New Mexico State’s males’s basketball season got here to an abrupt halt Sunday after the discharge of a police report that detailed three gamers ganging up on a teammate and attacking him in a case that features allegations of false imprisonment, harassment and legal sexual contact.
“It’s time for this program to reset,” chancellor Dan Arvizu mentioned within the assertion that introduced the top of the season.
Arvizu mentioned the shutdown was in response to a report filed to campus police on Friday by a participant in opposition to three teammates. In keeping with the report, the sufferer mentioned that on Feb. 6, his teammates held him down “eliminated his clothes exposing his buttocks and started to slap his (buttocks). He additionally went on to state that in addition they touched his scrotum.”
The sufferer, whose title was redacted within the report together with these of the opposite gamers, mentioned different incidents involving inappropriate bodily and sexual touching had been occurring in locker rooms and on highway journeys since final summer time. Concerning the most recent occasion, the sufferer advised police he had no selection however to let this occur “as a result of it’s a 3-on-1 sort of scenario.”
Arvizu, who shall be leaving the college in June after regents not too long ago selected to not renew his contract, mentioned “this motion is clearly wanted, particularly after receiving further info and reviewing investigation reviews associated to the hazing allegations involving student-athletes on the workforce.”
“We should uphold the protection of our college students and the integrity of our college,” mentioned Arvizu, who had initially suspended this system on Friday, then revealed what he referred to as hazing allegations a day later.
He mentioned he had spoken with the commissioner of the Western Athletic Convention, which mentioned it was reviewing easy methods to deal with the six New Mexico State video games that shall be wiped off the schedule with regard to seeding for subsequent month’s convention match.
The report mentioned the sufferer went to campus police to report a doable assault, however didn’t need to press legal prices in the meanwhile.
The allegations come lower than three months after the suspension of ahead Mike Peake, who’s being investigated within the case of the deadly taking pictures of a scholar from rival faculty, College of New Mexico, in Albuquerque on Nov. 19.
Peake has not been charged in that case, which included state police stopping the workforce bus on Interstate-25 because it headed again to Las Cruces shortly after the taking pictures. Lacking from the bus have been Peake and three of his teammates, who had taken him to the hospital with an injured leg.
New Mexico State completed the season at 9-15, with solely two convention wins in 12 video games. The Aggies, lengthy a supply of pleasure on their 13,000-student campus in Las Cruces, have been to eight NCAA tournaments since 2007. They’re scheduled to maneuver from the WAC to Convention-USA subsequent season.
The following huge resolution for this program seems to be coming Tuesday, when college regents will maintain a closed assembly to debate “restricted personnel issues regarding particular person staff.” It didn’t title the workers who have been to be mentioned. The scheduling of the assembly got here Saturday, the day after Arvizu positioned coach Greg Heiar and his employees on administrative depart on the identical time he suspended the season.
The scrubbing of the 2022-23 marketing campaign got here a day after two gamers stop following the preliminary reviews of the hazing incident.
Considered one of them, redshirt freshman Shahar Lazar, mentioned he was leaving as a result of “I don’t suppose this system that I initially dedicated to aligns with my beliefs and core values.”
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AP reporter Jacques Billeaud contributed to this report.
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