“The Scheme” humbly paints a series of circumstances that would not afford the nation’s preeminent college athletics organization the same benefit of the doubt. It’s absolutely incredible. The film is a dutiful retelling of Dawkins’ experiences and isn’t shy about extending blame to a nationwide network of covert player payments that multiple people maintain have been in place for at least a generation. It’s truly mind-boggling to me that the college basketball corruption case even happened. If you love college basketball and college sports in general, you have to watch “The Scheme” on HBO. The film tells the tale of the infamous college basketball corruption scandal from the viewpoint of Christian Dawkins. The result is a straightforward, few-frills retelling of the web of conversations that ensnared Dawkins and led to the charging of a number of his regular collaborators from inside college teams and apparel companies alike. The headlines that dropped on Dawkins, Pitino, and others emerged from a deeply broken system, one that punishes players for minor offenses while making millions off their talents. The star of director Pat Kondelis’ “The Scheme” is not a player with a famed buzzer-beater to his highlight reel or a flurry of stats to plug into prospect algorithms. Reviews The Scheme Brian Tallerico March 27, 2020. Dawkins grew up in Saginaw, a high school basketball hot spot that has produced major players like Draymond Green. Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! He’s the main reason “The Scheme” works, someone who can look at all of this nonsense and see it for what it is. By all accounts, as demonstrated in a series of damning phone calls, he was not the only one. Clearly, the plan was to get just enough on Dawkins to turn him to then dismantle the system further, but Dawkins didn’t play along. 'Lovecraft Country' Finale Review: Season 1 Is Beautiful, Bonkers TV -- and Little Else, 'Industry' Trailer: HBO High-Pressure Finance Drama Sets November Release Date, See the Emmy Winners and Presenters from the 2020 Virtual Ceremony, 10 Must-Watch Shows Arriving at Peacock's Launch. ‘The Scheme’ Review: College Cheating Scandal Doc Hints at a Bigger Problem Pat Kondelis’ HBO film explores one of the unseemly corners of college athletics. During some time isolating from coronavirus, I fired up the documentary and was sucked in immediately. His brother looked like the next NBA star but he died at a tragically young age from an undiagnosed heart condition. Now streaming on: Powered by JustWatch. He was negotiating shoe deals for players in high school. Christian Dawkins explains his … And it’s well-told. But with relative whispers about the myriad other programs that are supposedly on the take, “The Scheme” can only gesture at something definitive. And Dawkins is charmingly defiant about all of it. “The Scheme” airs Tuesday night at 9 p.m. on HBO. “The Scheme” charts Dawkins’ rapid ascent from a teenage would-be mogul to a cog in the ever-churning player agent machine to the self-proclaimed fall guy for a system that became nationwide headline fodder in late 2017.