New Mexico State fires coach in wake of hazing allegations

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New Mexico State fired head coach Greg Heiar in the wake of hazing allegations within the team that shut down the program for the rest of the season.

Chancellor Dan Arvizu announced the firing of the first-year coach and said “hazing has no place on our campus, and those found responsible will be held accountable for their actions.”

The chancellor said decisions about the rest of the coaching staff will be made after further investigation.

Arvizu shut down the program for the season on Sunday, after reviewing a campus police report in which an Aggies player said three teammates ganged up on him and attacked him. The report, which redacted the names of the players, included allegations of false imprisonment, harassment and criminal sexual contact.

The 47-year-old Heiar spent time earlier in his career as an assistant for former Aggies coach Chris Jans, who left after last season to coach Mississippi State. Last season, Heiar was at Northwest Florida State, where he helped the Raiders win the junior college national title.

He brought two highly ranked players with him from the juco ranks, Issa Muhammad and Deshawndre Washington (another player, Marchelus Avery, had moved over from Northwest Florida the season before), but the Aggies were riddled with problems almost from the start of their season.

It started unraveling when some basketball players were involved in a fight with New Mexico students at an Aggies football game in October.

A month later, the night before New Mexico State basketball was scheduled to play at New Mexico in Albuquerque, forward Mike Peake went to the apartment complex of one of the students involved in the fight. Security cameras at the apartment complex shows the student pulling a gun, then Peake brandishing own gun and shooting the student, inflicting fatal wounds. Peake was taken to the hospital with leg wounds.

Peake has been suspended from the team but not charged with a crime while authorities in Albuquerque investigate. New Mexico State has hired an independent investigator to look into the circumstances surrounding the killing.

The hazing allegations came less than three months after the shooting in Albuquerque. The police report says the hazing victim described teammates removing “his clothing exposing his buttocks and began to slap his (buttocks). He also went on to state that they also touched his scrotum.”

The Aggies were 9-15 when the season was first put on hold before a scheduled game last Saturday at California Baptist.

The Western Athletic Conference is counting New Mexico State’s final six games as forfeits. The team is supposed to move into the bigger, more high-profile Conference USA next season – a move that seemed like a good fit for a program that has a long tradition of strong basketball teams. New Mexico State has made 26 trips to the NCAA Tournament and reached the Sweet 16 five times.

But there have also been problems checkered throughout the history of a program that has long depended on juco transfers and players looking for second chances. An academic scandal in the 1990s brought about the quick end to the otherwise successful tenure of coach Neil McCarthy. It led to relative stability during the second of two long tenures in Las Cruces by coaching stalwart Lou Henson.

Most of Henson’s successors, including Marvin Menzies, Reggie Theus and Jans, enjoyed success before leaving for bigger opportunities.

There has been similar turnover in the administration. Just over the past 14 months, the university provost and president have resigned or been removed from their positions. And Arivzu, the chancellor, is on his way out in June after the regents declined to renew his contract. He said the school will investigate the hazing allegations.

“We will work to ensure we fully understand what happened here, and that those found responsible are held accountable,” he said. “We will also ensure that support systems are in place to prevent this from happening again.”

WAC deems New Mexico State’s remaining games as forfeits

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LAS CRUCES, N.M. — The Western Athletic Conference has deemed New Mexico State’s remaining men’s basketball games as forfeits after the program canceled its season amid hazing allegations.

The conference said in a statement Monday night the forfeits will be used for conference standings and seedings because the NCAA doesn’t recognize forfeited games in a team’s overall record.

“While there is no perfect solution to this unfortunate situation, I believe we landed in the right place,” WAC Commissioner Brian Thornton said in the statement. “I applaud our Athletic Directors for working collaboratively with our staff to reach this decision.”

New Mexico State canceled the rest of its season on Sunday after the release of a police report that detailed three players ganging up on a teammate and attacking him in a case that includes allegations of false imprisonment, harassment and criminal sexual contact.

