The NCAA had a chance to do the right thing on Friday and, in a stunning turn of events, completely missed the mark.

Who saw that one coming?

The punishment that the Committee on Infractions handed down to Oklahoma State on Friday, a one-year postseason ban to go along with scholarship reductions and myriad recruiting sanctions, was wrong and should be utterly terrifying for the other programs that found themselves caught up in the FBI’s investigation into college basketball corruption.

Oklahoma State faced a single Level I violation. It was an unethical conduct charge levied at former assistant coach Lamont Evans, who accepted at least $18,150 in bribes from financial advisors in exchange for peddling influence over one player from Oklahoma State and one player from South Carolina, where Evans was coaching before accepting a job on Brad Underwood’s staff in the spring of 2016. Evans was also accused of giving Jeffery Carroll $300.

That’s it.

Evans provided no competitive advantage for Oklahoma State, unless you consider the $300 he paid to Carroll — who was already on the roster and suspended for three games as a result — a competitive advantage. Evans was lining his pockets. He was not doing this to benefit the basketball program. Technically speaking, the players Evans claimed to have the power of persuasion over were the victims of the crimes that got him sentenced to three months in prison on federal bribery charges. He steered them to financial advisors that were willing to shell out bribe money. He knew nothing about the people that he was telling these players to invest their money with. One of the men Evans accepted bribes from was Marty Blazer, who sparked this entire investigation to try and avoid prison when he was caught by the SEC embezzling millions of dollars from clients.

That’s where Evans was guiding players who trusted him.

The players were the victims.

Despite that, Oklahoma State was still hit with a one-year postseason ban. Evans has been gone for three years. Carroll has been gone for two. Neither the current head coach — Mike Boynton — or the head coach the violations were committed under — Brad Underwood — were mentioned in the Notice of Allegations.

“There were no recruiting or other major violations on the part of the institution,” Oklahoma State said in a statement in November. “There are no allegations involving current student-athletes or coaching staff.”

None of that mattered to the Committee on Infractions.

They dropped the hammer on Oklahoma State, effectively neutering what was the most anticipated OSU season since Marcus Smart returned for his sophomore year. So much for seeing Cade Cunningham play in the NCAA tournament. Hell, we may not see Cunningham play for Oklahoma State, period. He was offered the chance to join the G League prospect pathway program, reportedly for as much money as Jalen Green. If he’s not going to play meaningful games at Oklahoma State, maybe he reconsiders the offer.

“Whatever the best option is for him we’re going to support 100 percent without any reservations,” Boynton said.

This gets to the core of the problem when it comes to NCAA enforcement: They far too often punish players and coaches for violations that they took no part in. What did Cunningham, or anyone else on Oklahoma State’s roster, have to do with Lamont Evans accepting bribes from a white collar felon that had been flipped by the FBI? How was anyone associated with the Oklahoma State athletic department supposed to prevent one assistant coach from accepting those bribes?

“A postseason ban for a bunch of kids that were 15, 16 years old when a lot of this was going on? It’s completely, completely out of bounds,” Boynton said.

He’s not wrong.

A postseason ban is total overkill.

That is the most infuriating part is that the NCAA was actually able to punish the man responsible. That’s not usually the case. Evans received a 10-year show-cause penalty from the NCAA in addition to a three month jail sentence for pleading guilty. His coaching career is effectively over. He’ll never be a Division I head coach. He’ll never coach at a level where he is able to earn a couple hundred grand as an assistant. The person entirely at fault for this situation had his life blown up.

And Oklahoma State still got a postseason ban despite the fact that, as Larry Parkinson of the Committee on Infractions said, “the institution fully cooperated from the moment they learned about the circumstances.”

That should be a major red flag for everyone else caught up in this investigation.

USC, Arizona and Auburn all had an assistant coach plead guilty to similar charges as Evans. Louisville committed their violations while they were on probation from the last scandal the program was embroiled in. Oklahoma State faced one Level I violation. Kansas faces five, and they’ve made quite clear they aren’t going to be as cooperative.

If the Committee on Infractions has set the bar here, everyone else better be ready to catch the book that gets thrown at them.

STILLWATER, Okla. —

An NCAA infractions committee on Friday announced penalties against Oklahoma State men’s basketball team stemming from the corruption case involving the team’s former assistant basketball coach, Lamont Evans.

The committee ruled that Evans violated NCAA ethical conduct rules when he accepted between $18,150 and $22,000 in bribes from two financial advisors to influence student-athletes, according to a decision released by the Division I Committee on Infractions.

Evans is one of four coaches charged across the country in 2017, accused of accepting bribes from consultants and agents in exchange for access to the best players. Ten people have been charged across the country.

KOCO 5 reported in 2019 that a lawyer said Evans would plead guilty to a conspiracy bribery charge in New York Federal court.

Click here to read the full news release from NCAA regarding the case.

The committee also announced a list of penalties against the university’s men’s basketball program, including a one-year postseason ban for the team next season. Here’s a full list of penalties:

• Three years of probation.
• A 2020-21 postseason ban for the men’s basketball team.
• A $10,000 fine plus 1% of the men’s basketball program budget (self-imposed by the university).
• A reduction of men’s basketball scholarships by a total of three during the 2020-21 through 2022-23 academic years.
• A reduction of men’s basketball official visits to 25 during the 2018-19/2019-20 rolling two-year period and to 18 during the 2019-20/2020-21 rolling two-year period (self-imposed by the university).
• A prohibition of men’s basketball unofficial visits for two weeks during the fall of 2020 and two weeks during the fall of 2021 (self-imposed by the university). The university also must prohibit unofficial visits for three additional weeks during the fall of 2020, 2021 and/or 2022.
• A prohibition of men’s basketball telephone recruiting for a one-week period during the 2020-21 academic year (self-imposed by the university). The university also must prohibit telephone recruiting for six additional weeks during the probation period.
• A reduction in the number of men’s basketball recruiting person days by 12 during the 2019-20 academic year (self-imposed by the university). The university also must reduce the number of recruiting person days by five during the 2020-21 academic year.
• A 10-year show-cause order for the former associate head coach. During that period, any NCAA member school employing him must restrict him from any athletically related duties unless it shows cause why the restrictions should not apply.
• A prohibition of the men’s basketball staff from participating in off-campus evaluations for three consecutive days during the summer evaluation periods in 2020 (self-imposed by the university).

