late,” he said.
Bland alighted in Lawrence, moved into a hotel, and got right to work. Over the last four weeks he has been busy conducting workouts, coaching at practice, making countless phone calls and flying around the country in hopes of helping Self to build an elite recruiting class. Bland’s family will remain in L.A. this winter while his son finishes his senior year of high school. Tasia and their two youngest children will move to Lawrence next year. Bland recently moved into university housing and plans to find a more suitable residence as soon as he gets a window. In the meantime, he is working around the clock and loving every minute.
This Friday will mark the eight-year anniversary of the morning Bland heard that ominous knock. His journey since then has not been easy, but he is grateful to be awakened once more by sunlight, and for the comfort of knowing that everything is finally okay. “Maybe it’s a testament to being a good person and work ethic and all that stuff. Maybe it’s just where I’m supposed to be at. I don’t know, but I do know that it feels good,” he said. “My whole life has been wrapped around basketball, from playing to training to coaching. Now I have a chance to say, this is where I belong. I’m going to do a great job and try to win a national championship at Kansas.”
