Yale apologizes for T-shirts supporting former teammate

The Yale basketball team is apologizing for wearing warmup shirts that supported former teammate Jack Montague, who left the team under controversial circumstances.

During a nationally televised game against Harvard on Feb. 26, the team wore pre-game shirts that featured Montague's nickname and jersey number.

Given the fact that his reason for leaving was associated with a sexual misconduct accusation, it offended a lot of people.

"Yale Men's Basketball fully supports a healthy, safe and respectful campus climate where all students can flourish. Our recent actions to show our support for one of our former teammates were not intended to suggest otherwise, but we understand that to many students they did," Yale said in a statement. "We apologize for the hurt we have caused and we look forward to learning and growing from these recent incidents. As student representatives of Yale we hope to use our positions on and off the court in a way that can make everyone proud."

Montague, the team's fourth-leading scorer with 9.7 points per game, hasn't played since Feb. 6. At the time, his family said he was expelled, but the school only said he wouldn't return for the rest of the season.

Either way, Yale won the Ivy League title, advancing to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 54 years.

Athletic Director Tom Beckett told The New York Times that he had no idea the team planned on wearing the shirts before the game.

"The university had no knowledge of the shirts," he said. "We were not a part of that decision."