New Mexico State fires men's basketball coach, after canceling season over hazing allegations

New Mexico State University has fired its men's basketball head coach Greg Heiar, after canceling the remainder of  team's season amid allegations of student-athlete hazing. 

"As I've stated previously, hazing has no place on our campus, and those found responsible will be held accountable for their actions," New Mexico Chancellor Dan Arvizu said Tuesday when he announced Heiar's dismissal.

The Western Athletic Conference, of which New Mexico State is a member, deemed the basketball team's six canceled games as forfeits against conference opponents.

Arvizu shut down the program after reviewing a campus police report in which a player says three teammates falsely imprisoned, harassed and criminally sexually contacted him, according to ESPN. 

The incident allegedly happened Feb. 6, with the victim saying the three held him down,"removed his clothing exposing his buttocks and began to 'slap his" buttock. Other allegations in the report include the three touched his scrotum during the incident earlier this month and other incidents of inappropriate physical and sexual touching by teammates that started this past summer, ESPN also reports.

Heiar's firing also follows team forward Mike Peake being accused of shooting and killing a University of New Mexico student in self-defense in November 2022.

Coaches and staffers were found to be in possession of potential evidence from the shooting, including the gun, and Heiar told his team to leave town after the incident and later return to campus, investigators said.

Peake has not been charged criminally, but he was indefinitely suspended from the team as the probe is ongoing.