New Mexico State cancels season after harassment allegations

New MexicoState’s men’s basketball season came to an abrupt halt Sunday afterthe release of a police report that detailed three players gangingup on a teammate and attacking him in a case that includesallegations of false imprisonment, harassment and criminal sexualcontact.

“It’s timefor this program to reset,” chancellor Dan Arvizu said in thestatement that announced the end of the season.

Arvizu saidthe shutdown was in response to a report filed to campus police onFriday by a player against three teammates. According to thereport, the victim said that on Feb. 6, his teammates held him down“removed his clothing exposing his buttocks and began to slap his(buttocks). He also went on to state that they also touched hisscrotum.”

The victim,whose name was redacted in the report along with those of the otherplayers, said other incidents involving inappropriate physical andsexual touching had been occurring in locker rooms and on roadtrips since last summer. Regarding the latest instance, the victimtold police he had no choice but to let this happen “because it’s a3-on-1 type of situation.”

Arvizu, whowill be leaving the university in June after regents recently chosenot to renew his contract, said “this action is clearly needed,especially after receiving additional facts and reviewinginvestigation reports related to the hazing allegations involvingstudent-athletes on the team.”

“We mustuphold the safety of our students and the integrity of ouruniversity,” said Arvizu, who had initially suspended the programon Friday, then revealed what he called hazing allegations a daylater.

He said hehad spoken with the commissioner of the Western AthleticConference, which said it was reviewing how to treat the six NewMexico State games that will be wiped off the schedule in regardsto seeding for next month’s conference tournament.

The reportsaid the victim went to campus police to report a possible assault,but did not want to press criminal charges for the time being.

Theallegations come less than three months after the suspension offorward Mike Peake, who is being investigated in the case of thefatal shooting of a student from rival school, University of NewMexico, in Albuquerque on Nov. 19.

Peake hasnot been charged in that case, which included state police stoppingthe team bus on Interstate-25 as it headed back to Las Crucesshortly after the shooting. Missing from the bus were Peake andthree of his teammates, who had taken him to the hospital with aninjured leg.

New MexicoState finished the season at 9-15, with only two conference wins in12 games. The Aggies, long a source of pride on their13,000-student campus in Las Cruces, have been to eight NCAAtournaments since 2007. They are scheduled to move from the WAC toConference-USA next season.

The nextbig decision for this program appears to be coming Tuesday, whenuniversity regents will hold a closed meeting to discuss “limitedpersonnel matters concerning individual employees.” It did not namethe employees who were to be discussed. The scheduling of themeeting came Saturday, the day after Arvizu placed coach Greg Heiarand his staff on administrative leave at the same time he suspendedthe season.

Thescrubbing of the 2022-23 campaign came a day after two players quitfollowing the initial reports of the hazing incident.

One ofthem, redshirt freshman Shahar Lazar, said he was leaving because“I don’t think the program that I originally committed to alignswith my beliefs and core values.”