Cruz Suspended, Potential NCAA Rules Violations

Pat Haden used the term "winning the right way" after the NCAA carpet bombed the program in 2010.

That term displease a lot of the USC faithful.

Pat Haden hired Frank Cruz as USC's baseball coach after promising to do an exhaustive "National search" for a coach who could bring USC's storied baseball program back to national prominence.

It hasn't gone well with Cruz at the helm.

And now Cruz may have a small NCAA matter on his hands that has led to his suspension.

USC baseball head coach Frank Cruz has been suspended from his coaching duties pending an investigation by the University to determine whether excessive NCAA Countable Athletically-Related Activities occurred within his program.

NCAA bylaws restrict the number of hours student-athletes can spend in activities directed by or supervised by the coaching staff.

"We take any potential NCAA infraction seriously," said USC Athletic Director Pat Haden. "USC Vice President for Athletic Compliance Dave Roberts and his staff will investigate whether the baseball program exceeded the allowable CARA hours, and will do so diligently and expeditiously. Pending the results of the investigation, we have suspended Coach Cruz from all coaching duties."

I could care less about few extra hours of practice, the team could use it.

Cruz allegedly putting a few extra reps on the training schedule kind of puts a black eye on Haden.

Cruz isn't new to this, he knows the rules. And I am sure that Cruz is very aware Pat Haden's "culture of change".

If Cruz had even half the resume of Rod Dedeaux this wouldn't even be on my radar screen...but this is Haden's hire under his new era of culture change so Haden is on the hook for this for even more than just a small NCAA violation in the public's eyes.

I wonder how Haden will spin this...