If you are a college basketball fan, March is the greatest month of the year.

But with March Madness upon the nation, at least one player may be in need of a federal crimes attorney due to a developing scandal involving point shaving at Auburn University.

The play involved is Auburn point guard Verez Ward. He is currently under investigation for shaving points in at least two games this season. For those not familiar with the term point shaving, it essentially means that Ward is accused of intentionally missing shots and trying to manipulate the final score in order to affect the final score, and help co-conspirators win money on sports gambling.

Most sports books have what is called a point spread. It is the amount of points one team is favored to win by over another team. People bet on if the favored team will win by more or less than the point spread. When one missed free throw could be the difference between winning or losing a bet, having a player in the actual game under a gambler’s control is a huge advantage and also a federal crime.

In the mid to late 90’s a similar scandal hit the campus of Arizona State University with 5 men eventually being sentenced to various prison terms, including one former ASU basketball player.

With so many college basketball players coming from underprivileged backgrounds, they become easy targets for bookies offering quick cash in return for a few missed shots in a basketball game.