Colorado State reportedly plans to fire men’s basketball coach Larry Eustachy, while players boycotted practice today over frustration with the athletics department.
Eustachy was put on a paid leave of absence last week while the school investigated him for potentially violating a zero-tolerance policy of abusive behavior towards players and staff. That policy was implemented after a prior investigation during the 2013-14 season, which found that he’d verbally and emotionally abused players and created a culture “of fear and intimidation” within the program. Though the investigators recommended that Eustachy be fired at the time, university president Tony Frank overruled them and allowed the coach to stay, with the creation of the zero-tolerance policy and a requirement that he attend anger management sessions. Now, after another probe found that he violated that policy, he’ll reportedly be fired in the next few days.
Associate head coach Steve Barnes has taken over for Eustachy in an interim capacity, and players have become frustrated with a lack of communication from the athletics department. According to the Loveland Reporter-Herald, players found out only on social media that Eustachy had been given a leave of absence, and they didn’t get any formal heads-up that news could be coming about his firing before the Denver Post broke the story this morning. They boycotted this afternoon’s practice.
[Denver Post | Loveland Reporter-Herald]
Update (8:10 p.m. ET):