Larry Brown confident SMU will get past NCAA investigation

SMU head men's basketball coach Larry Brown expects his program to overcome an ongoing NCAA investigation related to an academic infraction.

Brown is facing a "lack of coach control" charge from the NCAA, the university confirmed Thursday in an interview with Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News.

Pat Forde of Yahoo Sports broke the news late Wednesday, however, Brown wouldn't comment on the details of his report.

"I can't comment," Brown said. "I won't give the writer (Forde) any credibility by doing that. It's a process that we're dealing with right now. I'm confident we're going to move on and continue to try to do the right thing."

The main issue at hand is the role of former assistant coach and basketball secretary Ulric Maligi, who is accused of assisting player Keith Frazier with coursework. Frazier played at SMU during the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons before being deemed academically ineligible in January 2015. His status for 2015-16 is unclear.

University officials met with the NCAA Committee on Infractions about the allegations in June.

In an interview with SNY.tv, transcribed by Adam Zagoria of Zagsblog.com, Brown distanced himself from previous run-ins with the NCAA.

"We're not allowed to comment on any of the NCAA stuff," Brown said. "I will comment on the thing about UCLA, I wasn't even involved in that and everybody knows that and yet they keep printing it. And they asked to hire me in 1988 again so I think that's pretty cut and dry. That investigation went on long before I got the job at UCLA.

"And then the Kansas situation, my chancellor at Kansas recommended me for the Princeton job and helped me in the Stanford opportunity so if I was sanctioned for doing anything wrong at all, I don't think Stanford would've offered me the job or anything like that."

Brown added: "Even here, why would they hire me here (at SMU) if there was any things hanging over my head?"

If SMU is found to have committed major infractions, it figures to face harsher penalties as a repeat offender after a 2011 case led to the program being placed on two years probation. During former coach Matt Doherty's tenure with the program, the Mustangs were punished for impermissible text messages sent to parents of recruits and failure to implement corrective actions.