On Tuesday, university regents will hold a closed meeting to discuss “limited personnel matters concerning individual employees.” It did not name the employees who were to be discussed. The scheduling of the meeting came Saturday, the day after chancellor Dan Arvizu placed coach Greg Heiar and his staff on administrative leave at the same time he suspended the season.

The allegations come less than three months after the suspension of forward Mike Peake, who is being investigated in the case of the fatal shooting of a student from rival school, University of New Mexico, in Albuquerque on Nov. 19.

Peake has not been charged in that case, which included state police stopping the team bus on Interstate-25 as it headed back to Las Cruces shortly after the shooting. Missing from the bus were Peake and three of his teammates, who had taken him to the hospital with an injured leg.

New Mexico State cancels season after sex, harassment allegations

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LAS CRUCES, N.M. – New Mexico State called off the rest of its men’s basketball season after reviewing a police report that cited three players for false imprisonment, harassment and counts of criminal sexual contact against a teammate.

In a statement, chancellor Dan Arvizu said “this action is clearly needed, especially after receiving additional facts and reviewing investigation reports related to the hazing allegations involving student-athletes on the team.”

The campus police report, obtained by The Associated Press, redacted the names of the players involved. The report, filed Friday, detailed the victim telling investigators that last Monday, three members of the team held the victim down “removed his clothing exposing his buttocks and began to ‘slap his (buttocks).’ He also went on to state that they also touched his scrotum.”

The victim told police he had no choice but to let this happen “because it’s a 3-on-1 type of situation.”

The victim said other incidents had been occurring since last July or August, and that inappropriate physical and sexual touching by his teammates had been occurring in the locker room and on road trips.

“We must uphold the safety of our students and the integrity of our university,” Arvizu said. “It’s time for this program to reset.“

He said he had spoken with the commissioner of the Western Athletic Conference, which said it was reviewing how to treat the six New Mexico State games that will be wiped off the schedule in regards to seeding for next month’s conference tournament. The report said the victim went to campus police to report a possible assault, but did not want to press criminal charges for the time being.

On the same day the report was filed, the school announced it was suspending its season indefinitely and putting coach Greg Heiar and his staff on administrative leave. University regents are meeting Tuesday to discuss ‘limited personnel matters concerning individual employees.” It did not name the employees who were to be discussed.

On Saturday, Arvizu acknowledged the suspension was occurring because of hazing allegations on the team.

At about the time Arvizu revealed the hazing allegations, two players on the team quit. One of them, redshirt freshman Shahar Lazar, said he was leaving because “I don’t think the program that I originally committed to aligns with my beliefs and core values.”

These allegations come less than three months after the suspension of forward Mike Peake, who is being investigated in the case of the fatal shooting of a student from rival school, University of New Mexico on Nov. 19.

Peake has not been charged in that case, which included state police stopping the team bus on Interstate-25 as it headed back to Las Cruces shortly after the shooting, and missing Peake and three of his teammates, who had taken him to the hospital with an injured leg.

New Mexico State suspends operations of men’s basketball team

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New Mexico State indefinitely suspended its men’s basketball program in a virtually unheard of move that the university says is unrelated to a fatal shooting involving one of its players last year.

The school also placed first-year coach Greg Heiar and his staff on administrative leave for what it said were violations of university policy and separate from the Nov. 19 shooting of a student from rival University of New Mexico. Aggies power forward Mike Peake was suspended in early December while a third-party investigator looks into his involvement in the shooting in Albuquerque.

The shutdown of a Division I program in midseason for reasons other than a spate of injuries or, more recently, a COVID-19 outbreak, is virtually unheard of. SMU’s football program canceled its 1988 season after the NCAA handed it the “death penalty” the year before, but that move was made before the season was underway.

New Mexico State’s game against California Baptist on Saturday has been canceled, and it is unknown how many more of the team’s five remaining games, all in the Western Athletic Conference, will also be wiped out.

The program has been teetering since the night of the Nov. 19 shooting. Shortly after the shooting, Heiar loaded the team onto a bus and left town, minus Peake and three players who had picked him up and taken him to the hospital with a leg injuries. Police stopped the bus on its way back to the school’s campus, three hours south in Las Cruces.

