The hammer comes down
Talk about casting a pall over a program.
UH learned its punishment from the NCAA today, and it was as close to a worst-case scenario as you could get.
A postseason ban next season, coupled with two reduced scholarships (down to 11) for the next two seasons. Add that together and it’s a crippling blow for new coach Eran Ganot.
Our breaking news write-ups about it are here and here.
The situation is summed up by a quote we were given from someone close to the program: “We got crushed.”
UPDATE: At an afternoon press conference with athletic director David Matlin, Ganot and Manoa chancellor Robert Bley-Vroman, each said basically that while the ruling was disappointing, there are no plans to appeal it right now. However, they did not totally discount the possibility of an appeal after the UH legal team fully reviews the NCAA’s paperwork.
Ganot said, “From Day 1, we came in knowing there could be some challenges ahead, some uncertainty. Obviously we got some clarity today. Like Dave said, disappointing news. But it is what it is; we’re not going to pout about it. We’re going to tackle these things head on and move forward.”
UPDATE: A couple of UH players weighed in on the situation.
Aaron Valdes said on Twitter: “We still got a season to play and a NCAA tourney to make This year we just have to stay focused. Either you’re with us or against us.#UHMBB”
Stefan Jankovic messaged the Star-Advertiser: “I don’t really follow any of that stuff … I’m just focused on beating Northern Iowa today. I can’t really control any of that stuff.”
Players will be free to transfer out of the program without a one-year penalty, the NCAA confirmed in a conference call this morning. (That was the only question they took before they disconnected the Q&A session in lightning-quick fashion.)
UPDATE: Both players signed in the fall for 2016, Long Beach Poly guard Drew Buggs and Australian point Matt Owies, said they will honor their commitments to UH.
UPDATE: UH women’s hoops coach Laura Beeman voiced her support for Ganot and his vision for the program on Twitter and to our Jason Kaneshiro on the phone after her team won 76-73 at San Jose State in the afternoon.
Proud to work w/ @EranGanot & his staff. Love what our MBB team stands for. We will get through this together!
— Laura Beeman (@LauraBeeman) December 22, 2015
Beeman: “It’s unfortunate but we have to weather it. You can’t sit back and complain about it. We’re going to get through it. I’ll do whatever I need to do to help Eran and his staff and his players get through this.
“It’s a little unfortunate the NCAA was as steep and stiff as they were even after our self-imposed sanctions. I was hoping they wouldn’t come down quite so hard. Unfortunately it seems like sanctions always affect the future and not the past.
“You have to let the system and the process run its course and all we can do now is support Eran.”
Meanwhile, ex-UH coach Gib Arnold received a three-year “show cause” order by the NCAA. His camp came out with statements saying they were mostly pleased with the result.
Here is the link to the full release by the NCAA.
Oh yeah, and the Rainbows still have a game to play tonight — on national TV.
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This got totally overshadowed with the NCAA stuff, but the 2016 Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic field was announced today.
The eight team field is: Hawaii (Big West), Illinois State (Missouri Valley), San Diego State (Mountain West), San Francisco (West Coast), Southern Miss (C-USA), Stephen F. Austin (Southland), Tulsa (American), and Utah (Pac-12).
Trust me, the NCAA can’t take away UH’s ability to play in its own tournament.
Thanks, Gib. Glad to see you are “mostly pleased”. You dump your mess for others to clean up, pocket your bucks, and go to work for NBA. Everyone pays but the guy who created the problem. Hope Poorboy and all the Gib apologists are “mostly pleased” just like their hero Gib. Sad day for men’s basketball. What a legacy the Arnold family has here! Good trivia question. What father/son head coaches did most damage to UH hoops?
From the NCAA investigation it sounds like UH and it’s compliance officer Amanda Paterson is part of the blame as well, in fact a substantial part of the reason!!! She and Gib obviously did not get along and it ended up hurting the program big time.
Enough with blaming compliance office Amanda Psyerson. It is Gib’s kuleana to abide by rules and he didn’t, period. Don’t see Paterson suspended for three years. Time for Gob supporters to step up and admit he screwed up the program by shading rules and then lying to NCAA. What a guy! And he walks away with pocketfuls of cash. Classy…
Go read the NCAA report!! You obviously haven’t..
