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Men's basketball coach Gib Arnold has been fired by Hawaii, according to the Honalulu Star-Advertiser.
The news comes after the Honalulu Star-Advertiser reported last week that the Hawaii basketball program could self-sanction itself following being under NCAA investigation for several months. Assistant coach Brandyn Akana has also been fired.
Arnold is no stranger to NCAA investigations after being an assistant coach under Tim Floyd at USC before taking the Hawaii head coach position.
"These painful but critical steps are being taken in an effort to strengthen our athletics program and to do right by our student-athletes and students in general," said Hawaii Athletic Director Ben Jay.
The Rainbow Warriors were under NCAA investigation after self-reporting a situation in January where "a men's basketball coach submitted an altered document that was essential for admissions purposes," according to a document the Star-Advertiser obtained through an open records request.
With rumors swirling about the potential of self-sanctioning, Gib Arnold released a statement to the Warriors' fan base last Thursday:
"The Hawaii fans need to know that we are doing the best we can to run a program they can be proud of. We are not paying players, committing academic fraud, putting our student-athletes in harm's way or treating them poorly.
"We have yet to even receive a notice of any possible allegations from the NCAA. Nor have we been given our mandated 90 days to respond to any allegations. If there has been anything administratively in our program where we have fallen short we will learn from it and correct it immediately."
Gib Arnold was about to enter his fifth season with Hawaii. He ends with a 72-55 (33-31) record. He had one year left on his contract for $344,000. According to the Star-Advertiser, "he will be paid a lump sum for the remainder of his contract through June 30, 2015, and will be officially employed through Jan. 31."
Associate head coach Benjy Taylor will take over on an interim basis.