Randy Breuer, at star basketball player for...

Randy Breuer, at star basketball player for the University of Minnesota in the early 1980s, said he would never recommend the school to recruits because of the way the university handled three players charged with rape.

Breuer was referring to the events of Jan. 24 when basketball players Mitch Lee, Kevin Smith and George Williams were arrested in Madison, Wis. after a basketball game and later charged with rape.

University of Minnesota President Kenneth Keller lambasted the players, saying they would never again be welcome at Minnesota.

“I couldn’t come to terms with the way the university seemed to proclaim the three players guilty right off the bat,” Breuer said. “The university was 180 degrees from the Constitution. Instead of ‘innocent until proven guilty,’ the university’s stance was ‘guilty until proven innocent.’ ”

The three players were later acquitted by a Madison jury.