#4. Yup. Read the report, not just the newspaper report, then comment.
Looks like the 2016 field going suck rock. No power 5 school other than Utah. This year get OU…..Auburn….WSU,…and some perennial powerful “smaller” schools like New Mexico……BYU….and Northern Iowa.
Maybe the big name schools heard about the sanctions and no like play UH.
Hoosier:
Just cool it… Always MBB fan, maybe as long if not longer than you..
been through the first NCAA probation/ sanction.. rough times, and a great/ good man Red Rocha was pushed out/ terminated to Parking oversight..after one down 15 win year with Tom Henderson.
This is 21st century, and everyone is pushing for their rights, at whatever cost, even bullying.. that is uncalled for.. warriorfan
You are correct.. Hoosier, step back LOOK at that NCAA release, Amanda Compliance, a big part of the mess.. and Admin even MORE so. responsible.
Gib had a case, a chance.. he took it at 200k for legal fees. won the LD settlement for 700k and now got some of infractions reduced for him. lesser sanction for him as potential ncaa coach again.. If he and his legal team HAD NO CHANCE. they would have been blown right off of the planet..
Live and learn. don’t blame me or others disagree with you. Blame vaunted UH Manoa.. they have a huge role in this NCAA probation part II.. am I happy ? No.
sad that MBB will be damaged for awhile. however. Amanda and UH kept infighting at bay.. a lot of the NCAA things would never have happened or to a much smaller extent.
go Bows/
Warriors..
Appeal it! The NCAA showed no leniency toward Hawaii. We fired Arnold right away
and imposed scholarship reductions among other things. What do we have to lose?
Yet they give Gib a slap on the wrist and he was the cause for all this mess.
At least the sanctions don’t affect other programs like volleyball. I remember when Penn State suffered sanctions, they spread across all sports, reducing heir scholarships. Thus Ali Longo and her boyfriend, Jason, transferred to our respective volleyball programs.
Fib Arnold took the job to clear the family name. At first, it appeared that he would do so, winning games against, albeit, sub-level competition. Hey, he had a 18 or 20 game win bonus in mind, eh.
Duped weren’t we all. ..?
In the end the truth always surfaces. The Fibber still won’t admit to his skullduggery. Shame on you.
Fool us once, fool us twice.
No more Arnold’s in this house.
…nuff said
Lol!! Knew Poorboy and his ilk would see any ruling as vindication for Gib. And I think it was him who said Gib would get his job back. Hilarious. Good riddanc!
Arnold is gone who cares, Paterson was part of the problem and she is still around.
Okay. Read the report, the one with the heading Head Coach violates NCAA ethical conduct rules. Yes, there was a sentence that said many of the violations could have been avoided had the coach and compliance director been able to maintain a professional relationship. I read nothing about administration or compliance office violating ethical conduct. Hard to oversee a program where the Head Coach figures he is more important than anyone else and tells players and coaches to keep things on the down liw. And Gib’s mouthpiece is great. We weren’t convicted of murdering the person but only convicted of giving him dirty lickin’s. Oh, that’s okay then. makes me wonder if this guy has any moral compass at all. Sounds like it’s all about the Benjamins. Rant on Poorboy et al. Doesn’t change the fact this guy was bad news and will cost UH a lot in the long run
its interesting to note that Amanda gets called out by the ncaa for her unprofessional relationship with gib. They even say several of these infractions could have been prevented if they just had communicated. As this whole fiasco started unfolding, the university painted Amanda as the saving grace and the innocent compliance officer that’s being att led by Gibs camp. Fast forward to this week, she gets a promotion then word comes out that she was part of the problem and her department did an insufficient job. I think she should be held more accountable for for her lack of professionalism and the penalty the program received. It’s impossible to say how many less violation would have occurred or what the penalty could have been.
It’s Gibs fault too but, it’s up to her and her department to keep communication open between her and the coaches regardless if they have their differences and to make sure they stay compliant. Maybe another self imposed penalty should have been parting ways with the compliance officer for a poorly performed job. It’s like that meme, you only had one job!
