SMU basketball has received a postseason ban and scholarship reductions, and head coach Larry Brown will be suspended for 30 percent of SMU’s games this season because of an NCAA investigation that uncovered academic improprieties, the NCAA announced Tuesday.
The NCAA report states that a former men’s basketball administrator gave a student-athlete improper academic assistance. It says the administrator “obtained the student’s username and password then completed all of his coursework” for an online course needed for the player to be eligible to the university. The player received false credit and therefore played while ineligible during his freshman season.
The administrator also lied during her interviews with the NCAA Infractions Committee and attempted to influence a student-athlete to lie during his interview as well. But the NCAA could not conclude whether someone within the program told the administrator to complete the coursework.
The report does not name anyone, but most of the investigation focused on whether the former administrator and former assistant coach, Ulric Maligi, helped guard Keith Frazier with coursework. Maligi left SMU in January 2015 and did not return to the team. He was not charged with any violations in the report, but the former administrator’s alleged academic fraud was at the core of the investigation.
The NCAA concluded Brown did not directly know about the situation, but decided he did not take proper steps to “ensure a culture of compliance within his program.” The committee also found that Brown did not report the possible misconduct to SMU’s compliance staff, athletic director, president or NCAA for more than a month. He initially lied to the NCAA enforcement staff about his knowledge of the misconduct.
Brown has also been given a two-year show-cause penalty that lasts until Sept. 28, 2017. He must attend a NCAA Regional Rules seminar during each year of the show-cause period, and SMU must document it.
SMU was also hit with a three-year probation period that runs through Sept. 28, 2018, a $5,000 fine, plus one percent of the total budget from the basketball program and the loss of nine scholarships over three years.
SMU will get credit for its self-imposed two-scholarship reduction for 2015-16 (SMU currently has 11 scholarship players, two less than the maximum 13). That brings it down to seven scholarships over three years. SMU will also have to vacate wins from 2013-14.
SMU’s men’s golf team also received a postseason ban because former head coach Josh Gregory (also not named in the report) made “64 impermissible contacts with 10 prospects and seven parents of prospects over the course of 10 months.”
The contacts came well before coaches are permitted to directly communicate with recruits. The report also says that a booster contacted nine recruits and “facilitated contact between the former golf coach and the recruits and their families.”
Gregory admitted to contacting recruits when he knew it was impermissible. He told the NCAA that he did not know of the booster’s activity, but the investigation concluded that he lied.
Golf and basketball will be prohibited from hosting recruits on unofficial visits during a 13-week period in the summer of 2016 and a seven-week period during the spring of 2016. The basketball program self-imposed a reduction of 20 off-campus recruiting days.
