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Hawaii considering its options regarding NCAA investigation of basketball program

Gib Arnold

AP Photo

AP

During last season news of the Hawaii basketball program being investigated by the NCAA surfaced, with the NCAA interviewing head coach Gib Arnold and assistants Brandyn Akana and Benjy Taylor in June. Akana’s case is an interesting one as he was suspended 30 days by the school, resulting in his missing 12 of the Rainbow Warriors’ final 14 games, after the school notified the NCAA in January of a potential rules violation involving a player who was looking to transfer to Hawaii.

Since those interviews the NCAA has continued to work on the case, with the interview portion investigation reportedly coming to a conclusion on Friday. Now the school has to wait for the NCAA to send an official Notice of Allegations, but according to the Ferd Lewis and Brian McInnis of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser it may not take an official notice for the school to take action as the step of self-imposing sanctions is being considered.

Athletic director Ben Jay said, “we’re having internal discussions, we’re having talks with our people as to some of the things that we might do.” But, he said, “Nothing is solid yet.”

Jay declined to say if coaches and or players will be suspended or terminated.

“It is still a work in progress,” he said.

The report of Hawaii considering self-imposing sanctions came on the heels of Arnold releasing a statement to the Star-Advertiser in which he looked to reassure fans that the program is headed in the right direction. “We have yet to even receive a notice of any possible allegations from the NCAA,” Arnold wrote in the statement.

“Nor have we been given our mandated 90 days to respond to any allegations. If there has been anything administratively in our program where we have fallen short we will learn from it and correct it immediately.”

Based upon Arnold’s statement he clearly wants to wait things out, preferring to hear something from the NCAA before taking action. But does the administration feel the same way? Based upon the athletic director’s comments to the Star-Advertiser, it’s clear that there is the possibility of the school taking action before receiving word from the NCAA.

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