(AP) — Marquette coach Buzz Williams fired assistant Scott Monarch on Friday, and Williams will serve a one-game suspension as part of the school’s self-imposed sanctions for recruiting rules violations it reported to the NCAA.
The school said Monarch gave team-issued apparel and provided transportation to an unnamed recruit, then was “found to have been untruthful with department administrators on multiple occasions” after the violations were discovered.
“When I was allowed to review the report earlier this week, I was deeply saddened to learn of an error in judgment of one of my assistants and closest friends,” Williams said in a statement. “I take personal responsibility for what happens in this program and realize we must be role models to both our team and the entire university. Our commitment has always been and will always be to operate this program at the highest level of integrity in the Marquette and Jesuit tradition.”
Marquette director of athletics Larry Williams said in an interview with The Associated Press that there are no indications that Buzz Williams was aware of the violations. The one-game suspension comes in recognition of Buzz Williams’ “duty to monitor the compliance of his staff,” the school said.
Larry Williams hopes the self-imposed sanctions will show that Marquette takes the issues seriously.
“Our intent here is to build a national championship-caliber program, and we don’t want to put it at risk for something as controllable and as fundamental as integrity,” Larry Williams told the AP. “We’re confident that this is one of the building blocks toward that pursuit of a national championship-caliber team.”
Buzz Williams is expected to sit out the first Big East game of the Golden Eagles’ upcoming season.
As part of the self-imposed sanctions, the school also will voluntarily reduce its number of official recruit visits. Monarch has been suspended since mid-June, and Marquette considers not having him available for recruiting trips during that period to be part of its self-imposed sanctions. Buzz Williams can hire a replacement for Monarch.
