Brigham Young University is standing by its decision to suspend a top player from its men's basketball team, saying it will not "relax" the school's honor code and make an exception for Brandon Davies.
The school's athletic department announced Thursday that Davies, the Cougars' leading rebounder from Provo, is no longer part of the third-ranked team.
Officials still haven't said how Davies broke the honor code but sources told the Salt Lake City Tribune that he was suspended for violating a provision forbidding premarital sex.
"We understand that people across the country might think this is foreign to them and they're shocked and surprised but for us, we deal with this quite often," athletic director Tom Holmoe said at a press conference Thursday.
Davies, a sophomore, is still a student at BYU but it's unclear whether he will be allowed to play next season, Fox13Now.com reports.
After an ugly 82-64 loss to New Mexico on Wednesday -- the worst setback by a top-three team in six years -- coach Dave Rose insisted his team would recover from the shakeup.
"This team has found ways to win games all year and I have all the confidence in the world we'll continue to do that," he said. "We'll get better. We'll find ways to deal with the loss of a player that we've relied on. We found ways to deal with the loss of Chris Collinsworth when he got knee surgery. We'll find ways to get around this."
The Cougars (27-3, 13-2 Mountain West Conference) had climbed the Top 25 by winning 17 of 18 behind player of the year favorite Jimmer Fredette. But that surge came to a crashing halt against New Mexico, which has won four straight against BYU.
"They played well and beat us," Rose said. "Now we're faced with a new challenge and that is to try to respond after we've been beat."
Holmoe said making Davies' dismissal public was not an intent "to throw him to the wolves." But, he added: "We won't relax the honor code for a situation that has to do with a basketball player."
Click here to read more on BYU's decision to suspend Brandon Davies from Fox13Now.com
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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