Minnesota Golden Gophers Basketball

Minnesota Golden Gophers basketball player Reggie Lynch is reportedly facing potential expulsion following a third sexual assault allegation. 

On Tuesday, Rochelle Olson and Brandon Stahl of the Star Tribune reported the third allegation "emerged" in a complaint and led to the recommendation of expulsion for the senior center.

The third woman coming forward against Lynch "resulted in a Jan. 3 finding by the U's Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action (EOAA) that Lynch was responsible for sexual misconduct in an alleged sexual assault that occurred on April 7, 2016," Olson and Stahl wrote.

This comes after John Shipley of the Pioneer Press reported Thursday the EOAA recommended Lynch be suspended until August 2020 for violating the school's sexual misconduct policy in a separate incident that occurred in the spring of 2016.

Olson and Stahl explained Lynch was allegedly involved in three separate incidents with three separate women between April and May of that year, which was before he was eligible to play for the Golden Gophers after he transferred from Illinois State and had to sit out the 2015-16 campaign because of NCAA rules.

He was also arrested in May 2016, although the EOAA did not find him responsible for violating the conduct code in that case.

Despite the allegations, Lynch has continued to practice with the basketball team even though he is suspended from game action. According to Olson and Stahl, he appealed and is "asking for hearings before the Sexual Misconduct Subcommittee (SSMS). The committee can either affirm or reverse the recommendations. The SSMS proceedings are not public."

Lynch won the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year last season and was a primary member of the frontcourt rotation again this season before these findings were publicized.

Reggie Lynch remains a member of the Minnesota Golden Gophers basketball team despite being involved in an investigation that could see him barred from the university's campus until at least 2020.

Minnesota athletic director Mark Coyle confirmed Friday that Lynch is still with the team but will be suspended for the Golden Gophers' game Saturday with the Indiana Hoosiers. Minnesota on BTN shared Coyle's comments:

According to the Star Tribune's Rochelle Olson and Brandon Stahl, a university investigation found Lynch responsible in an alleged sexual assault in April 2016.

Minnesota head coach Richard Pitino said the decision to allow Lynch to stay with the team was the result of a university policy, per Josh Rosenthal of KSTP in St. Paul, Minnesota. Lynch can still file an appeal with Minnesota's Student Sexual Misconduct Subcommittee, which would delay his suspension from going into effect.

Lynch was previously arrested over an alleged sexual assault in May 2016. Prosecutors in Hennepin County, Minnesota, declined to pursue criminal charges, and Minnesota reinstated him to the basketball team in September 2016 after completing its own investigation.

Were the ruling from Minnesota's Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action office to stand regarding Lynch's impending suspension, it would end his basketball career with the Golden Gophers.

The senior center was the Big Ten's Defensive Player of the Year in 2016-17, and he's averaging 10.1 points, 8.0 rebounds and 4.1 blocks through his first 15 games for the 13-3 Golden Gophers.

Minnesota Golden Gophers senior center Reggie Lynch is reportedly facing a suspension from the school and basketball team that would last until August 2020 due to a violation of the university's sexual misconduct policy.

John Shipley of the Pioneer Press reported the news Thursday, noting Minnesota's Office for Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action recommended the penalty following an investigation regarding an incident from the spring of 2016.

According to Shipley, the punishment will start Jan. 9 if Lynch doesn't appeal it.

This isn't the first time Lynch was investigated.

Shipley noted the center was arrested on suspicion of rape for a separate incident in 2016, although "the EOAA investigation found it more likely than not that Lynch reasonably believed the sex was consensual" and cleared him. He also wasn't formally charged but was suspended from the basketball team until he was officially cleared.

This potential suspension until 2020 stems from the second EOAA investigation for a different incident. He wasn't suspended during the course of the investigation like the first one because the police were not conducting their own investigation.

Lynch started his collegiate career at Illinois State but transferred to Minnesota after two seasons. He was named the Big Ten's Defensive Player of the Year last season.

The University of Minnesota announced Wednesday that it added one year to head men's basketball coach Richard Pitino's contract, which will keep him under contract through the 2021-22 season. 

Pitino is 75-61 in four seasons with the Golden Gophers, and he led them to the NCAA tournament in 2016-17.

According to GopherSports.com, Pitino explained his decision to accept the extension: "I am extremely grateful to be the head coach at such a prestigious university. My family and I love living in the Twin Cities and look forward to continuing to build a strong men's basketball program on and off the court. I have loved getting to know and working with [athletic director] Mark Coyle this past year. Mark and President [Eric] Kaler's commitment to athletics is second to none. The future of Gopher basketball is very bright and I am excited to be a part of it."

Prior to Pitino's arrival in 2013, Minnesota reached the NCAA tourney three times in six seasons under Tubby Smith.