We got rid of the coach, admitted wrong doings and worked with the NCAA but still got hit pretty hard. Reason one we’re not Kentucky, 2 we’re not North Carolina and 3 we’re not Louisville. No strippers for recruiting and no strippers taking test for the players.
The NCAA noted the following in their findings:
Due to her strained relationship with the former head coach, the director of compliance at times distanced herself from the men’s basketball program. During the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons she did not conduct any “spot checks” of practices, she never checked on activities of prospective student-athletes during their official paid visits, and she admitted to being “a little lax” on documenting on-campus evaluations of prospective student-athletes. In the same way that the former head coach exhibited animus toward her, she was at times openly hostile toward him. She once told former assistant coach 2 that she would “not lift a finger” to help the former head coach. She reported an NCAA rules violation regarding the men’s basketball program to the conference office without informing any member of the men’s basketball staff. During the investigation into this case, she had phone contact with two former men’s basketball directors of operations (DOBOs 2 and 3, respectively) shortly before they changed their previous stories and implicated the former head coach in NCAA rules violations. Further, immediately before a men’s basketball student-athlete (student-athlete 2) was interviewed by the NCAA regarding this case, the director of compliance told him that she could “take away [his] senior year.” She told student-athlete 2 that she possessed a photograph of him, along with another student-athlete (student-athlete 3), in an automobile belonging to a representative of the institution’s athletics interests (the representative). She did not produce the alleged photo.
So, did she abdicate her responsibilities? Is this conduct that we condone?
If Amanda Paterson continues in the same capacity in the compliance office with added responsibilities with her promotion, UH is in big trouble.
Her next fued with a coach could ruin the entire athletic department.
UH gets hammered for an ncaa infraction while schools like unc tarheels men’s Bb program gets to reap the benefits of postseason and tournament exposure.
Unc tarheels with 18 years of fake classes to keep players eligible vs UH’s infraction?
For the ncaa, it’s all about money. UNC athletics is an integral part of their cash machine. UH is not.
It seems from the report, Paterson was just as much at fault to this entire situation. Maybe she should have been let go also. Instead, she gets a raise in pay.
18. IMO UH keeping Paterson probably hurt their case with the NCAA.
They needed to get rid of everybody, coaches, Ben Jay and Paterson.
Patterson should be fired but typical Hawaii the university promotes her. Matlin’s big fail.
Arnold knew he was breaking the rules, really didn’t need a compliance official to tell him what is right or wrong. My 3 year old grandson know what is right or wrong. I hate people that pretent to be religious and righteous, if God doesn’t have a place for them at least karma will.
NCAA is abunch of hypocrites but certainly no different than any entity run by money. I’m surprised the penalty wasn’t more severe.
Oh well the Bows can stick it to the Man by winning the Diamond Head classic.
NCAA says these infractions could have been avoided if Paterson and Arnold didn’t hate each other and had better communication. Both should have been fired, that type of unprofessionalism should not be tolerated. In the end the innocent parties end up paying the price.
I don’t know Amanda Paterson, nor do I know first-hand of her management skills and performance record. I do know that there is nothing wrong with the other 20 UH Athletics programs. Problem limited to only one – Men’s basketball. So I conclude that the problem was limited to difficulty with one person – the head basketball coach, Gib Arnold.
With this huge distraction, I forgot to congratulate the Wahine for the win against San Jose State. And congratulations to Coach Beeman for the two road wins. Go Wahine !!!
Let’s be rid of the Fibster. Hope we never hear his name again.
well i normally dont comment on mens basketball but….
first off, dave matlin if he is smart enough to fire norm chow, he would be smart enough to fire amanda paterson for failure to perform her duties or at the very least, rescind her promotion to assistant AD and give her a letter of reprimand.
second off appeal it, if not fight back. separate from the ncaa to abolish their bylaws if need be. their money and their ‘games’ are not worthy anyways…
lastly if all else fails, paterson should be rescinded from promotion, reprimanded, and the MBB can make due with the sanctions. not being against the guys or anything, but lets face it and be honest here like does anyone really expect them to win the big west tourney or be anywhere on the radar with rpi to make postseason anyways?
btw jmo but uh should of never folded and self-imposed sanctions on itself. its like pleading guilty for dui to a judge and then stating you had cut your 12 pack a day to a 6 pack a day.
stop patersons promotion for noncompliance
and
go BOWS!
