The NCAA threw the book at Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim.
No, they didn’t give him a show-cause like they did many a Vol fan’s favorite coach four years ago. Bruce Pearl wasn’t a blue-blood like Boeheim, though.
Pearl was a fantastic coach with a charismatic personality. His run with Tennessee to the Elite Eight in 2010 was as good a coaching job as we’ve seen. Boeheim, on the other hand, is a Hall of Fame coach with a title and four Final Fours on his resume. Boeheim is more than just a coach. He’s an institution. This is why the NCAA deemed him too big to fail.
So, they spared Boeheim the embarrassment of a show-cause and an unceremonious end to a stellar career despite allegations of academic fraud, booster issues, and failed drug tests that were swept under the rug during his last 12 years at the school.
Instead, the NCAA destroyed Syracuse’s ability to win in the ultra-competitive ACC by handicapping the Orange three scholarships per year for what would seem to be the rest of Boeheim’s career.
They also erased a good portion of Boeheim’s legacy by forfeiting more than 100 of his wins. That may not seem like a lot to you and me, but it drops the Hall of Famer from second on the all-time wins list to seventh.
Make no mistake, Boeheim felt the NCAA’s wrath regardless of the fact that he was spared a show-cause. That’s exactly why Tennessee fans shouldn’t read into Boeheim’s punishment when considering Donnie Tyndall’s fate.
Boeheim was hardly implicated directly in any of his school’s indiscretions. Still, in the eyes of the NCAA, Boeheim was the CEO of the program, and the committee on infractions found him responsible for what went on under his watch. In other words, ignorance was no excuse.
Donnie Tyndall’s Southern Miss program is alleged to have provided impermissible benefits to players and committed academic fraud to get players eligible to enroll at the school while he was coach.
Tyndall’s defense to the NCAA is his assistants committed the infractions without his knowledge. The Syracuse case shows the NCAA doesn’t have to directly tie a coach to cheating to throw the book at him. The days of plausible deniability are seemingly behind us.
That doesn’t mean Tyndall is sure to meet Bruce Pearl’s fate. The NCAA did negotiate the punishment with Syracuse and allowed them to keep a National title that otherwise would also have been forfeited.
Tyndall has one of the best attorneys in cases like this, and maybe he can convince the NCAA a lengthy suspension is punishment enough given Tyndall’s claims of ignorance.
Either way, the best-case scenario for Donnie Tyndall in this case could be a 10-game suspension with recruiting limitations for the next few years.
That alone may be enough for Tennessee to decide to move on. The Vols are now two years behind in the recruiting process with this NCAA mess hanging over their heads.
This year’s team finished .500, and next year’s team will feature mostly the same cast of characters but without the leadership and scoring of All-SEC guard Josh Richardson.
Realistically, Tennessee may be looking at another .500 season next year and hope to contend for a tournament spot in 2017.
When the NCAA does rule, Tennessee will have a tough choice on their hands regardless of the outcome. Will the Vols be so far behind in the recruiting process that Dave Hart simply decides to hit the reset button with the program? I’m told there’s language in Tyndall’s contract that would allow Tennessee to fire him for cause if he faces NCAA punishment.
Or has Tyndall shown enough to Hart with his remarkable on-court coaching ability that UT rides out the storm, regardless of how long it takes for the Vols to win at a high level again?
We don’t know. We do know however that the Syracuse case doesn’t necessarily show precedent for how the NCAA will deal with Tyndall and Southern Miss.
And, if it did, it may not bode well for Tyndall either way.
