Missouri Gets Probation, Too

Missouri became the second school this week to be banned from the NCAA basketball tournament next March when it was placed on two years’ probation Thursday for recruiting violations.

On Wednesday, Illinois was barred from postseason play and placed on three years’ probation. Both schools’ scholarship allotments were also reduced as part of the penalties.

Shortly after the decision was announced, Missouri assistant coaches Rich Daly and Bob Sundvold resigned, effective at the end of the season.

Sundvold triggered the Missouri investigation when he reported that he had bought a plane ticket for P.J. Mays, who the NCAA said received a semester’s worth of scholarship money even though Missouri knew he was ineligible.

The NCAA Committee on Infractions said Coach Norm Stewart’s program “operated over time without direct accountable control by the university.”

It also said Stewart “delegated many of his responsibilities to his assistants, and neither the assistants nor the head coach maintained records, checks and balances or identifiable processes for institutional control, which could have been used to reconstruct their actions.”

The NCAA said the laxity led to violations that included use of an improper recruiting agent in Detroit, scholarship payments to an ineligible player and small cash payments to other players.

Missouri was also prohibited from paying for visits by recruits for one year, and will be limited to one basketball scholarship for one year and to two the next year.