Fansided

SMU, Larry Brown sanctioned by NCAA

By Jonathan Bass

Feb 16, 2014; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Southern Methodist Mustangs head coach Larry Brown watches the game during the second half against the Temple Owls at the Liacouras Center. Temple defeated SMU 71-64. Mandatory Credit: Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 16, 2014; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Southern Methodist Mustangs head coach Larry Brown watches the game during the second half against the Temple Owls at the Liacouras Center. Temple defeated SMU 71-64. Mandatory Credit: Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports /
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SMU and head basketball coach Larry Brown have run afoul of the NCAA.

The SMU Mustangs’ basketball program will be banned from postseason play in 2016 after the NCAA deemed it had committed several rules infractions. On Tuesday, the governing body of college athletics announced that head coach Larry Brown fostered an environment that lacked institutional control, and ruled that along with the postseason ban Brown would be suspended for the team’s first nine games.

"“The head basketball coach failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance within his program,” the NCAA said. “He failed to report the violations when the former administrative assistant committed academic fraud on behalf of the student-athlete and he initially lied to enforcement staff about his knowledge of the potential violations.”"

According to ESPN, the infractions that Brown inhibited were committed by former assistant coach Ulrich Malgi.

"The NCAA did not name Maligi or (Keith) Frazier when announcing the sanctions but did say a former assistant encouraged a player to take an online course to meet initial eligibility requirements and then fulfilled that coursework for the player."

The NCAA alleges that Malgi worked around compliance measures to ensure that guard Keith Frazier would be eligible for his freshman season in 2015-16. It also NCAA states that Frazier, “received fraudulent credit” for his course and “competed while ineligible” that year.

Frazier was ruled ineligible during the latter half of his sophomore campaign in 2014-15 due to academics. SMU appealed the ruling, but was shot down by the NCAA. At the same time of Frazier’s benching, Malgi, not-coincidentally took a leave of absence.

Larry Brown in now three-for-three in running afoul of the NCAA while coaching in college. His 1980 championship game appearance with UCLA was vacated on account of players receiving improper benefits. And despite winning a national championship with Kansas’s 1988 Danny and the Miracles club, the Jayhawks were banned from postseason play the following year due to recruiting violations during Brown’s tenure.

Aside from the 2016 postseason ban and Brown’s suspension, SMU will also be docked 20 days of off-campus recruiting, lose the ability to host unofficial visits during the summer of 2016, have its number of permissible phone calls to recruits shortened and lose nine scholarships over the course of the next three seasons.

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