While March Madness has played out on TV screens across the country, the Albany men’s college basketball team has been quietly dealing with an investigation into head coach Dwayne Killings and allegations that he hit one of his players.
“There has been an ongoing investigation into an incident involving Albany head coach Dwayne Killings and a player back in November,” said Jeff Goodman in a tweet on Monday. “Killings has been away from the team the last few weeks on leave.”
He then quote-tweeted his initial post, saying “The investigation involves Killings striking a player prior to the game.”
“Killings claims it was accidental. The incident wasn’t reported to administration until late in the season. [Sparked] an Investigation that includes majority of the team being interviewed.”
The investigation involves Killings striking a player prior to the game, source told @stadium. Killings claims it was accidental.
The incident wasn’t reported to adminstration until late in the season. Sprked an Investigation that includes majority of the team being interviewed. https://t.co/hnLSQ2vKgz
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) March 28, 2022
Killings, who was an assistant at Temple, UConn, and Marquette before taking over the Albany job last year, led the Great Danes to a 13–18 record in his first season, good for sixth in the America East Conference. He replaces longtime head coach Will Brown, who led the program to the NCAA Tournament five times.
The school issued a statement on Monday night, saying it was conducting an investigation into “an incident alleged to have occurred just prior to a men’s basketball road game in late November” of the 2021-22 season.
Albany has released a statement basically acknowledging the incident I mentioned, without actually acknowledging the incident.
Says the process is still ongoing. https://t.co/zfphw8alup pic.twitter.com/NtDKiTJNKQ
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) March 29, 2022
We’ll have to wait and see what the outcome of the investigation is but we imagine that would be wrapped up before the start of the next college basketball season.