New Mexico State indefinitely shelved its men’s basketball program Friday night in a move that the university says is unrelated to the fatal shooting last year of one of its players.
The school placed first-year coach Greg Heyer and his staff on administrative leave, which they said was in violation of university policy and separate from the November 19 shooting of a student at rival University of New Mexico. Aggies power forward Mike Peek was suspended in early December while a third-party investigator looks into his involvement in the shooting in Albuquerque.
The shutdown of a Division I program in midseason for reasons other than a spate of injuries or, more recently, a COVID-19 outbreak is virtually unheard of. SMU’s football program forfeited the 1988 season when the NCAA handed it a “death sentence”, but the move was taken before the season began.
New Mexico State’s game against California Baptist on Saturday has been canceled, and it is unknown how many more of the team’s five remaining games in the Western Athletic Conference will be wiped out.
The event has been building hype since the shooting night of 19th November. Immediately after the shooting, Heyer loaded the team onto a bus and left town, minus Peek and three players who had picked him up and taken him to the hospital with a leg injury. Police stopped the bus back at the school’s campus, three hours south in Las Cruces.
Peak charge has not been taken in the shooting. The district attorney in Albuquerque is conducting a separate investigation.
The school’s announcement said Friday’s move was not related to the shooting and its aftermath. The Board of Regents issued a separate statement saying it “supports the actions taken by university leaders and is confident that a full and thorough investigation will be conducted.”
The Aggies had previously canceled a game against the Lobos in Albuquerque that had been scheduled for the day after the shooting, as well as a December 3 rematch in Las Cruces.
The Aggies have won seven WAC titles and made eight appearances in March Madness since 2007. He has to go to Conference USA next year. But this year, they’ve struggled to a 9-15 record — including 10 losses in their last 12 games — under Heir, who replaced Chris Jahn when he left for Mississippi State. Jan went 122–32 in five seasons and took the Aggies to three tournaments.
Leadership in the school is also in flux. The Board of Regents recently decided not to renew Chancellor Dan Arvizu’s contract, which expires in June. In the past 14 months, both the school’s president and provost have resigned or been removed from their positions.