NCAA announces ACC basketball team has been suspended from 2019-20 postseason play
By Keith Farner
Published:
Georgia Tech basketball is barred from the 2019-2020 NCAA postseason as part of sanctions handed down on the program Thursday, the NCAA announced.
The crux of the news centers on two Georgia Tech boosters who reportedly provided “impermissible benefits” to the program. The program was given four years of probation for major recruiting violations committed by a former assistant coach and an ex-friend of coach Josh Pastner.
“Both sets of violations occurred because men’s basketball coaching staff members invited outside individuals into their program,” the committee said in the decision. “They permitted these outside individuals to interact with their student-athletes, and those actions resulted in violations.”
The sanctions handed down Thursday by the NCAA also included a reduction in scholarships, limits on recruiting and a fine of $5,000 plus 2 percent of the program’s budget.
The initial violations came during the recruitment of a “highly touted prospect.” A second booster was found to have given two Georgia Tech basketball players and one potential transfer with more than $2,400 in “shoes, clothes, meals, transportation and lodging.”
Here are some of the other penalties facing the program:
- Four years of probation.
- A 2019-20 postseason ban for the men’s basketball team.
- A fine of $5,000 plus 2 percent of the men’s basketball program budget.
- A reduction of one men’s basketball scholarship during each year of probation.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
