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SMU's Frazier 'wasn't aware' of academic fraud ​

Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

The basketball player at the center of the NCAA's sanctions against SMU says he didn't know a former team administrator was completing coursework for him in order for him to be cleared to play.

"I didn't know she was doing that class for me," guard Keith Frazier told ESPN's Jeff Goodman. "I wasn't aware of that. I know it looks that way on the outside looking in, but I didn't know."

SMU was hit with a postseason ban this year and coach Larry Brown suspended for nine games as a result of what the NCAA called academic fraud. The oversight body found that Frazier was enrolled in an online course in order to meet eligibility standards, but that a former administrative assistant had completed all the coursework under Frazier's username.

"The team has to go through all this and I'm in the middle of it," Frazier said. "I feel for those guys. They had nothing to do with this. I feel for them and how it's affecting their lives."

Frazier was deemed academically ineligible to play last January. The former high school McDonald's All-American averaged 10.5 points in 17 games as a sophomore.

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