Fans and players faced reality Thursday when the University of Michigan punished its men's basketball team for a scandal concerning former booster Ed Martin.
The scandal involves illegal loans that Ed Martin gave to former players Chris Webber, Robert Traylor, Maurice Taylor and Louis Bullock, as well as their families. The loans total $616,000.
The Michigan men's basketball team will automatically lose a NCAA or a National Invitation Tournament bid in 2003 and the team will be on probation for two years. In addition, Michigan will wipe 117 wins, trips to the Final Four in 1992 and 1993, a 1997 National Invitational Tournament title and the 1998 Big Ten Tournament title from its record. This will eliminate all records from the years that Webber (1991-'93), Taylor (1995-'97), Traylor (1996-'98) and Bullock (1996-'99) played with Michigan.
Michigan will repay the NCAA $450,000'the amount it received to appear in previous postseasons.
In a statement released Thursday, University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman said, \There is no excuse for what happened. It was wrong, plain and simple.""
Michigan will submit the report issued to the NCAA to be approved. If the NCAA accepts this proposal, Michigan will face all of the self-imposed penalties.
According to Coleman, under the probation, she will monitor the basketball program and receive compliance reports. If there are any further violations, ""severe actions would result,"" Coleman said.
Bill Martin, the Michigan athletics director, said in a press conference that the NCAA may not hear the case until February.
Webber, who denied receiving money from Ed Martin, is currently under investigation. Ed Martin claimed he gave the Sacramento Kings star and his family $280,000 in money and gifts prior to and during his tenure at Michigan, according to ESPN.
Resulting from a plea bargain reached after Ed Martin was indicted in March, the university is still determining his involvment in the scandal.
