Minnesota Likely to Avoid New Sanctions

The NCAA is unlikely to impose additional sanctions on Minnesota in light of new allegations of academic cheating in the men’s basketball program under former Coach Clem Haskins, an official said Thursday.

The NCAA would look at documentation from the school, but a new investigation was unlikely without substantially new information, an NCAA official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The NCAA’s Committee on Infractions sanctioned Minnesota last year after its investigation found that former tutor Jan Gangelhoff had completed hundreds of pieces of coursework for players from 1994 to 1998. The committee said the rules violations were among the worst it had seen in 20 years, but the panel added only slightly to the university’s list of self-imposed sanctions, which included a one-season ban on postseason play and a reduction in basketball scholarships.

Earlier this week, the university filed new documents in its lawsuit to recover the $1.5 million it paid Haskins to buy out his contract. The papers contain testimony from two former secretaries in the men’s basketball department who said they did coursework for players as far back as 1986, starting not long after Haskins became coach at Minnesota, dating back about seven years earlier than the previously alleged cheating.

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Five years after UCLA fired his father for lying about an expense account, Georgia assistant coach Jim Harrick Jr. has admitted that his media-guide biography exaggerates his playing career and academic honors.

The Georgia media guide says Harrick Jr., who joined the Georgia staff in May, played on two Pepperdine teams that made the NCAA tournament and was twice a member of the West Coast academic all-conference Team.

Harrick Jr., 35, made one NCAA tournament appearance at Pepperdine. He missed another because he went to junior college to improve his grades. He told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he received a different academic award, not the one listed in the bio.

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Jamal Holden has left the UNLV basketball team. The 6-foot-10 junior center from Tulsa, Okla., informed Coach Charlie Spoonhour on Tuesday of his decision to quit the team.

Holden was released from his scholarship one day after he missed practice without permission, the school said.

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The University of Albany fired Coach Scott Beeten after the team started the season 1-7. Assistant Will Brown was named interim coach.