Purdue Hoops On Probation

The NCAA on Wednesday slapped Purdue with a two-year probation for major rules violations in the men's basketball program and recommended the university be forced to pay more than $380,000 in penalties, sanctions school officials decried as excessive and baseless.

The Boilermakers were spared bans from postseason tournaments or restrictions on television appearances, and head coach Gene Keady was not cited. But athletic director Morgan Burke said the school would appeal the decision within an NCAA-imposed 15-day deadline, saying the evidence does not support such a harsh discipline.

"The penalties in some cases seem inappropriate and in other cases excessive," he said. "I'm shocked, to be honest with you."

The Committee on Infractions cut a scholarship from the men's basketball team, limited recruiting visits to the school and recommended the NCAA force Purdue to pay back most of the proceeds from appearances in the NCAA tournament, a penalty of more than $380,000.

The NCAA Committee on Infractions ruled the university violated rules regarding recruiting, extra benefits and ethical conduct. There were also several secondary violations by the NCAA champion women's basketball team, though none was considered serious and no sanctions were leveled against the program.

Most of the sanctions involved assistant coach Frank Kendrick, who met with then-recruit Jamaal Davis in the summer of 1996 during a period when coaches are barred from contact with recruits and allegedly helped secure a loan for former player Luther Clay.

Kendrick later admitted telling Davis to lie about their contact to NCAA investigators, and Purdue fined him an undisclosed sum and forbade him to recruit off campus for 10 days during the official recruiting period that began in November 1996.

But school officials maintain he did not improperly secure the $4,000 loan, which the NCAA found was never repaid, minimal effort was made to collect the balance and eventually was charged off by the bank after Clay transferred to Rhode Island following the 1995-96 academic year, the NCAA ruled.

Burke said the university disputes the NCAA's finding that the loan was improperly obtained, insisted that the bank assured Purdue the loan was handled like any normal transaction and said the bank was pursuing repayment.

"The evidence produced on this issue doesn't seem to be of a kind on which a reasonable, prudent person would rely in the conduct of serious affairs," he said. "There appears to be contradictions in the record."

The NCAA banned Kendrick, who is still on Keady's staff, from off-campus recruiting for a year, and the Boilermakers will lose a scholarship for the 2000-01 and 2000-02 academic years, limiting the men's basketball team to 12 scholarships for those seasons. The university will be limited to four paid recruiting campus visits during the 1999-2000 and 2000-01 seasons.

he committee also found that a booster violated NCAA rules by making arrangements for former Purdue guard Porter Roberts' mother to move to Indianapolis and providing her with transportation to home games.

Burke disputed the NCAA's assertion that the man had any ties to the university.

Because of the loan provided for Clay, the committee recommended the NCAA force the school to repay up to 90 percent of the revenues generated from the Boilermakers' appearances in the 1996 and subsequent men's NCAA tournaments. David Swank, an Oklahoma law professor who chairs the Committee on Infractions, said it was also recommended that Purdue collect only 10 percent of revenues from possible tournament appearances the next three seasons.

"Any time you recommend that the (NCAA) Championship Cabinet take $380,000 from an institution, that's a severe penalty, and particularly the fact that there will be a similar sum in the next three years," Swank said. "That is an extremely severe penalty in this case."

Swank said a decision on that matter most likely would be delayed until next year if Purdue appeals the decision.

All team and individual records from the 24 games during the 1995-96 season in which Clay participated will be vacated, including Purdue's NCAA tournament appearance that season in which the Boilermakers were a No. 1 seed but lost in the second round.

Big Ten assistant commissioner Lisa Ryan said a conference committee will consider the NCAA sanctions and make any decisions on whether to strip the 1996 team of its conference crown, something that hasn't happened in recent memory.

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