Monday, April 9, 2012

Report: Baylor exceeds limits on calls, texts

WACO, Texas (AP) ? The Baylor basketball programs may be in trouble with the NCAA after an investigation found that coaches made more than 1,200 impermissible calls and text messages to prospects over a 29-month span dating to 2008.

ESPN.com reported the violations Monday, citing an NCAA report it had obtained. NCAA spokeswoman Stacey Osburn told The Associated Press that the NCAA had not released the report and would not comment. Baylor officials did not respond to requests seeking comment.

The report lists a number of self-imposed penalties, including barring women's coach Kim Mulkey from recruiting off campus in July and fewer scholarships for both programs. The NCAA may dole out harsher penalties.

The Baylor women's team won the national championship last week, capping the first 40-0 season in NCAA history. The men's team, coached by Scott Drew, won a school-record 30 games and reached an NCAA regional final, where it lost to eventual national champion Kentucky.

According to the summary disposition quoted by ESPN.com, Mulkey, Drew and their assistants were involved in sending 738 impermissible text messages and making 528 impermissible calls. The violations were termed "major" because of their frequency, and they mar an otherwise banner year for Baylor athletics.

Mulkey was named AP's national coach of the year and Brittney Griner was AP national player of the year. Drew's team spent much of the season in the top 10 and star quarterback Robert Griffin III became the school's first Heisman Trophy winner after leading the Bears to 10 wins for the first time since 1980.

According to the report, Griner's recruitment was part of the investigation into the women's program.

The report said Mulkey and her staff committed minor NCAA violations for having impermissible contact with Griner and her family. During the school's 2007 camp, coaches spoke with the Griners about the basketball program, academic requirements and the school in general both before and after the camp.

Mulkey also reportedly broke NCA rules when she sat next to Griner's father and discussed what the Baylor experience would be like. Brittney Griner, who is from the Houston area, played on the same AAU team as Mulkey's daughter, Makenzie Robertson.

Besides keeping Mulkey off the recruiting trail in July, Baylor said it has barred one of her assistants, Damion McKinney, from making recruiting calls since January. McKinney's call ban ends May 1.

The school also reduced its women's basketball scholarships from 15 to 13 in 2011-12.

FOXSports.com reported in October 2010 that the NCAA was investigating the men's program's recruitment of Hanner Perea. The FOXSports report said assistant coach Mark Morefield sent dozens of texts to Perea's AAU and high school coaches while they were coaching events, which is against NCAA rules.

The report cited Monday by ESPN.com also said Morefield urged two AAU coaches to provide false and misleading information to the NCAA about a series of text messages ? a major violation. Morefield resigned in July 2011.

Current men's assistants Paul Mills and Jerome Tang also were named in the report. The school reportedly prohibited Drew and Tang from making recruiting calls in January and February this year, and reduced the maximum number of official recruiting visits to campus from 12 to seven in 2012-13.

Drew demonstrated a "failure to monitor" the activities of two of his assistant coaches and there also was an overall "failure to monitor" by the institution, according to the report.

The report also said there were 405 additional impermissible calls and text messages from nine different sports, ranging from football to the equestrian program, from January to July 2011.

The NCAA violations come nine years after Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy was found shot to death after he had been missing for six weeks. Teammate Carlton Dotson pleaded guilty to murder. The ensuing investigation uncovered NCAA violations, illegal tuition payments and unreported failed drug tests that led to the resignation of coach Dave Bliss, who was secretly recorded by an assistant coach of trying to persuade others to cover up misdeeds by portraying Dennehy as a drug dealer.

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