College basketball: UW-Stevens Point coach suspended for rest of season.
Men’s team banned from postseason
Stevens Point — UWStevens Point has suspended men’s basketball coach Bob Semling for remainder of 2016-’17 season for four alleged major rules violations.
The team also was banned by the school from WIAC and NCAA postseason play as the result of an NCAA investigation. The school made an announcement during a news conference Thursday.
An internal investigation was launched in April in response to an NCAA request after an anonymous complaint accused the program of starting team practices before Oct. 15, the official start date set by NCAA rules.
UW-Stevens Point found what the university called “minor” rules transgressions after it confirmed Semling and the coaching staff oversaw team practices before that date in the fall of 2015. In addition, the report said the general student body was given only limited access to Quandt Fieldhouse by the men’s basketball program.
University officials sent their findings and response to the NCAA in June and were informed by the collegiate athletic governing body that it would investigate the matter further. NCAA representatives arrived on campus in September to conduct more interviews.
The practice infractions at UW-Stevens Point came to the attention of the NCAA and subsequently the university in a letter signed by “concerned students” in the fall of 2015. The contents of the complaints and the results of the university’s investigation came to light after USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin filed a series of open records requests and reported on the case in June.
UW-Stevens Point announced several self-imposed penalties, including the cancellation of the opening day of practice Oct. 15 and the loss of one additional practice day in each of the next two weeks.
Kent Dernbach will take over as the team’s interim coach for the remainder of the season.