Sanctions Won't Halt Post-Season for Tennessee State

By Tamika L. Jefferson
Black College Wire

Photo credit: Tennessee State University Tennessee State senior guard Josh Cooperwood scores two of his 32 game-high points in the Tigers' game at nationally ranked Kentucky a year ago.

Tennessee State University's men's basketball program will be allowed to participate in post-season games despite sanctions imposed last fall by the National Collegiate Athletic Association for rules infractions, an NCAA official said.

The violations were not serious enough to justify a post-season ban, said Shep Cooper, director of the NCAA Infractions Committee.

The penalties stemmed from such infractions as holding impermissible off-season practices in the Gentry Center, a local YMCA; and providing recruiting inducements to at least 10 prospective student-athletes in the 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons under former head coach Nolan Richardson III.

The NCAA said the penalties were lenient because the athletic department imposed penalties on itself. It eliminated one scholarship during the 2004-05 season, reduced to 10 the number of expense-paid visits for prospective players for this season and next, and ensured that no coaches from last season remained employed by the athletic department.

Richardson�s assistants were Hosea Lewis, who is the housing director at Tennessee State, and Chris Graves, who coaches basketball at Columbia High in Columbia, Tenn.

�Having a chance to compete in the OVC and NCAA is great,� said Cyrus Alexander, new men�s head basketball coach, referring to the Ohio Valley Conference. Not having that opportunity �would have been a major setback and a killer to our program as it relates to the new coaching staff trying to recruit good, quality players for the next three seasons."

Prospective players "wouldn�t have wanted to come to TSU and not be able to play in the NCAA. We�re fortunate and we�re happy. . . . We can tell the young men coming in that we can play in the post-season, if we are good enough.�

NCAA officials said Tennessee State�s cooperation was commendable and met the standard of what was expected of an NCAA member -- but not so exemplary as to preclude the imposition of additional penalties.

Men�s basketball programs at California State University at Fresno and the University of California at Berkeley committed the same violations, yet both schools were ineligible to participate in post-season play.

The NCAA's Cooper said Tennessee State was considered a �repeat� violator as a result of violations within the football program under former head coach L.C. Cole. Officials from that program appeared before NCAA's infractions committee in 1999 and it was placed on three years' probation.

Cole, head football coach at Alabama State University, is again under investigation for similar violations.

The infractions committee also determined that Richardson ignored the principles of ethical conduct by knowingly operating Tennessee State�s basketball program contrary to NCAA legislation. The committee concluded that Richardson provided false and misleading information to Tennessee State and to the NCAA enforcement staff.

�When you are guilty, there is no reason for you not to say that you are,� said Teresa Phillips, director of athletics for Tennessee State since spring 2002. �Most of the punishments were self-imposed and we will continue to move forward. Although the punishments have an impact, it won�t hold the program down.�

The Tigers have not made a trip to the NCAA tournament since the 1993-94 season under head coach Frankie Allen. Tennessee State then finished 19-12 and 12-4 in the Ohio Valley Conference and lost 70-83 against Kentucky State University in the first round. Under Allen, the university made it to the OVC tournament during the 1998-99 season, losing 68-75 against Middle Tennessee State University.

Tamika L. Jefferson, a student at Tennessee State University, is sports editor of The Meter.

Posted Jan. 20, 2004