No team admits to it. Arguably it is the sort of thing that puts a collective chip on the team's shoulder to carry them to March. Go ahead, choose your cliche. Or perhaps it is just best to prepare for 2009. The Pacific Tigers might as well.A team expected to battle for the Big West title in the upcoming year, finds itself in a mess. A sexual assault investigation dating back to May apparently -- though not officially confirmed or denied -- led to the suspension of three players from the Pacific Tigers' squad for the 2008-09 season.
Pacific spokesman Richard Rojo said he could not disclose whether those players - senior point guards Steffan Johnson and Michael Kirby and senior center Michael Nunnally - were involved in an alleged sexual assault investigated by the school.One of the players, Steffan Johnson, is apparently not going to be with the team. Instead, he will be transferring to Idaho -- maybe.
The school's investigation and judicial review process of the reported assault ended last week, but the school did not release the names of the students involved, citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a federal law protecting the privacy of student education records. No criminal complaint was filed, police said.
Sources said that the alleged assault involved three men's basketball players and a women's basketball player.
