Coastal Carolina basketball coach Cliff Ellis spoke before practice Monday in response to the NCAA ruling a secondary violation occurred in his program regarding former player Desmond Holloway receiving a t-shirt valued at $25 on a March 2010 recruiting visit.
Here's what Ellis had to say:
"We're excited about the fact that we're moving forward. It's a situation in which we requested a look into a certain situation with regards to the program, and there's been a thorough investigation with our program. A secondary violation occurred, and that was it. We're moving on, and it's a great day because through all of this, we can put this behind us and know that our program is run the right way, done the right way and I think that's what this proves."
On whether he was frustrated it took this long to get a resolution after Holloway was suspended by the program last February:
"I have no comment on that."
On the significance of a secondary violation:
"There's 380 programs. Everybody has a secondary violation. It's a minor infraction, so let's understand that it is a minor infraction. It's a 56-mile-an-hour speeding ticket in a 55-mile-an-hour zone. That's the best analogy that I can make. ...
"I think it's a great day because basically this thing is over. A minor event. There's 380 programs in America, there's not anybody that doesn't have a secondary violation. You take them seriously. We went after this investigation on our own. I called the NCAA, our administrator called the NCAA and there was a minor violation that occurred. It's time to move on. It's time to step forward and put this behind us. But I think it's a great day because we can move forward. There's been an intense look into, and I think we see how clean our basketball program is. That's the one thing it shows me is what I believed in all along, that this is a very clean basketball program. And that's what this proves. It's no different than the IRS coming to your house or my [house], there's going to be a nickel or a dime that they find. We didn't find out anything really much more than we may have anticipated. At the same time, it's time to move forward, move on. We're happy about that. This is a great day. This is a great time for Coastal Carolina basketball. This is behind us. We've got LSU in town. Let's go play."
On clarifying the process:
"We never got a letter of inquiry. Let's go through that. We've never gotten a letter of inquiry. I called the NCAA. Our administration called the NCAA, and that's where all this investigative stuff [began]. We wanted to make sure that our program is as clean as we thought it was -- it is. We run a clean program."
| Ryan Young, ryoung@thesunnews.com
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