James Dunleavy remembers getting a text from his head coach the first week of 2010.

The University of Southern California men’s basketball team had just won its first two games of conference play after starting 8-4, and the sophomore guard felt that the Trojans had a good shot at making the NCAA Tournament.

But then it all came crashing down.

“We get a random text message saying we had a team meeting and we had no idea what it was about,” Dunleavy said.

The university was self-imposing a one-year postseason ban for the men’s basketball program. The sanctions were a result of a USC investigation that found NCAA rules violations relating to improper benefits received by O.J. Mayo, who played for the team during the 2007–08 season, and didn’t involve anyone on USC’s roster at the time — similar to the situation Syracuse faces now.

SU announced a self-imposed one-year postseason ban on Feb. 4, prohibiting the Orange from the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament, NCAA Tournament and the National Invitation Tournament.

The Trojans’ realistic postseason hopes were dashed as Syracuse’s now are, meaning players couldn’t fully showcase themselves to pro scouts and coaches had to find a way to keep the players motivated and recruits on board.

“Trying to take each game and breaking down the points of each game to get guys excited for it,” said Bob Cantu, a USC assistant in 2009–10, about Syracuse’s situation. “It’s really hard, it’s very difficult. It’s one of the most challenging things as a coach.”

Along with the postseason ban, USC self-imposed a reduction of one scholarship for two years, a reduction in the number of coaches able to take part in off-campus recruiting during that summer and a reduction in the total number of recruiting days by 20 days for the 2010–11 academic year.

The self-imposed ban also vacated all of the team’s wins during the 2007–08 regular season and returned the money it received through the then Pacific-10 Conference for its participation in the 2008 NCAA Tournament.

The NCAA later came down with its own sanctions in 2010, penalizing USC for a lack of institutional control for the case of Mayo as well as incidents related to the university’s football and women’s tennis programs.

In Syracuse’s case, the cause of the self-imposed penalty occurred between 2007 and 2012. Mayo, who was taken third overall in the 2008 NBA Draft, was no longer with USC when the university self-imposed sanctions.

When the USC announcement dropped, Dunleavy said he and his teammates didn’t understand.

“To be honest, it’s a tough situation for us,” Dunleavy said. “We just felt like it was unfair to punish our current team at that time in that current season.”

Carl Marziali, assistant vice president for media and public relations at USC, referred questions to the university’s official release regarding its self-imposed sanctions. Clare Pastore, the faculty athletic representative at USC, declined to comment for this story.

USC’s top players, including guard Dwight Lewis and forward Nikola Vucevic, didn’t get to showcase their talents for NBA scouts in that postseason, a fate which SU’s Rakeem Christmas will also have to deal with.

“I felt that it was very difficult for the senior class especially because they wouldn’t be able to play in front of NBA scouts,” said Ryan Wetherell, a senior guard on the 2009–10 USC team. “I know a lot of my teammates were upset about not being able to use that opportunity to further their basketball career.”

From a coaching standpoint, Cantu said it wasn’t easy to keep the players motivated and that the atmosphere around the team became “deflating.” He emphasized how the captains need to step up — as SU’s Christmas, Trevor Cooney and Michael Gbinije did in releasing a statement Feb. 4 — and buy in to the idea of playing for something bigger than just a tournament.

In 2010, USC finished the season 6-10 after its self-imposed sanctions. Syracuse is 1-1 since self-imposing its sanctions and is about to face five teams in the next six games that are currently ranked in the Top 10.

Syracuse’s players have vowed to finish the season together and stay strong as a unit despite a set end date to its season. But, in USC’s similar case, it wasn’t that simple.

“Guys always said and did the right things, but it obviously took its toll,” Dunleavy said. “It’s easy to say we’re going to bond around this and we’re going to play for each other, but at the end of the day, it’s tough.”

-Asst. News Editor Justin Mattingly, jmatting@syr.edu, contributed reporting to this article.

Published on February 12, 2015 at 12:01 am

Contact Matt: mcschnei@syr.edu | @matt_schneidman