Tuesday morning in a 60 page report the NCAA released its findings after investigations into Southern Methodist University’s men’s basketball and men’s golf programs. The investigation found SMU guilty of committing multiple serious infractions. The basketball program was found to have committed violations of academic fraud, unethical conduct and coach Larry Brown was found not to be in control of his program. As a result of the findings, the men’s basketball program and Brown were hit hard by the NCAA with penalties. The men’s basketball program will lose nine scholarships over three seasons, coach Brown will miss 30% of his team’s games this season, and the Mustangs will not be allowed to compete in the post-season following the 2015-16 season. The NCAA also served Brown with a two-year show-cause order. The coaching veteran will have to attend mandatory NCAA Regional Rules meetings over that two year period.
The investigation into the men’s basketball program centered around highly recruited, top prospect, Keith Frazier. According to the NCAA’s 60 page report “A former men’s basketball administrative assistant, hired by the head men’s basketball coach, engaged in unethical conduct by impermissibly assisting a highly recruited prospective student-athlete to obtain fraudulent academic credit. The former men’s basketball administrative assistant committed an additional act of unethical conduct when she provided false or misleading information during the investigation and failed to cooperate in later stages of the investigation.” The NCAA was able to find that the administrative assistant completed work for an online class that Frazier used to raise his GPA before enrolling at Southern Methodist. However the NCAA was unable to prove that anyone within the athletic department or basketball program, including Brown instructed the assistant to engage in the academic fraud.
There is no doubt the NCAA came down hard on SMU and in particular coach Brown, but can you blame them?
While Brown has been cleared of direct involvement or knowledge of academic misconduct, sadly NCAA penalties are nothing new to either Larry Brown or SMU. Tuesday’s finding mark the tenth time Southern Methodist University has been found to have committed level I NCAA infractions. The most famous of those infractions resulted in the 1987 “Death Penalty” that was handed down to the Mustang football program after student-athletes were found to have been given $61,000 in extra benefits among other violations. Prior to his arrival in Dallas, Brown had on the court success at both of his previous collegiate stops. However at both UCLA and Kansas, coach Brown was found to have committed major NCAA violations.
With each having a troubling history with the NCAA, why would SMU hire Larry Brown?
Simply put, he was hired to win. Larry Brown’s resume included a Final Four championship at Kansas, title appearance at UCLA, and a NBA championship. Brown was hired by SMU in 2012. After posting a losing record (15-17) in his first season, Brown was able to guide the Mustangs to 27 wins and a trip to the NIT in 2013-14. Last season SMU again won 27 games, an AAC title and made a trip to the NCAA’s.
Winning is great, but Southern Methodist University and coach Larry Brown once again find themselves in trouble with the NCAA. Yet, SMU is standing behind their guy. In a press conference held yesterday afternoon to discuss the sanctions, SMU president R. Gerald Turner reassured reporters that Brown was the right man for the job. “Coach Brown has my full support moving forward, obviously, you can see from some of the things in the report there’s adjustments we’re going to have to make; there are adjustments we’ve made, and he’s very much involved in those too. We intend for him to be our basketball coach in the future.” There is no guarantee that if SMU had not hired Larry Brown that they would not find themselves in this current situation. Hindsight is 20/20, but someone at SMU should have had the foresight to see that the partnership between Brown and the university simply too big of a risk to take. By hiring a coach who had twice been hit with NCAA sanctions, they greatly increased the chances of finding themselves in their current predicament. It seems that a desire to win at all costs has once again bit SMU.
Feature image via L. DeLuca/Dallas Morning News
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