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Rob Dauster

Missouri head coach Frank Haith has been suspended five games by the NCAA for violations that he committed while the head coach at Miami, the NCAA announced on Tuesday.

“The former head men’s basketball coach failed to meet his responsibilities as a head coach when he did not monitor the activities of his assistant coaches, and attempted to cover up the booster’s threats to disclose incriminating information, according to the committee. Additionally, two assistant football coaches and one assistant men’s basketball coach did not follow NCAA ethical conduct rules,” the NCAA’s report stated.

The suspension shouldn’t hurt Missouri too much. Their first five opponents? Southeastern Louisiaina, Southern Illinois, Hawai’i, Gardner-Webb and IUPUI. George Hill ain’t walking through that door.

Back in February, Haith was charged with “failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance” stemming from a story written by Yahoo! Sports in 2011. Haith was reported to have had knowledge of a $10,000 payment given to DeQuan Jones, a top 25 recruit. Nevin Shaprio, a convicted Ponzi-schemer and admitted booster for the Miami football program, told Yahoo! that he had given the money to assistant coach Jake Morton.

Morton, who was an assistant coach at Western Kentucky until April when he resigned, was not given a show-cause penalty by the NCAA, but Jorge Fernandez, who was most recently an assistant at Marshall, did receive a two-year show-cause. That news was reported by Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com.

Miami will also lose one basketball scholarship for each of the next three years, putting Jim Larrañaga in an even more difficult position as he tries to rebuild the program after losing six of his top seven players from last year’s ACC champions.

Here are the details the NCAA dug up on Miami hoops:

“Two former assistant men’s basketball coaches looked to the booster to entertain high school and nonscholastic coaches of prospects. A former assistant men’s basketball coach did not follow NCAA ethical conduct rules when he provided false information during his interviews about providing airline points for a flight to a prospect and his high school coach. Despite giving the high school coach his airline account information to purchase flights with frequent flyer miles, the former assistant men’s basketball coach stated he did not know his airline points were used. During the hearing, the former assistant men’s basketball coach then admitted that he provided false information.

When the booster began experiencing financial trouble, he requested that the former head men’s basketball coach loan him a large sum of money or that the former head men’s basketball coach return the booster’s $50,000 donation. The former head men’s basketball coach denied the booster’s request; however, a former assistant men’s basketball coach agreed to loan the booster $7,000, which the booster eventually repaid. After the booster was incarcerated in 2010, he began to threaten the former head men’s basketball coach and assistant coach and demand money. The committee determined the former head men’s basketball coach and the former assistant men’s basketball coach worked together to make sure the booster received $10,000 to end the booster’s threats.

The former head men’s basketball coach was aware of the booster’s threats and he took steps to help a former assistant men’s basketball coach to make a payment to the booster’s mother to end the threats. As the leader of a high-profile basketball program, he had a responsibility to make sure he and his staff followed the rules. However, the former coach did not meet his responsibilities and this conduct resulted in violations. The committee noted that had he asked about the basis of the threats and the former assistant coaches’ relationship with the booster, he could have recognized potential concerns or taken the issue to the compliance office.”

The Hurricane athletic department will accept all sanctions, which means that this saga, which has dragged on for years, will more-or-less end today.