NCAA Blasts Valley Torah Coach for Role in CSUN Cheating Scandal

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CA -- A former California State University, Northridge director of basketball operations, who is now a coach at Valley Torah High, cheated for 10 men’s basketball players while the university failed to properly investigate and monitor the problem, the NCAA charged Wednesday.

The academic cheating allegedly occurred last year, leading the school to issue a self-imposed post-season ban. The NCAA Wednesday affirmed the ban and added a string of additional punishments such as a vacation of men’s basketball records in which student-athletes participated while ineligible and a five-year show-cause order for the former director basketball of operations.

A Los Angeles Times investigation identified Lior Schwartzberg, the school’s former director of basketball operations, as the staffer accused of completing online coursework for 10 players. Schwartzberg, who since moved onto Valley Torah High, denied any wrongdoing. But the NCAA didn’t buy it.

“In the instance of one student-athlete, a tutor found he did not know how to log in to the system used by the university to submit assignments, but found assignments submitted through the system,” the NCAA wrote of its findings. “Additionally, student-athlete mentors and tutors found that coursework for other men’s basketball student-athletes was submitted online without the student-athletes’ knowledge; the grades student-athletes received for online courses were significantly higher than grades they received in traditional classes; and the student-athletes reported working with a coach for their online classes.”

According to Schwartzberg, the NCAA got the facts wrong.

“I deeply disagree with the decision and many of its facts,” he wrote in a text message to the Los Angeles Times while referring additional inquiries to his legal representation.

However, the NCAA claims the facts clearly point to Schwartzberg’s guilt.

“Metadata collected during the investigation from the computer of the former director of basketball operations contained approximately 3,000 individual actions involving the 10 men’s basketball student-athletes. He could not explain why metadata showed logins, submissions and attempts of assignments as quizzes from his computer at an IP address from his parents’ house more than 70 miles from the university. Once he was removed from his position, six of the student-athletes’ grades in an online course dropped significantly.”

CSUN officials point out that they self-reported the allegations to the NCAA and opted to self-impose penalties.

"I am confident that the measures enacted since the violations were discovered, along with the leadership of (athletic director) Brandon Martin, put all of our student-athletes in a position to succeed in and out of the classroom," CSUN President Dianne Harrison said. "Self-reporting violations and self-imposing sanctions was the right thing to do, and it put the university in a position to move this program forward."

The investigation found no wrongdoing on the part of basketball head coach Reggie Theus.

"All along, I've seen this incident as a learning opportunity for our student-athletes and a chance for the team to come together," Theus said. "The team is ready to continue to compete -- on the court and in the classroom, and the future looks bright for these young men."

City News Service contributed to this report. Photo: Public Domain