Last Straw in Las Cruces: New Mexico State University Releases Men’s Basketball Head Coach Amidst Hazing Allegations

Haellie Gordon, [1] Fraternal Law Partners, hgordon@manleyburke.com  

On Tuesday, February 14, 2023, New Mexico State University (“NMSU”) fired its first-year men’s basketball head coach, Greg Heiar, and suspended the remainder of the team’s 2023 season.^[1] This decision came as little surprise to those keeping up with the numerous controversies recently surrounding the NMSU men’s basketball program.

Many could point to the incident of November 19, 2022, as the “beginning of the end” for the NMSU men’s basketball program. On that day, forward Mike Peake shot and killed a University of New Mexico student while in Albuquerque, NM for a game.^[2] The police described the incident as self-defense, but the resulting investigation found Heiar and other NMSU coaches and staff possessed several pieces of potential evidence from the shooting, including the gun.^[3] To add insult to injury, Heiar instructed the team to “leave town” and to return to campus following the shooting, directly ignoring the repeated requests from local police to speak with the members involved.^[4]

Now, allegations of hazing among the NMSU men’s basketball team have come to the surface and proven to be the final straw for the program. One instance was recently uncovered via a police report that cited three NMSU basketball players for false imprisonment, harassment, and counts of criminal sexual contact against a fellow teammate.^[5] The report detailed the victim’s experiences on February 6, 2023, when three of his teammates held him down, “removed his clothing exposing his buttocks and began to ‘slap his [buttocks],’” among other inappropriate touching.^[6] This was not the victim’s first experience of this nature, however, as he explained other incidents of inappropriate physical and sexual touching by his teammates had occurred since July or August 2022 and usually occurred in front of the entire team.^[7] Despite Heiar’s release, the investigations of NMSU and police into the incidents continue moving forward.

Hazing, while often associated with fraternal organizations, has infected student groups of various types and remains a prevalent issue for campuses across the nation. From this situation, it is apparent that no student group is “above” hazing, and the implementation of hazing prevention policies and trainings are more important than ever to protect students and avoid incidents of this nature.

[1] Haellie Gordon is a law clerk at Manley Burke and is a second-year law student at the University of Cincinnati.

[1] New Mexico State Fires Men’s Basketball Coach Greg Heiar, ESPN (Feb. 14, 2023), https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/35660932/new-mexico-state-fires-men-basketball-coach-greg-heiar.

[2] Id.

[3] Id.

[4] Id.

[5] Id.

[6] Id.

[7] Meredith Deliso & Bill Hutchinson, New Mexico State Men’s Basketball Coach Fired After Alleged Hazing Incident on Team, ABC News (Feb. 14, 2023, 7:43 PM), https://abcnews.go.com/US/new-mexico-state-university-mens-basketball-program-suspended/story?id=97056526.