SMU Basketball Banned From Postseason, Head Coach Larry Brown Suspended Nine Games

The NCAA just hit the Southern Methodist University men’s basketball program with some heavy sanctions, including a one-year postseason ban, scholarship reductions, vacation of wins, and a nine-game suspension for head coach Larry Brown. This is all happening because an NCAA investigation revealed that a former administrative assistant did a player’s coursework for him.

From the NCAA’s press release:

A former assistant men’s basketball coach encouraged a student-athlete to enroll in an online course to meet NCAA initial eligibility standards and be admitted to the university. After he enrolled in the course, a former men’s basketball administrative assistant obtained the student’s username and password then completed all of his coursework. The student-athlete received fraudulent credit for the course and, as a result, competed while ineligible during his freshman season. When speaking with NCAA enforcement staff, the student-athlete admitted that the former administrative assistant asked him to provide false information during the interview. In its decision, the panel noted it is very troubled that academic advising was administered by athletics staff.

Brown apparently didn’t know about this when it happened, but failed to tell the NCAA about it in 2014, so he’s been hit with the “failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance” penalty.

The NCAA’s release doesn’t name the player or the administrative assistant, but ESPN reports that Keith Frazier is the player who had his coursework done for him. Frazier played 27 minutes per game as a sophomore last season, averaging 10 points and four rebounds per game.

[ NCAA]

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