Lawyers deliver closing remarks in USC coach’s bribery trial

BOSTON (AP) — A former water polo coach at the University of Southern California facing bribery and fraud charges was just doing what he could to raise money for his dominant, championship-winning program as athletic officials at the elite Los Angeles school had demanded, defense lawyers argued Thursday as the latest trial in the sprawling college bribery scandal wrapped up in Boston federal court.

Jovan Vavic’s lawyer, Stephen Larson, also said in his closing remarks that the 60-year-old, who guided USC’s men’s and women’s water polo teams to 16 national championships, was always acting in the best interests of the school and his team, never lied and never took a bribe.

“Yes he was trying to get money for his team, and yes he was doing whatever he could legally,” he said. “It is clear Jovan Vavic wanted to recruit some water polo players who could be legitimately admitted to USC and whose families could donate to USC. That was his mindset.”

But Assistant U.S Attorney Leslie Wright painted it as a clear-cut case of “quid pro quo,” or “this in exchange for that.”

She said Vavic took more than $200,000 in bribes to fake athletic credentials and designate college applicants as water polo athletes to get them into USC.

He also helped recruit others to the scheme, Wright said, pointing to wiretap transcripts in which Vavic called the arrangement a “win-win” situation and where he encouraged a fellow coach with doubts about the scheme to “just do it.”

“The defendant’s own words tell you what you need to know,” she told the jury, which is expected to begin deliberations after the final remarks are completed and after receiving instructions from the judge.

Vavic is the only coach of the many implicated to challenge in trial his role in the scheme, which involved wealthy...