Last Friday, former University of Tennessee Men’s Basketball coach Donnie Tyndall was hammered by the NCAA.
The governing body for collegiate athletics passed down a 10-year show-cause penalty for the coach, saying that Tyndall, “acted unethically and failed to promote an atmosphere for compliance when he directed his staff to engage in academic misconduct.”
This punishment and the subsequent statement were in reference to Tyndall’s alleged participation in rules violations during his tenure as the head coach of Southern Mississippi. The NCAA stated that transgressions committed by Tyndall in his two-year stint with Southern Miss included directing assistant coaches to complete school work for athletes to ensure they would remain academically eligible, falsifying documentation to gloss over financial transactions and attempting to hide potential evidence of the nefarious alleged dealings.
The coach, however, emphatically denies that he had any knowledge of the events that brought the charges against him.
Through his attorney, Tyndall stated that, “from the beginning of this case, I have accepted responsibility for the violations that occurred when I was head coach, but I absolutely reject that the `totality of the information’ showed that I participated in the academic misconduct.”
On Tuesday, Darren McFarland and Derrick Mason allowed the coach an opportunity to publicly defend himself.
“It’s disgusting, guys, and I’m going to fight it until the day I die,” said Tyndall on Darren & Derrick. “Will I ever get to coach college basketball again? Probably not, which is absolutely heartbreaking. But, I’m not going to go down and let my daughters read this stuff without me being able to say, ‘I told you, girls. It wasn’t true.’ So, its been a nightmare.”
Adamant that the 47-page NCAA report had been skewed to frame him in an unflattering light, Tyndall admitted to McFarland and Mason that the situation did, in fact, happen. But, the coach contended, any actions taken by his staff were, “unbeknownst to me.”
Tyndall, McFarland and Mason delved into a variety of other topics on the matter, including the financial burden that the proceedings have taken on him, how he will rebound moving forward and the precedent of his 10-year penance in comparison to those sanctions handed down to high-profile coaches such as Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim and Southern Methodist’s Larry Brown.
You can hear Darren & Derrick weekdays from noon to 3:oo pm on 102.5 The Game.
Comments