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Saturday, March 8
 
School president, AD, coach face dismissals

ESPN.com news services

The St. Bonaventure board of trustees is meeting this weekend about the basketball team's boycott and forfeiture of the final two games of the regular season and the roles school and team officials played in the incident.

St. Bonaventure spokesman Dave Ferguson told ESPN's Bob Ley that "fairly soon" the school will announce steps that will be taken by the school as a result of the incident.

St. Bonaventure president Robert Wickenheiser, who was in California at the time of the decision to boycott, athletic director Gothard Lane and coach Jan van Breda Kolff have been under fire for what critics say is a lack of leadership. There have been reports that Wickenheiser's job and those of Lane and van Breda Kolff are on the line.

Also, ESPN.com's Andy Katz reported this week that the Atlantic 10 Conference might discuss dumping St. Bonaventure from the conference when it meets on April 1. St. Bonaventure has been an A-10 member for more than 20 years.

Ferguson said the trustees have been deliberating -- some in person and some by phone -- for several days.

St. Bonaventure was to have played its regular-season finale Saturday against Dayton.

The boycott came after the A-10 on Monday stripped the Bonnies of six conference victories and barred them from postseason play for using center Jamil Terrell, who failed to meet NCAA junior-college transfer guidelines.

Sources told Katz that the Bonnies held a team meeting late Monday night with the coaching staff and some administrators present. The players were told they were banned from the A-10 Tournament. Sources said the players held their own meeting afterward and that at least four underclassmen decided they didn't want to play, then left school for spring break.

By Tuesday morning, the upperclassmen who wanted to play -- junior Marques Green and seniors Patricio Prato and Robert Cheeks -- were left without a united front to proceed. By late Tuesday, the school announced it was shutting its season down.

The A-10 is trying to find out why administrators didn't demand that players stay put and where the coaching staff stood on the matter. Calls to the university to speak with the coaching staff were unanswered. Sources said players and coaches are under a gag order.

Several St. Bonaventure alumni are asking questions of and directing criticism Wickenheiser, who has not commented on the boycott. Following the A-10 sanctions, Wickenheiser took full responsibility for approving Terrell's transfer, despite acknowledging he had never before been involved in player eligibility decisions.

Terrell, who transferred last year after two seasons at Coastal Georgia Community College in Brunswick, Ga., was ruled ineligible because he did not have an associate's degree, but had earned a certificate in welding at his former school.

Chuck Pollock, sports editor of The Olean Times Herald, urged for Wickenheiser's dismissal in a column published Wednesday. Pollock also urged for the dismissals of athletic director Gothard Lane and head coach Jan van Breda Kolff.




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