Missouri assistant basketball coach Bob Sundvold, who...

Missouri assistant basketball coach Bob Sundvold, who is accused of violating National Collegiate Athletic Assn. rules by buying airline tickets for a then-Missouri player, has been suspended with pay.

The suspension is pending the completion of an investigation by Athletic Director Dick Tamburo and faculty representative Carl Settergren into Sundvold’s Dec. 27 report of the violation regarding his purchase of the airline tickets for P.J. Mays in October, 1988.

In a Nov. 16 conversation taped by Mays’ mother, Yvonne, Sundvold reportedly admitted that he paid for two airline tickets for her son and asked Mrs. Mays to tell a Missouri athletic department official that there had been a misunderstanding about who bought the tickets.

“The University of Missouri has a proud history of integrity in athletics,” Tamburo said in a statement. “And it’s because of that tradition that I must react strongly to any improprieties in our program.”

Sundvold, 33, is in his 11th season on Coach Norm Stewart’s staff.