| | Associated Press
LAS VEGAS -- UNLV's basketball program, no stranger to
problems with the NCAA, was placed on four years' probation Tuesday
for violations that included a booster's payment of $5,600 to Lamar
Odom and the failure to monitor recruiting visits.
The penalty -- which included a one-year postseason ban -- came
despite UNLV's attempt to minimize its problems by imposing its own
sanctions earlier this year.
ESPN.com also has learned head coach Billy Bayno was fired Monday night.
The governing body also ruled that UNLV cannot participate in
outside tournaments or travel next season and will have to reduce
one more scholarship for the next two seasons.
The NCAA said it was concerned the violations were "very
similar" to those in a 1993 infractions case involving UNLV, and
expressed concern that university officials did not appear to
accept responsibility for some of the violations.
It stopped short, however, of imposing the "death penalty" of
shutting down the program despite finding that UNLV is a repeat
violator because the violations occurred within five years of the
penalties imposed in 1993.
In its report, the NCAA's Committee on Infractions said the
university "should have had a heightened sense of vigilance"
about the basketball program.
UNLV must also show cause why it should not be penalized further
if it does not disassociate itself from a local dentist who
allegedly made the payments to Odom and a local attorney and
booster.
In September, UNLV said it would voluntarily cut one scholarship
and have coach Bill Bayno spend more time at the university
administering to the program in an attempt to satisfy the NCAA's
investigation.
That didn't prove enough, however, as the NCAA went beyond
UNLV's admissions of certain violations to find even more itself.
The most serious of the accusations centered on the payment of
$5,600 to Odom, who now plays for the Los Angeles Clippers, by UNLV
booster and Las Vegas dentist David Chapman. Part of the money
allegedly was paid while Odom was enrolled in a summer class at
UNLV.
Odom never played for UNLV, but the NCAA said he got some $4,000
of the cash before the university decided in July 1997 not to allow
him to enroll at the school.
A current UNLV player, Chris Richardson, was earlier suspended
for part of this season for lying to NCAA investigators about how
he acquired a bed for his apartment.
UNLV was put on probation in 1993 for violations in the
recruitment of Lloyd Daniels when Jerry Tarkanian was still the
coach. Tarkanian was involved in a long-running battle with the
NCAA.
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