St. Mary’s President: “We Are Not Perfect”

It was a rough day for St. Mary’s College basketball today as the NCAA closed a two year investigation on the team.

The investigation was for alleged recruiting violations mainly committed by former assistant coach, Keith Moss. Moss spent only one year with Gaels. The alleged violations have to do with the recruitment of three players from France. The major violation was the offering of shoes and workout gear.

None of the French players were offered scholarships from St. Mary’s. It should be noted that this has NOTHING to do with the St. Mary’s Australia connection and recruiting.

The charges were specifically for impermissible benefits and recruiting conduct by a former assistant men’s basketball coach; impermissible off-season training sessions for student-athletes; and, perhaps most serious, charges of a “failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance” and a “failure to monitor” leveled against head coach Randy Bennett. Based on those findings, the NCAA came down hard on the Gaels this morning issuing the following biggest sanctions:

• The Gaels are on four years’ probation.
• Coach Bennett will face a five game suspension to be implemented next year at the start of WCC play.
• The Gaels lose 2 scholarships per year for the next four years. They normally have 13, they are reduced to 11.
• Limited to 85, from a maximum of 130, the number of recruiting person days available to the men’s basketball coaching staff during the 2012-13 and 2013-14 academic years.
• The head men’s basketball coach will be restricted from off-campus recruiting for the 2013-14 academic year. [Note: the institution self-imposed that the head coach not engage in recruiting activity during the July 2012 recruiting period and that he be prohibited from off-campus recruiting during the April 2013 recruiting period.]
• During the 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 academic year, the institution may not participate in a multiple-team event.
• On a positive note, the Gaels will not be banned from post-season play tournaments. This includes both the WCC tournament as well as NCAA play.

According to President Ron Gallagher the Gaels will “accept the findings of the report, but will consider an appeal”.

Additionally, Brother Ron gave praise to the work of Coach Bennett and mentioned that he teaches collegiate athletes much more than just basketball. Brother Ron also said that coach Bennett, “understands the seriousness of these charges and our high expectations of every member of our community”.

Finally Brother Ron mentioned that the college should, “hold our heads high, as we have acted in good faith, sought out the truth and then took the appropriate corrective actions. We, like any institution, are not perfect, but we are now stronger”.

This is the first major NCAA violation for the Gaels. The team self-enacted sanctions of themselves, but the NCAA apparently did not give that much weight.

Also not taken into consideration was the fact that these violations were committed by a one year assistant coach that is no longer with the team. The question here is how severely should a team be punished for offering shoes and workout gear to players considered for possible recruitment by a one year coach who left the team? Apparently the NCAA says severely .Welcome to EditPad.org – your online plain text editor. Enter or paste your text here. To download and save it, click on the button below.