While the Golden Gophers failed to reach the tournament in each of Pitino's first three seasons, they won the NIT in his inaugural season and went from 8-23 in 2015-16 to 24-10 last season.

The 34-year-old Pitino is the son of Louisville head men's basketball coach and Basketball Hall of Famer Rick Pitino.

He served as associate head coach under his father at Louisville for one season before spending one season as head coach at Florida International.

Pitino is one of the fastest-rising, young coaches in college basketball, and Minnesota's performance in 2016-17 suggests he is in charge of a team on the rise as well.

BR Video

Minnesota Golden Gophers guard Amir Coffey likely won't remember his appearance in the 2017 NCAA tournament with fondness.

With under five minutes to play in the second half of Thursday's game versus No. 12 seed Middle Tennessee State, Coffey took a hard tumble to the court after Blue Raiders forward JaCorey Williams partially denied his one-handed dunk.

No. 5 seed Minnesota lost the contest 81-72. 

The Minnesota Golden Gophers men's basketball team has suspended center Reggie Lynch indefinitely after he was arrested on "probable cause of criminal sexual conduct" on Sunday, according to Marcus R. Fuller of the Pioneer Press.

The junior did not play last year because of NCAA transfer rules. He spent his first two years of college basketball with the Illinois State Redbirds.

Amelia Rayno of the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Lynch was arrested Sunday afternoon but has not been formally charged.

"Lynch will remain suspended from team pending conclusion of the investigation," Minnesota head coach Richard Pitino said, per Rayno.

This is the third time since 2014 that Minnesota is dealing with a controversy. Former player Daquein McNeil was dismissed from the program in January 2015 after being arrested in November 2014—he eventually pleaded guilty to assault charges. This season, three players were suspended in February after sex videos appeared on freshman guard Kevin Dorsey's social media account, per Rayno.

Lynch is the latest name to join the controversial list, and he was expected to be a vital contributor for the Golden Gophers after they went 8-23 this past season. Bakary Konate is the only other center on Minnesota's roster, and he averaged only 4.8 points and 5.1 rebounds per game last year.

Lynch's defense and athleticism set him apart from others on Minnesota's roster. He averaged 2.8 blocks per game in his sophomore year at Illinois State.

Last season was a struggle for Minnesota, and with the continued drama surrounding the program, Pitino is in for more than a traditional rebuilding process.

Stats courtesy of Sports-Reference.com.

A difficult year for the Minnesota Golden Gophers basketball team got worse Tuesday, as head coach Richard Pitino suspended Kevin Dorsey, Nate Mason and Dupree McBrayer for the rest of the season.   

Per a release from the team (via ESPN.com's Jeff Goodman), Pitino announced the suspensions but did not specify a reason. 

All three players were previously suspended for Sunday's game against Illinois, with Pitino saying in a statement (via Kyle Goblirsch of 247Sports) they did not live up to the program's standards:

Pitino expanded on the suspensions for Dorsey, Mason and McBrayer during the postgame press conference, per ESPN.com:

Tonight wasn't about wins and losses, it was about making sure our guys understand that this thing is bigger than just basketball and we're going to do what we believe is right. Unfortunately, you may lose the battle but you're going to win the war. Today was unfortunately not as much about wins and losses but more about the culture of our program and that's something that we work at every single day and it's extremely important to what we're all about.

Dave Campbell of the Associated Press (via the Washington Post) confirmed through a person with knowledge of the discipline that the players were suspended because Dorsey posted "a sexually explicit video" on his Instagram and Twitter. The accounts were later deleted. 

Minnesota has two regular-season games remaining before the Big Ten tournament. The Gophers are 8-20 this season, their worst mark since the 2006-07 season, and they will need to win the conference tournament to play in the NCAA tournament. 

Mason leads the team in scoring and assists. Dorsey and McBrayer, both freshman, have combined to average 12.7 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game for Minnesota. 

A disappointing season for the University of Minnesota basketball team took another bad turn Sunday when three players were reportedly suspended for a posting on social media.

As Dave Campbell and Jon Krawczynski of the Associated Press reported Monday, "Three Minnesota men's basketball players were suspended over the weekend after a sexually explicit video appeared on one of their social media accounts." The three players in question, guards Kevin Dorsey, Nate Mason and Dupree McBrayer, were all benched during Sunday's loss at Illinois for a "violation of team rules," according to the report.

"The video was posted Friday on Dorsey's Instagram and Twitter accounts, both of which were disabled about a half-hour later," Campbell and Krawczynski reported. A source told them the three players are not under criminal investigation.

"According to information drudged up by a message board of the team's fans, Dorsey posted two videos to Twitter on Friday of himself and another person having sex with a woman," Mark W. Sanchez of the New York Post added. "The identities of the other parties were unclear."

