The NCAA hit the Southern Methodist Mustangs men’s basketball program with sanctions today following its investigation into academic issues surrounding the team. Per ESPN’s Jeff Goodman and Andy Katz, the NCAA banned SMU from the 2016 postseason, suspended head coach Larry Brown for 30 percent of the season, and SMU also lost nine scholarships over the next three seasons.
SMU has been hit with a postseason ban for this season & Larry Brown suspended for 10 percent of this season’s games, source told ESPN.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) September 29, 2015
SMU will also be hit with nine scholarship losses over the next three years, source told ESPN. Were two under last season.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) September 29, 2015
Source: SMU's Larry Brown will be suspended for 30 percent of the season, likely nine games which is similar to Syracuse's Jim Boeheim.
— Andy Katz (@TheAndyKatz) September 29, 2015
The allegations against SMU stem from an investigation into Mustangs guard Keith Frazier, who allegedly received help with his coursework from members of the coaching staff. According to a report from Jeff Eisenberg of Yahoo, Frazier was encouraged to enroll in an online course that would help him meet academic requirements, but then an assistant obtained Frazier’s username and completed the work for him, thus allowing him to play as a freshman in the 2013-14 season. Frazier was ultimately declared academically ineligible for the second half of last season, and Eisenberg reported that the severity of the punishment also had to do with Brown and his staff not being entirely forthright during the investigation.
Thus continues the trend of Larry Brown going to coach in the college ranks, succeeding, and then the program being found to have committed NCAA violations. The same happened when Brown was at UCLA and Kansas. Considering how SMU has gone 69-34 in three years under Brown, won the American Athletic Conference championship last season and made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1993, not to mention has three returning starters this season, the postseason ban hurts especially.
On top of that, SMU higher-ups surely knew the risks of hiring Brown given his history with the NCAA, so this doesn’t look good on the university’s part either.
It just goes to show that though Brown has been in the coaching game for decades, both on the collegiate and professional level, old habits die hard, and now his refusal to abide by simple rules could very well affect his overall legacy.
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports
