The UConn Huskies men’s basketball program has been notified that a former head coach was knowingly allowing violations to occur during his tenure. The head coach was said to have, “failed to monitor his staff and did not promote an atmosphere of compliance.” This wording is mostly associated with the most egregious violations, such as in the Louisville basketball scandal. Inside the NCAA tweeted out the report:
Former UConn men’s basketball coach violated NCAA head coach responsibility rules by failing to monitor his staff and promote an atmosphere of compliance. https://t.co/KtQBoU7E64
— Inside the NCAA (@InsidetheNCAA) July 2, 2019
While the coach in question was not named, it is not hard to make an educated guess who the man is. Kevin Ollie was fired last summer due to NCAA violations that UConn Huskies found in their own internal investigation. Those infractions focused on improper contact with recruits and not being truthful during the investigation to the school or NCAA.
The new allegations from the NCAA deal with student-athletes participating in too many pickup games. The coaching staff knowingly had student-managers attend these pickup games, record stats, and take them back to the coaching staff. They also included a video coordinator as a coach, exceeding the allowable number of coaches on staff, and impermissible benefits were given to student-athletes by team boosters.
The punishments handed down are as follows:
- Two years of probation.
- A three-year show-cause order for the former head coach. During that period, any NCAA member school employing him must restrict him from any athletically related duties unless it shows cause why the restrictions should not apply.
- A vacation of records in which men’s basketball student-athletes competed while ineligible. The university must provide a written report containing the contests impacted to the NCAA media coordination and statistics staff within 45 days of the public decision release.
- A limit of 12 men’s basketball scholarships during the 2019-20 academic year, a reduction by one from the allowable 13 scholarships (self-imposed by the university).
- Recruiting restrictions, including:
- A one-week ban on men’s basketball unofficial visits during the 2018-19 academic year (self-imposed by the university) and a two-week ban during the 2019-20 academic year.
- A one-week ban on recruiting communications in men’s basketball during the 2018-19 academic year (self-imposed by the university).
- A reduction of four men’s basketball recruiting-person days during the 2018-19 (self-imposed by the university) and 2019-20 academic years.
- A one-visit reduction from the permissible number of official visits in men’s basketball during the rolling 2018-19 and 2019-20 two-year period.
- A $5,000 fine (self-imposed by the university).
