UTEP’s Floyd Explains Why Player Was Kicked Off Team

UTEP men’s basketball coach Tim Floyd said he kicked back-up point guard Myron Strong off the team because of violating team rules and nothing else.

“I have a 30-year relationship with this university,” Floyd told ABC-7. “I worked for a man by the name of Don Haskins. We’re going to have standards. This university has standards. We’re not going to have a zoo. These guys understand what they have to do in terms if being responsible citizens.”

Strong, who allegedly was dismissed from the team because of a drug violation according to a published report, accused Floyd of looking for a reason to kick him off the team to bring in another player.

Floyd declined to comment on a tweet by Memphis Commercial Appeal reporter Don Wolken that Strong was kicked off the team because of a drug policy violation. Wolken said in the tweet he had spoken to Floyd and Floyd said Strong was kicked off the team because of violating the university’s drug policy.

“I’m not going to comment on the drugs,” Floyd told ABC-7. “I’m just not going to do that. I will say … he violated university policy. He had an ample warning earlier in the year. I wish him the very best of luck.”

After being dismissed from the team Thursday, Strong took to his Facebook page to accuse Floyd of NCAA violations while he was head coach at USC.

“Yeah I’m not at utep anymore I know a lot of ppl wondering y, but the big question really should be how did tim floyd even get the job there? Wasn’t he just under investigation at USC? Well I’m hearing that he had a fake charity event to pay former player OJ Mayo $100,000 to play for him. How did the ncaa let that slide? I’m just saying….” Strong wrote on his Facebook status.

In an email to ABC-7, Strong elaborated on why he thought he was kicked off of the team.

“Basically when barbee was there I had a dorm incident and couldn’t live in the dorms this school year which was fine because I wasn’t planning on staying in the dorms anyways. So when tim floyd came to utep he tested our team and some ppl failed but for some reason he made it seem like it was all my fault and that I was a bad person,” Strong said in the email. “He stereotyped me from day 1. Then a few weeks bck I was in the dorm(just there before class) and the police arrested a gurl in the dorm with weed that I knew. My name came up and she told them I had nothing to do with it which was true. Tim floyd had said even if my name came up in anything that I was out of there so I made sure that they knew I had nun to do wit it. But still he told me I violated by even being in the dorms and I didn’t know I couldn’t even be in the dorms. Tim floyd had already said that he had a guard he wanted to bring in so that had to be his reason to let me go. Really I don’t see how he even got the job when he broke ncaa rules at usc just two years back. He raised a fake charity event to pay a player to come to usc is what I’m hearing from my sources abd I’m sure its true.”

Floyd said it was accurate that Strong was in the dorms when he should not have been and that that was a violation of university policy. Floyd also said his record decades-long career speaks for itself.

“In terms of this fake charity (accusation), all I’m going to say is I’ve been in this business for 32 years and I’ve never had one violation against me or any member of my coaching staff,” Floyd said.

The NCAA did not attach any violations to Floyd when it released its findings and sanctions June 10 related to its USC investigation, according to an ESPN report. The NCAA report’s most damaging statement toward Floyd was that he sat in on a meeting with runner Rodney Guillory, who was pushing USC to recruit O.J. Mayo, and that the SC staff continued to recruit Mayo through Guillory even though they had “Googled” to find out that Guillory was identified as a “runner” for a sports agent in a case involving another NCAA member institution, according to ESPN.

Strong, a Memphis, Tenn., native played in all 33 games last season for the Miners. Strong averaged 3.1 points, 1.6 rebounds and 1.9 assists.

Related Link:Myron Strong’s Bio

ABC-7 Sports Director Raul Martinez Contributed To This Report