NCAA penalize Prairie View women’s basketball

PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (AP) — The NCAA on Tuesday penalized Prairie View A&M’s women’s basketball team for violations attributed to unfamiliarity with rules by coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, a former Houston Comets star.
The NCAA reduced Prairie View’s scholarships in women’s basketball from 15 to 12 for the next three years, and the program also was placed on four years’ probation for “major violations” in 2005-06 that ranged from Cooper-Dyke giving players small amounts of cash to various forms of unauthorized practices.
The university imposed two penalties itself: reducing practice hours allowed each week from 20 to 10 for the first three weeks of this season and reducing the number of official paid visits from four to two for 2007-08.
In addition to giving players small amounts of cash ranging from $10 to $30, Cooper-Dyke allowed a freshman to practice when she wasn’t supposed to, and her coaching staff watched recruits practice against members of the team in violation of NCAA rules. Cooper-Dyke, a two-time WNBA MVP, helped lead the Comets to the first four WNBA titles, winning the finals MVP each time. She’s in the third year of her first college coaching job.