Cynthia Cooper-Dyke takes UNCW job

It's official - Cynthia Cooper-Dyke is the new women's basketball coach at UNC Wilmington. Cooper-Dyke's playing credentials are impeccable, of course, and as a coach she transformed tiny Prairie View A&M into an NCAA tournament team in just her second season. And she can recruit her tail off. But her Prairie View stint was not without controversy:

In January 2008 the NCAA penalized Prairie View for NCAA rules violations committed by Cooper, reducing the number of scholarships for the team. The school was placed on four years' probation for "major violations" in 2005–2006 that ranged from Cooper-Dyke giving players small amounts of cash to various forms of unauthorized practices.[5] Cooper also gave players free tickets to Comets game, which is another NCAA infraction.

Obviously, UNC Wilmington has thoroughly checked into this and feels comfortable about bringing Cooper-Dyke aboard. We're looking forward to hearing the school's reasoning at Monday afternoon's press conference.