Medgar Evers men's basketball coach Brian Negro believes the Cuny Athletic Conference committed a terrible foul against his team.
The Cougars lost to Lehman in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament, but only reported that Lehman played an unqualified player in the semi-finals with John Jay.
Negro wrote how the league's commissioner emailed him to write how they were eliminated by ineligible players and teams, but a Lehman spokesman said Cunyac said on Friday that the eligibility of players in the Medgar Evers game is still under review and no decisions have been made regarding the potential invalidation of the game's nullively Nullifyny.
The league, currently run by Mammoth Sports Consulting, has decided to advance John Jay to the finals.
Nigro's team was not justified in facing the team for being told he was an ineligible player.
“How can one team go without the other?” Negro told the post. “To me, it's like a criminal doing that. At this point, I feel more of a child than a child because I wasn't right about what I was able to do than anyone else.”
The Division III Cunyac Tournament was caught up in a scandal on Wednesday when Lehman in the Bronx learned that the player had “administratively withdrawn” from his class.
According to a school spokesman, the designation meant that the player was not in the class he should have.
The statement said the players contributed to a 74-63 victory over second seed John Jay on Tuesday, but did not mention last Saturday's blown victory in the 98-66 quarterfinals over sixth seed Medgar Eggers.
Negro said that in contrast to what the league told Lehman, league chief Dr. Kurt Patberg had emailed him about what he described as a team exclusion from his team with ineligible players.
The post sent multiple emails to Cuny officials who were not returned on Friday.
Lehman claimed he contacted the league immediately after learning of the violation, and the school announced Wednesday night. In a statement After consulting with the meeting manager, I withdraw from the tournament.
“Lehman University acknowledges the unfortunate situation that led to the boys' basketball team withdrawing from the Cunyac Championship and recognizes the impact this has had on student-athletes, coaches and their supporters,” the school posted in a statement. “We are committed to supporting athletes, continually strengthening the process and improving their experience.”
Negro believes Lehman intentionally did not compete with ineligible players.
“I think it was an administrative error. This was a real disappointment for Lehman players, staff and the school,” he said. “But it happened, it happened.
“I definitely don't think it was done intentionally when they played inappropriate players. I also know the athletic director at Lehman for quite some time. When this happened, we had a few conversations.
Wednesday's statement posted on the conference's website includes details of John Jay and Barsh clashes in the title of the conference.
Negro said the league held a meeting with the commissioner and athletic director that two proposals were floating on Thursday, with neither being approved.
Medgar Evers defended them to play each other on Friday night as they were on the same side of the bracket.
Negro, who did not attend the meeting, heard that Barsch could not hold games on Saturday and Sunday.
“The league suddenly put this post and feels like it was declaring John Jay in the final without considering it first in the final game,” Negro is now in its fourth year with the program. “It was a face slap to consider whether we didn't really assess the situation close to the beginning or the fact that this kid wasn't suited to our game and how it would affect our programs and institutions.”
No. 1 seed and regular season champion Baruch suggested the idea that if John Jay and Medgar Evers didn't play each other, they could be named an automatic bid for the NCAA Tournament.
Negro said the proposal was fine, but it was “closed soon” as the meeting insisted on playing a championship game.
He added that logistics had also been cited by him as a reason for the decision.
The conference tournament had to close by Sunday before Monday's selection show.
“For me, this is total embarrassment and dishonor for us,” Negro said of the reasoning. “There's no public approval or even an apology for our program for how this was handled.”
