SJU: Red Storm Revisited

St. Johns University enacted a number of self-imposed sanctions last week after concluding its inquiry into allegations by a former mens basketball player that an employee of the school provided him with cash funds.
The St. Johns inquiry, conducted jointly with the NCAA, found evidence to support the former players claim, referred to as a violation of the NCAAs "extra-benefit" rules, and that these infractions involved only one student-athlete.
As a result, St. Johns has chosen to immediately institute penalties for the 2004-2005, 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 seasons that it believes are in line with sanctions the NCAA has levied in comparable cases.
A two-season probationary period begins at the present time, with a ban from NCAA post-season play this year, a two-year reduction of financial aid awards, one per season, for this year and next. Despite the postseason ban, the Big East Conference may vote to allow the Red Storm to play in their conference tournament, held at Madison Square Garden in March.
In addition, consistent with NCAA practices, St. Johns will forfeit wins and return 90 percent of the monies it received from NCAA post-season championship competition in which the individual student-athlete participated while he was ineligible. But the school will not be forced to give back the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) championship of 2002-03.
The University has also contracted with Bond, Schoeneck & King, a recognized expert in NCAA compliance, to conduct a full audit of its athletics compliance program and make recommendations for enhancements.
The NCAA is also conducting an investigation of their own, where they will announce if there are any further sanctions that they feel need to be instituted.
The sanctions come after St. Johns President, Father Donald J. Harrington C.M. cleaned house, bringing on former Queens College and Archbishop Molloy coach and Illinois and Kansas assistant coach Norm Roberts, in hopes of returning the Red Storm to their glory days of the 1980s.
But now, the black cloud that Roberts seemed to be moving the university out of has returned. The probationary period is a direct outgrowth of the Mike Jarvis era of 1998-2003, when he was fired after a 2-4 start and had several off-the-court problems with many of his players.
Adding insult to injury, the Red Storm (1-2) recently were blown out in their road debut at Niagara, 102-81. Even worse, on the day they renamed Alumni Hall "Lou Carnesecca Arena" after their legendary coach, they fell to St. Francis College, 53-52 the first time the Terriers beat St. Johns since 1956.
zbraziller@queenscourier.com