Louisville men's basketball, women's volleyball slugged by NCAA sanctions

The nine violations in the men's basketball and women's volleyball programs involved extra benefits, recruiting, financial aid, institutional control and ethical conduct.

The Division I Committee on Infractions handed down other penalties as well, including a reduction of scholarships in both sports. The volleyball team forfeited three scholarships over the next two years, the basketball program one in each of the next two seasons.

The basketball program's postseason ban also will include this season's Conference USA tournament.

AP PHOTO Louisville's Alvin Sims and the rest of the Cardinals won't be playing in the NCAA tournament this season. The basketball program was put on probation for a year.

"We had nearly 100-percent agreement with the NCAA Enforcement staff on all facts of the case," Louisville president John Shumaker said. "The NCAA's response has been tough but the sanctions are fair and I respect their conclusions."

The allegations came to light early last year and, following an investigation that produced hundreds of pages of testimony, the NCAA in April issued a formal letter of inquiry into both programs.

The letter labeled the alleged violations as "major," including a charge of "lack of institutional control" in the volleyball program.

The university acknowledged seven of the volleyball infractions involving recruiting violations and rules prohibiting extra benefits for athletes or their families. It disagreed with the two other allegations, that it did not sufficiently educate volleyball coach Leonid Yelin about NCAA rules and that then-assistant basketball coach Scooter McCray obtained a discounted hotel rate for the father of forward Nate Johnson.

Louisville was placed on probation for two years in 1996 after an investigation unearthed questions concerning former player Samaki Walker's use of two cars in 1995.

Because the new violation involving the basketball program occurred within five years of the starting date of the previous penalties, the committee applied its repeat-violator provisions to the case, said Bonnie Slatton, the committee's acting chair.

"It's fair to say the (postseason) ban was primarily because of the repeat violator status," Slatton said. "Under the repeat-violator penalties, we could prohibit all competition for two years in a sport. We chose not to do that."

Neither Yelin nor basketball coach Denny Crum were present at the afternoon news conference.

"Certainly, I'm deeply disappointed and saddened by the decision," Crum, who was on a recruiting trip, said in a statement released by the school. "Regardless of the outcome of the decision, I am ultimately responsible for our basketball program and I feel bad that it has had such a negative effect on our program and this university."

After the investigation was made public, the university reprimanded Crum, transferred McCray to an administrative post and froze both their salaries. It also suspended Yelin for a month without pay and froze his salary, reprimanded an assistant volleyball coach involved in many of the violations and canceled the volleyball team's preseason trip to Japan last year.

Slatton said the committee took those internal sanctions into account before imposing its penalties.

Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich said he did not know whether the school would appeal the penalties.

"I rate any penalty as severe no matter what it is because I hate like hell to be in this situation," Jurich said. "I want to be a stand-up, take-my-medicine kind of person. I want our department to understand that we've made some mistakes and that it's not OK to break the rules.

"Then we're going to have to sit down and figure out where we want to go on this. It (an appeal) has not been ruled out but it is not what we're focusing on at this time."

09-23-98