Peake has not been charged in the shooting. The district attorney in Albuquerque is conducting a separate investigation.

The school’s announcement said Friday’s move was not related to the shooting and its aftermath. The board of regents released a separate statement saying it supported “the action taken by the university leaders and is confident a full and thorough investigation will be conducted.”

The Aggies had previously canceled the game against the Lobos in Albuquerque that had been scheduled for the day after the shooting, along with the Dec. 3 rematch in Las Cruces.

The Aggies have won seven WAC titles and made eight appearances in March Madness since 2007. They are supposed to move into Conference USA next year. But this year, they have struggled to a 9-15 record – including 10 losses in their last 12 games – under Heiar, who took over for Chris Jans when he left for Mississippi State. Jans went 122-32 in five seasons and took the Aggies to three tournaments.

Leadership at the school is also in flux. The board of regents recently decided not to renew the contract of Chancellor Dan Arvizu, which expires in June. Over the past 14 months, both the school’s president and provost have resigned or been removed from their positions.

New Mexico State suspends player after shooting

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LAS CRUCES, N.M. — New Mexico State’s athletic director says power forward Mike Peake has been suspended indefinitely from the basketball team in connection with last month’s fatal shooting of a student from a rival university.

Mario Moccia also told reporters that neither he nor the school could comment on Peake’s enrollment status as a student. The 21-year-old Peake has not been charged in the Nov. 19 pre-dawn shooting on the University of New Mexico’s campus in Albuquerque hours before the host Lobos were to play the Aggies. That game was canceled along with the Dec. 3 rematch in Las Cruces.

“Mike is suspended from our basketball team until the completion of the university’s investigation and the investigation of the proper authorities,” Moccia said. “When those investigations will be complete, I can’t say.”

State police investigators said 19-year-old Brandon Travis conspired with two other UNM students and a teenage girl to lure Peake onto campus.

The subsequent shootout left Travis dead at the scene and Peake hospitalized with a leg wound that has required several surgeries.

A brawl at an Oct. 15 UNM-NMSU football game in Las Cruces was a precursor to the shooting, police said.

First-year NMSU men’s basketball coach Greg Heiar was not made available to talk to media until 10 days after the shooting.

He expressed his condolences for Travis and his family and said he took full responsibility for the actions of multiple players who sneaked out of the hotel on that morning of the game.

But until Monday, NMSU officials had not spoken publicly about any specific discipline for Peake related to the shooting.

“If there is criticism over this decision, I am in a position to take it on myself,” Moccia said. “I’ve known this player for years and I know what kind of person he is. I didn’t feel a need to rush to judgment. I wanted to give the investigation time to play out before making any decisions.”

Peake, a 6-foot-7 junior from Chicago, played one season at Georgia before transferring to Austin Peay. He joined New Mexico State in 2021 and averaged 4.1 points and 2.4 rebounds last season, helping the Aggies reach the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Razorbacks return to Sweet 16 with 53-48 win over Aggies

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BUFFALO, N.Y. — Au’Diese Toney’s fastbreak dunk capped the decisive run with about six minutes left and launched fourth-seeded Arkansas to the Sweet 16 for a second consecutive year following a 53-48 win over No. 12 seed New Mexico State on Saturday night.

JD Notae scored 18 points before fouling out with 1:22 left and Jaylin Williams had 10 points and 15 rebounds for the Razorbacks (27-8). Notae’s replacement, Chris Lykes, hit all four free-throw attempts in the final 10 seconds to secure the win after the Aggies closed within two points on Teddy Allen’s 3-pointer with 12 seconds left.

The Razorbacks advance to play the winner of the game between top-seeded Gonzaga and No. 9 Memphis at the West Regional site in San Francisco on Thursday.

Allen was limited to 12 points after scoring 37 in the first round against Connecticut. Johnny McCants scored 16 points and added 12 rebounds for New Mexico State (27-7). The Western Athletic Conference champion was denied a chance to reach the Sweet 16 for the second time in school history, and first since 1992.