NCAA Investigation Could Lead to Sanctions Against the SMU Basketball Program

SMU Mustangs head coach Larry Brown discusses the game during the post game press conference after defeating East Carolina Pirates 77-54 at Moody Coliseum in University Park, Texas, Saturday, January 17, 2015.

SMU went before the committee of infractions in June and was expected to learn about any potential sanctions before the season started.

The penalties stem from an NCAA investigation into whether members of SMU’s coaching staff helped former McDonald’s All-American Keith Frazier with the coursework he needed to become eligible to play for the Mustangs. “An institution’s head coach shall promote an atmosphere of compliance within his or her program and shall monitor the activities of all institutional staff members involved with the program who report, directly or indirectly, to the coach”.

Maligi has since left the SMU program.

The harsh punishment comes 28 years after the NCAA meted out its “death penalty” to the SMU football team. He serves as a national scout for John Lucas Enterprises.

SMU has 15 days to appeal the NCAA’s verdict.

Frazier was also the focus of a Dallas ISD investigation into changed grades when he was in high school. Frazier and Maligi were then implicated in a cheating scandal at Kimball.

Like Brown, Boeheim was found not to have any knowledge of the violations while they were occurring. Brown told The News on July 30: “I’m confident we’re going to move on and continue to try to do the right thing”.

It’s a major setback for SMU. A 2011 case led to the program, under former coach Matt Doherty, being placed on two years’ probation for impermissible text messages sent to parents of recruits, and failure to implement corrective actions.

Spectacular success, followed quickly by severe NCAA violations.