Dana Altman will remain the Oregon men’s basketball coach, but Damyean Dotson, Brandon Austin and Dominic Artis have all been booted from the program in the wake of rape allegations related to a March 8 incident, the school announced Friday.
“They will not be playing basketball at Oregon again,” Oregon President Michael Gottfredson said in a press conference Friday that also included Athletic Director Rob Mullens and Vice President for Student Affairs Robin Holmes.
“It was very clear to us those were individuals we didn’t want representing our organization,” Mullens said.
Of Dotson, the focus of the allegations, Altman said later Friday: “I think good people can make bad decisions. This obviously was a bad decision.”
No charges have been filed in the case in which a 21-year-old female Oregon student told police she had been sexually assaulted in three separate instances. Here is the DA’s statement on why it “no-filed” charges in the case.
According to the Oregonian, Oregon let two of the players — Artis and Dotson — compete in the NCAA Tournament despite the fact that Gottfredson said he knew the identities of the players before Oregon played in the NCAAs. Gottfredson said Mullens and Altman were not aware of their identities.
The Oregon officials said the Eugene Police Dept. told them not to take any action, including suspending players, during the NCAA Tournament, according to Jake Zivin of Eugene’s KEZI9.
Altman reportedly got a $50,000 bonus for winning two NCAA Tournament games.
Austin did not compete in the NCAA Tournament because of NCAA transfer rules, but he had been linked to a separate sexual assualt incident at Providence by a March story in the Wall Street Journal.
Mullens told reporters Friday he and the school were not aware of Austin being linked to that case because Providence did not disclose it because of privacy concerns.
“[Altman] asked me why he was leaving and I said he needed to talk to Brandon, and that I wasn’t at liberty to talk about an ongoing campus investigation,” Providence coach Ed Cooley told the Providence Journal this week.
On Friday, Altman said his “line of questioning probably didn’t go deep enough” when he spoke with Austin about why he left Providence, according to Oregonian beat writer Andrew Greif.
In related developments:
**Matt Norlander has a good piece on CBSSports.com noting that Altman has had a total of 41 players transfer in and out during his tenure at the school.
**On the recruiting front, Ahmaad Rorie, a 6-foot point guard from Montverde (FL) Academy who obtained his release from Cal, Tweeted he would not visit Oregon. “I will NOT be taking the visit down to Oregon this week.”
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