Candid Coaches: Have you ever wondered or known if one of your players fixed a college basketball game?

This is the latest survey question in our annual Candid Coaches feature. College basketball insiders Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander polled nearly 100 men's Division I coaches in the thick of the offseason on a variety of questions about the sport. Honesty was exchanged for anonymity. Question No. 6 is a big/troubling issue looming over all of college athletics.

An errant pass to one player when another was open.

A lazy attempt at a retrievable rebound.

A lack of hustle when an opportunity seemed right there for the taking.

These things happen all the time in college basketball. Usually, they're just mental slips, fatigue, miscommunication or other mishaps organically playing out.

But what if they're not? What if they're behaviors rooted in malicious intent? What if there's something much more dangerous prowling in plain sight? College basketball has dealt with a handful of cases in recent years where players were found to have either attempted to fix games or sham their personal stat lines in an effort to make money through gambling. There have also been instances where players were busted for betting on their own teams' games, which is against NCAA rules and can also lead to criminal charges.

It's happened at Fresno State and Fordham , Arizona State and San Jose State and ... Abilene Christian, Alabama State, Buffalo, Coppin State, DePaul, Eastern Michigan, Kennesaw State, La Salle, New Orleans, Nicholls, North Carolina A&T, Northwestern State, Robert Morris, Saint Louis, Southern Miss, Temple and Tulane .

Surprised by the number? That's the point of putting this question in this year's survey. While there is yet to be a huge scandal in this decade that's captured the country's attention, college basketball has endured a spate of gambling-incited pyres across its schools and conferences. It's an ever-lurking problem.

What do the coaches think? What have they thought, or wondered, or been curious of inside their own programs? We asked:

Here's your headline: Nearly 100 coaches surveyed and more than 1-in-4 told us they've seriously wondered if at least one of the players they've coached has been on the take.

That's an ALARMING ratio, and an honest return on something that should capture the attention of everyone across college basketball and even beyond at the NCAA level right here, right now. Access to gambling has never been more prevalent. Advertisements are unavoidable if you consume sports even on a casual basis in this country.

So it's no surprise that we've had sporadic instances of athletes getting busted for game-fixing and illegal wagering on their own teams.

Near the end of my interview process, one of the last coaches I spoke to, a head coach in the Big Ten, asked me how many coaches answered "yes" to this question (after he answered "no"). I told him my return at that point was around 20% in the affirmative.

"That's a serious, serious problem," he said.

Now, a lot of the coaches surveyed had blunt and/or casual "no" answers. The idea of one of their players actually engaging in this kind of activity has never entered their mind. But this should be the baseline expectation. So for more than 25% of our polling population to at least admit to having seriously wondered about it, this feels close to a crisis. Given how much time these coaches spend with their players, how well they know the flows of the game of basketball ... it probably stands to reason that at least a few of those coaches may have been onto something.

The other interesting angle on this: Three mid-major coaches CBS Sports polled answered in the negative, but said there were instances where they thought in real time — or were curious while watching the tape afterward — if a player on an opposing team was on the take.

"Around the time many of these stories popped up this spring/summer, I was re-watching several of our games from the past year," one coach said. "Some players played so poorly at times that I did actually wonder if they had been compromised."

Said another: "During games I always wonder what on earth an opposing player on the other team is doing with some of his decision-making so that raises an eyebrow during the game, but never on my own team."

Probably a dozen coaches I spoke with brought up something that's simultaneously obvious and yet still under-discussed: Eliminating the possibility of players fixing games or artificially adjusting their own stat lines to clear a bet needs to consistently be at the top of the priority list in college athletics. One afternoon seminar in the preseason is not sufficient. This is not an issue that can drift off the radar or be put on the back-burner. There needs to be continual tracking and quality control done at these schools, and constant reminders in the offices and hallways that all of this can and will be monitored. Relying on third-party watchdog firms isn't sufficient either.

If a sport does not carry true credibility of its competitions, then it has nothing. If the games are proven or presumed to be compromised due to crooked participants, everything falls apart.

College basketball is as vulnerable, if not the most vulnerable, of any major American team sport. Hundreds of mid- and low-major programs can be a breeding ground for players looking to make more money in a gambling-drenched culture. And given how rich a lot of high-major players are in this era, it stands to reason there will be players at lower levels who look from afar with some envy before turning to other methods to try and increase their personal payouts.

The NCAA, for its part, has remained dogged in its pursuit of overseeing and doing its best to surveil game-fixing. But one game altered is one too many. And there's already been far too many scares, as detailed at the top of this story. When will we get the next one? Whenever it happens, no one can say they're surprised. The gambling spigot in this country is not getting turned off. And now we know there's too m...

Indexed and credited by AIPROPX. Originating outlet: CBS Sports. Open at source →