NMSU chancellor backs advertisement after hoops shutdown

The chancellor at New Mexico State expressed his self-confidence in athletic director Mario Moccia on Wednesday, less than a week after the school’s most prominent sports program– the guys’s basketball team– was shut down for what the chancellor said was a culture of bad habits, egregious violations of the student code of conduct and other “despicable acts.”

In addition to backing Moccia, chancellor Dan Arvizu said at a news conference he was positive the habits that led to the cancellation of the season and firing of head coach Greg Heiar was not reflective of the athletic department or the school in general.

“Our evaluation shows that this culture of bad habits is contained within the basketball program,” Arvizu said.Editor’s Picks

1 Related He was speaking less than 24 hr after shooting Heiar, whose program was sunk by a pair of scandals, both of which are subject to continuous investigations. The current was the hazing allegations reported to school cops by a player who said three colleagues ganged up on him and assaulted him in the group locker room.That began top

of the fatal shooting of a student at competing University of New Mexico in November. Security video of the shooting shows New Mexico State player Mike Peake being shot at by that student, then responding by shooting the student as they ran through a house parking lot. Peake has actually been suspended from school however not charged in the incident.Arvizu stated the shooting, which had roots in a battle that Peake and others were associated with at an Aggies football game a month earlier, is still under investigation. He stated players who are under examination could be suspended from school, suspended from basketball or exonerated.At a board of regents meeting held quickly after the deadly shooting, chair Ammu Devasthali stated weapons are not

permitted on the university campus or on university journeys.