.vresize.36.36.medium.0.png){kind=small}
.vresize.36.36.medium.0.png){kind=small}
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Mike Alden is standing by his man.
For now, at least.
"Shoot,
after 20 months, you know, I'm just — I think of all of us are just
pleased (to say), 'Good, let's go ahead and get this, go ahead and deal
with it and move forward,'" Alden, Missouri's athletic director, said
when asked late Tuesday night about NCAA notice of allegation sent to
his embattled men's basketball coach, Frank Haith.
"You know,
I'm looking forward to working with Frank for a long time. And he's done
great things here with us, and we look forward to continuing to do
great things.
"And I'll be just glad that we've got it, we can deal with it, and move forward. So it'll be good."
Although
in this case, "good" is relative. According to reports, Haith's old
employer, the University of Miami, was given notice by the NCAA earlier
in the day for "lack of institutional control" within its athletic
department. That notice included allegations against Haith, who coached
the Hurricanes from 2004-11.
"I did get a notice of
allegations," Haith said after his Tigers upset No. 5 Florida, 63-60, at
Mizzou Arena. "I did spend some time with Mike right this evening after
the game (to explain it).
"Contrary to what was reported, there
was no unethical conduct in my notice of allegations. And it's just
allegations, so we'll get a chance to defend ourselves. My attorney's
here, and he's going to forward that to Mike (Alden) and his staff here
(Tuesday).
"The biggest thing I want to tell you is: I'm glad this thing is almost over with. Thank you."
Former
Miami booster Nevin Shapiro has alleged that Haith was aware of a
$10,000 payment to then-Hurricanes recruit DeQuan Jones. Haith and
Jones' family have denied the charges.
CBSSports.com had
reported that Haith was expected to face NCAA charges for unethical
conduct and failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance at Miami.
An
unethical conduct charge against Haith could have led to a three-year
show-cause penalty from the NCAA, a potential career-killer.
Miami
is contesting further sanctions, and Haith is expected to do the same,
especially as the NCAA has revealed Monday that the investigation was
compromised by payments to Shapiro's attorney.
An external
review of the NCAA's practices revealed that roughly 20 percent of the
information gathered during the Miami investigation was "tainted" and
will be thrown out.
Haith has 90 days to respond in writing. And as to whether his job with the Tigers would be in danger...
"Well,
again, we haven't seen anything; Frank just filled me in right before
the press conference and everything," Alden said. "And I'm just glad,
again, that we'll have some resolutions.
"It's 20 months. Are you kidding? Really? Twenty months. How... interesting this process has been, if I may say it that way."
Like
the Hurricanes, the Tigers just want a swift resolution — and the
quicker, the better. When asked if he still had faith in the NCAA's
process after it admitted wrongdoing in the Miami investigation, Alden
paused.
"I don't know if I really am in a good position to talk
about that right now," the Mizzou administrator replied. "It's certainly
has been a very interesting time, and certainly the pattern of what
we've seen has been really interesting.
"So I know that there
are probably many of us out there that certainly have been probably
surprised by a lot of these things, and how those things get dealt with
going forward, I think that's a pretty big national issue. So I'll look
forward to seeing how the NCAA recommends that they're going to be
dealing with some of those things going forward... no, but with us,
we're glad there's gong to be some closure, so this can move forward."
You can follow Sean Keeler on Twitter @seankeeler or email him at seanmkeeler@gmail.com
