Just a heads up, we're putting the finishing touches on a feature story about 2018 Notre Dame hoops signee Chris Doherty that is being written by our intern, Dean St. Laurent.

Doherty has an interesting story and it's one he was happy to tell and we're grateful he shared it with us.

One key person in his story is T.J. Gassnola, the director of his AAU program.

Full disclosure, I've known Gassnola for about 30 years. He's a close family friend and there have been extended periods of my life when I've seen TJ on an almost-daily basis.

If you've followed the recent college basketball scandal, the name may sound familiar to you. He recently pleaded guilty for his part in the scandal, essentially providing money to recruits on behalf of adidas and college programs.

Doherty's friend and fellow ND signee Nate Laszewski played for the same AAU program. It's important to note Notre Dame hasn't been implicated in any way - and why would they considering ND is an Under Armour school and not an adidas one? Also, I'm not sure of any allegations involving any player from the New England Playaz program.

Now, I'm biased here, but I'm also in a unique position as somebody who has known Gassnola almost my entire life. He's made mistakes no doubt, but I know who he is as a person. Obviously, everybody is entitled to their opinion regarding the breaking of NCAA rules - and laws for that matter - and Gassnola will certainly have to pay the price for his actions, but again, understand there is much, much, much more to him as a person than this.

I wanted to get this post out now though so if anybody had comments or questions about Gassnola's involvement, we could do that here and not in the comments section of a story on Chris Doherty.