OXFORD, Miss. — The NCAA has put the men’s basketball program at Ole Miss in Oxford, Miss., on two years of probation and fined the university $455,000 after finding that a former assistant coach went after a player at another school before that player was eligible to be recruited.
The case, which an NCAA Division I infractions panel made public Friday, centers on Wes Flanigan, who coached on Chris Beard’s staff before leaving for Georgia Tech this spring. Flanigan talked by phone 16 times and traded 10 texts with the advisor of a player at another program who had not yet put his name in the transfer portal. The player later entered the portal but never visited Oxford, got no scholarship offer and signed elsewhere.
Flanigan drew a one-year show-cause order and a two-game coaching suspension, along with recruiting limits, all of which he already served during the 2024-25 season. Beard is held responsible under the NCAA’s head coach rules but received no penalty, because the panel accepted that he knew nothing of the contact and pushed compliance on his staff.
The review also turned up an older problem. Under a 2017 infractions ruling, Ole Miss was supposed to cut ties with a booster for three years. Instead, that booster kept giving to the athletics foundation, 18 donations totaling $109,240, and kept premium seats at games, so the school was also cited for failing to monitor its athletics department.
Ole Miss also served a one-week stop on recruiting communication and a one-week ban on campus visits for men’s basketball last season. The school, the coaches and NCAA enforcement staff settled the case through the negotiated resolution process rather than a formal hearing.
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