Head coach Richard Pitino made a statement about the suspensions after the Golden Gophers' loss to the Fighting Illini on Sunday, per Marcus R. Fuller of the St. Paul Pioneer Press:   

Obviously, culture and doing what's right is extremely important to myself, our staff and our players. I wake up every day, and I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity that I have to coach in an awesome basketball conference and to coach in a place where I consider my dream job. We're going to do things the right way. Tonight wasn't about wins and losses, it was about making sure our guys understand that this thing is bigger than just basketball. And we're going to do what we believe is right. Unfortunately you may lose the battle, but you're going to win the war. Today was unfortunately not as much about wins and losses but about the culture of our program. That's something we work at every single day. And it's extremely important to what we're all about.

Minnesota is 8-20 overall and 2-14 in the Big Ten. It beat then-No. 6 Maryland 68-63 on Feb. 18. Mason is the team's leading scorer, while Dorsey and McBrayer are part of Pitino's rotation:

The Golden Gophers' next game is at home Wednesday against the Wisconsin Badgers. They close the season at the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Saturday. 

Emotions—high and low, from player and spectator—go hand in hand with sports.

Following the Minnesota Golden Gophers' 68-63 victory on Thursday over No. 6 Maryland that snapped a 14-game losing streak, senior forward Joey King had a lot of emotions.

More than for himself, however, King was proud to have given his home crowd an exciting win—the first conference "W" of the Gophers' season:

You know, there’s not too many fans that would come out day in and day out for an 0-13 team, so to have the kind of support we have here is just something really special. I mean, we haven’t had the best year, but we just kept fighting, and we knew we’d show up one of these nights, and to have it against Maryland, one of the top teams in the country, in front of our home crowd, it’s something they deserve. They’ve stuck with us all year.

This kind of passion and commitment—both on the court and in the stands—just never gets old.

[Big Ten Network, h/t Deadspin]

Minnesota guard Daquein McNeil has been arrested and charged with two counts of assault, and has been suspended from the team.

Continue for updates.

Wednesday, Nov. 26

McNeil Charged With Assault, Police Report Surfaces

Dennis Brackin and Amelia Rayno of the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported the charge:

McNeil, 20, was charged with third degree assault (substantial bodily harm), punishable by up to five years in prison and/or a $3,000-to-$10,000 fine; and domestic assault by strangulation, punishable by up to three years in prison and/or a $5,000 fine.

Bail was set at $75,000, and his first court date is set for Monday. He has been ordered to stay a reasonable distance from the 28-year-old woman’s residence and have no contact with her.

Brackin and Rayno also described events of the incident obtained from the police report:

According to the Statement of Probable Cause, McNeil and the woman had been dating for about 10 months. McNeil came to her apartment on Monday to retrieve his Gophers backpack that he needed for the team’s trip to New York City.

The woman was sleeping when McNeil entered her room carrying a cooking pan, according to the report. He smashed a mirror with the pan and began pulling out dresser drawers before dumping a bottle of alcohol over the woman’s clothes and other items.

The woman has a male roommate who heard the commotion and ushered McNeil out of the apartment. But McNeil returned and dragged the woman off the bed by her ankles, stripping off her pants and then repeatedly dumped cold water on her.

At one point he pushed her up against the wall and used both of his hands to strangle her, the report said. As he strangled her, he yelled, 'You ruined my life, now I’m going to ruin your life.'

After McNeil released his grip, the woman entered the shower. McNeil ripped off the shower curtain and whipped her with a leather belt repeatedly, the report said.

Tuesday, Nov. 25

McNeil Arrested on Domestic Assault Charges

Minnesota sophomore guard Daquein McNeil was arrested Monday night on domestic assault charges and has been suspended indefinitely from the team, according to reports.     

Andy Greder and John Shipley of Twincities.com have more:

Daquein McNeil, a reserve guard on the Gophers basketball team, has been suspended indefinitely in the wake of a domestic assault arrest Monday. The sophomore was arrested on probable cause after fleeing the scene and is being held without bail in Hennepin County jail.

He is charged with second-degree domestic assault and domestic assault/strangulation.

Fox 9 News on Twitter shared his mugshot:

According to the Twincites.com report, police picked up McNeil after his girlfriend called 911 and alleged that he "ripped her clothes off, beat her with a belt and choked her."

Athletics director Norwood Teague made the following statement, per that report.

"We are currently gathering information and cooperating with the authorities," he said. "This athletics department values respect and positively impacting the lives of others and will not tolerate any form of domestic assault from its staff or student-athletes."  

McNeil has appeared in four games this season, averaging 3.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 18.8 minutes per game. As a freshman in 2013, he averaged 1.6 points and 1.1 rebounds in 9.7 minutes per game.