Less than two weeks after being suspended over allegations that he punched one of his players in the face during a game, Morgan State men's basketball coach Todd Bozeman was reinstated Thursday night, The Baltimore Sun reported.
Bozeman was accused of striking senior point guard Larry Bastfield before yelling at him in front of the crowd late in the Jan. 7 road victory at South Carolina State, prompting the school to suspend the coach with pay and launch an investigation into the incident.
Clinton Coleman, a spokesman for Morgan State president David Wilson, told The Sun that the "results of the [university's] investigation were inconclusive."
"We look forward to having Coach Bozeman back at practice Friday and on the bench on Saturday," Coleman said.
Bozeman, who always claimed the contact with Bastfield was accidental, said Thursday he was "happy" to be back with his players, but declined to answer further questions about the incident.
His attorney Ricky Lefft, however, said his client should never have been suspended in the first place.
"If the findings were inconclusive, a suspension was not appropriate. They punished him and damaged his reputation irreparably," Lefft said.
Bastfield backed his coach's account of the incident, saying that Bozeman had inadvertently bumped him in the chest.
It was not the first time the 48-year-old Bozeman has found himself in hot water during his coaching career. Bozeman spent four years at Cal from 1993 to '96, but was fired after admitting he gave $30,000 over two years to the parents of a recruit.
He spent the next decade out of college coaching until Morgan State hired him in 2006.