The Oklahoma State University Department of Athletics has since released a statement, saying it will file an immediate appeal of the NCAA penalties assessed to the men’s basketball program on Friday.

The deadline for filing the appeal is June 20. It will be heard by the Infractions Appeal Committee, the final step in the NCAA infractions process, according to OSU:

“The University is stunned by the severity of the penalties and strongly disagrees with them. The penalties do not align with the facts and are unfair and unjust.

“The NCAA agreed with OSU that Lamont Evans acted alone and for his own personal gain. Evans was terminated by OSU on Sept. 28, 2017, within 72 hours of learning of allegations against him.

“The NCAA also agreed that OSU did not benefit in recruiting, commit a recruiting violation, did not play an ineligible player, and did not display a lack of institutional control. As the report documents, OSU cooperated throughout the process, which lasted two years.

“The NCAA appears to have made an arbitrary decision in the sanctions applied to the institution for the egregious actions committed by a former coach that did not result in any benefit for the University.”

HAMMOND, La. (AP) — The sight of Southeastern Louisiana starter James Currington recuperating from a bullet wound from a shootout near student housing has provided the Lions with new perspective on their program’s best basketball season in more than a decade.

Regardless of how the Southland Conference’s top seed fares this postseason, the Lions can be grateful no one was killed when some of their players wound up in the midst of another episode of gun violence on a school campus a few weeks ago.

“Of course, who wouldn’t be stunned to find out that one of your teammates got shot,” said junior point guard Marlain Veal, who is one of Southeastern’s top scorers, averaging 12.6 points.

Southeastern (21-10, 15-3) is two victories away from its first berth in the NCAA Tournament since 2005, when now-Texas A&M coach Billy Kennedy was the one giving the Lions instructions from the sideline. Currently riding an eight-game winning streak, the Lions boarded a bus on Thursday for Katy, Texas, where they’ll open conference tournament play in the semifinals on Friday night.

Currington, a senior, won’t play college basketball again. He was wounded in the shoulder during an altercation with non-students on Feb. 23, less than two weeks after a high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, killed 17 people.

Currington now wears a sling as he recovers from surgery.

“He’s still a big part of our program and obviously with us every day,” third-year Southeastern coach Jay Ladner said. “Sometimes those incidents can splinter your team, but we were able to mitigate that because our team already has a good, tight bond.”

Two men — an 18- and 19-year-old who are not students — were arrested and face multiple charges, including attempted murder. Also arrested was Southeastern player Jabbar Singleton, a senior guard, who was charged with illegal discharge of a firearm and carrying a firearm on school property.

Singleton has been banned from campus pending the outcome of the investigation.

Ladner said he and his players have been advised against discussing the ongoing case, but he added with emphasis, “I know the truth and I know our guys have a right to defend themselves.”

The coach also defended the character of Currington, noting that he has been a good student — he was named to the conference commissioner’s honor roll last academic year — and has a son.

Southeastern did not make Currington available for comment for this story.

The altercation began off campus, and a police report indicates the players were followed by car back to a parking lot near the basketball arena and student housing. That’s where shots were fired from semi-automatic weapons, wounding Currington and a second unidentified student-athlete. Singleton allegedly returned fire, also with a semi-automatic gun, striking no one, after which all parties fled.

District Attorney Scott Perrilloux did not respond to a request by The Associated Press to be interviewed about the case. His spokeswoman, Autumn Payton, said there were no attorneys of record yet for Singleton or the two others arrested — Herbert Joseph Jr. and Jacoby Senegal.

The Lions played their last three games without the 6-foot-7 Currington, whose primary role had been to defend opponents’ top post players. Brandon Gonzalez, a 6-6 redshirt freshman, has seen his minutes double in Currington’s absence.

Singleton was a top reserve. He was not arrested until several days after the shooting and even played in one game — a victory at Northwestern State on Feb. 24 — before his arrest. Southeastern has not explained why Singleton was allowed to play in that game. University executive director for public and government affairs Erin Cowser said federal law prohibits university officials from publicly discussing student discipline.

Earlier this week, Ladner brought in a Billy Reid, a former NBA player-turned-federal marshal in Mississippi, to address the team. Reid told the players they are not “bigger than life” just because they are athletes.

“You lose perspective on what might happen to you,” said Reid, who played one season for the Golden State Warriors (1980-81) and several seasons overseas after his collegiate career at San Francisco. “They thought they were bigger than life and then they’re in a situation with regular guys who have guns and start shooting at them.

“The situation could have been much worse.”

Veal and fellow guard Josh Filmore said the team stands by Currington and Singleton, and will want them to share, in some way, in whatever success the Lions continue to have.

Veal added that the handling of the unsettling circumstances surrounding the loss of two teammates was “something that we had to get through, and we were successful — and we’re going to be successful.”

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This story has been corrected to show that the last name of Southeastern’s executive director for public and government affairs is Erin Cowser, not Cowsel.

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