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The NCAA has sent out a penalty to head coach Penny Hardaway and Memphis basketball for academic fraud, which includes a two-year probation, according to Nicole Auerbach of NBC Sports.
“Memphis is hit with two-year probation + fine for academic fraud. An academic counselor paid softball players to do coursework and/or provide test/quiz answers for men's basketball players,” Auerbach wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Two softball players were paid $550 to do complete coursework for a former Memphis basketball player. Leslie Brooks, who was the academic counselor, paid the softball players, and she received a 10-year show-cause penalty. The $550 was reportedly divided into $150 for the first softball player, and they completed three assignments for the basketball player. The second softball player was given $400, and they had all the answers to the five tests and four quizzes.
Memphis was also fined $30,000, plus 1% of the combined budgets of the basketball and softball programs. The NCAA called for a vacation of all the records for contests when the athletes played, since they're now ineligible.
Two softball players and one basketball player competed in games while ineligible. They combined for 20 games in which they competed, and now they'll be vacated. The violations were related to basketball player Malcolm Dandrige, and the two softball players were Ally Callahan and Aaliyah Dixon, according to the Commercial Appeal.
Neither Hardaway nor softball head coach Trena Prater has commented on the penalties as of now.
This is not the first time that Hardaway has had problems with the NCAA. In 2023, he was suspended for three games for two in-home visits that were not allowed with a recruit in 2021.
In 2022, an investigation charged the program with committing four Level II violations and five Level III violations because of its handling of James Wiseman and his eligibility. It will be interesting to see where the basketball and even the softball program go from here after this penalty.
