SALT LAKE CITY — The NCAA sanctioned the University of Utah men’s basketball program Tuesday after the school self-reported violations in connection with an official visit from a recruit in April 2018.
Those self-imposed penalties include a 2-year probation period, a $5,000 fine, a 1-week suspension for the associate head coach who made contact with the recruit, reprimands for other coaches, and limitations on official recruitment visits and off-campus recruiting.
“The University of Utah is committed to integrity in all of its endeavors,” said Utah Director of Athletics Mark Harlan. “While we take any violation of NCAA rules seriously, we are confident these actions were isolated and inadvertent and have been fully addressed by the university and the NCAA.”
A 2-game suspension for Utah head coach Larry Krystkowiak was proposed by the NCAA, but it was appealed and never prescribed by the committee on infractions.
The school said the violations centered on a misreading of the NCAA calendar and misinterpretation of the official visit limitations.
Coaches visited a recruit at his high school during a period when in-person, off-campus recruiting was impermissible under NCAA rules and later triggered an official visit when the same recruit made an unofficial visit to Utah in connection with his official visit to SLCC.
SLCC was also recruiting the same prospect and the official visit put Utah over the number of permitted official visits for the recruiting period.
The NCAA added an off-campus recruiting ban for the same associate head coach in July 2019, a 1-year ban on contact with the now-former head SLCC coach and will force the team to publicize the circumstances of the violation in the team’s media guide, on their website and to prospective student-athletes.
“While they were inadvertent and unintentional mistakes on our part, and there was never an intent to circumvent any rules, we accept that they were violations and, as the head coach, I am accountable for them,” said Utah head coach Larry Krystkowiak. “I have always been a strong proponent of protecting the integrity of college basketball and that will not change.”
In addition, the university has prohibited its coaches from having any on-campus interactions with SLCC’s coaches, or from recruiting any SLCC basketball student-athletes for a one-year period.