IMO, the NCAA handed down heavy penalties due to UH promoting a person who was part of the problem, Amanda Patterson. I do know better than to question why UH did not FIRE her!
I heard on the Sports Animals, that it was reported “Amanda Patterson ‘self-reported’ UH MBB without informing anyone associated with the team to the NCAA”. Looks like personal feelings was the source of this “self-reporting” and that the outcome she wanted was the dismissal or at the very least damage to the MBB team and collaterally the Head Coach. Remember people, that not only does Gib get hurt, but his family and the players, all over “personal differences”… So sad… I didn’t want Gib to be our coach, but to deliberately hurt someones potential livelyhood? Despicable! Even to go as low as threatening a student athlete, losing his senior year, so he has to report what she wants…
I don’t know what kind of person Amanda is but she needs to go. She will not be able to get the trust of the fans or supporters of the program. I for one would give UH a single penny if she called for it. If she reads social media its all negative towards you so do the right thing and leave on your own.
Yes everyone should have went, I don’t care if she is a good compliance officer with all the other sports, she failed the basketball team and needs to go..
Arnold was at fault. But, Paterson let her personal feelings about Arnold be a factor in her self reporting. Instead of helping the program through many of the ncaa rules, she self reported. Her working relationship with Arnold and whatever feeling she had to get rid of Arnold led her to self report.
For that UH gets hammered. Gib Arnold is gone. Mission is accomplished on her part. The program, the student athletes get hurt. And, for her part in all of this she gets promoted.
They want more financial support for athletics from the state? Who can blame anyone for not trusting the people in charge at UH?
29, agreed, Paterson needs to go.
No winners here. UH athletics management needs to show some moral fiber right about now.
Meantime, thanks to the team and current coaches for your continued focus on basketball.
Gib Arnold was a joke of a coach and deserves more than a slap on the wrist…he will never coach another NCAA Division 1 team. At best he was a good salesman…maybe he should work in that field.
The raft of Amanda and her revengeful attitude brought so much negatives to the basketball program. She being vindictive to Arnold was uncalled for. Her promotion as assistant athletic director is a farce.
For the chancellor not to appeal is a joke. He is part of this whole mess.
They both need to be sent out the door.
The autonomy of UH leaders gives the athletic department little dollars to improve itself. Apparently the governor and the legislature feels they allocate enough money to the school and feels that is enough. It is up to those who divide the funds to each department is the questionable practice.
Happy Holidays to everyone!!! Now that we have all vented here, can we cease the unending calls for this person or that person to be shown the door? Report is out, penalties assessed, those found guilty of unethical conduct punished. To Poorboy et al Good wishes to you for a wonderful New year. Mahalo to everyone associated with the men’s basketball team as they play hard, stay focused despite being so far from home. We can disagree but let’s all take a time out to show some goodwill to all. Aloha and Go Bows!!
Happy Holidays, Mr. Hoosier.
I wagered 27 points on your Hoosiers in the ESPN Bowl Challenge.
Auwe, Cappie, typical Indiana football performance. There is no “D” in Hoosiers…,
Mr. Hoosier: Two missed field goals. A killer. It put me in the 27% tile. The field goal looked good, though.
I think I understand how DraftKings and FanDuel works now.
I picked Nebraska, and only 20% of the entrants chose the Cornhuskers. It gave me a nice boost into the 39% tile.
Today, of course, I’m rooting for Navy, but if they lose, at least I’ll move up in the standings because not many people think Pittsburgh can win.
Pitt had three weeks to prepare for the flexbone, so I’m expecting an upset.
Always choose the power conference team over the ranked mid-major one.
The Butler basketball program continues to amaze me. Gonzaga must be like, hey, we’re supposed to be Butler. I didn’t expect them to prosper after the defection of Brad Stevens.
Butler is better than Indiana, and to a certain degree, Notre Dame.
How does that happen?
When Butler lost at the buzzer in the final against Duke, I kid you not, I teared up. I really wanted that victory. Hegemonic shift gone by the wayside. Evil prevails.