San Diego State suspends leading scorer Pope over NCAA corruption report
San Diego State has provisionally suspended senior forward Malik Pope, the team's leading scorer and rebounder, while its compliance department investigates whether he received a $1,400 loan from an agent.
Pope's name appears in documents that are part of a federal investigation into college basketball corruption. The documents were obtained by Yahoo Sports.
Pope won't travel with the team for Saturday night's game at San Jose State and coach Brian Dutcher isn't sure if he'll return this season.
''This is something we're not used to at San Diego State, obviously,'' Dutcher said Friday afternoon. ''We're looking into Malik's name on the report. I have great faith in the people of this university to do so thoroughly and efficiently.''
Pope is averaging 12.7 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.2 blocked shots. SDSU (16-10, 8-7 Mountain West) has struggled this year. It is currently tied for fifth as it tries for a decent seed in the conference tournament.