Lee University men's basketball coach Tommy Brown and one of his assistants, Josh Templeton, are getting some unscheduled time off in the aftermath of a heated overtime contest at Spring Hill College.
Both have been suspended for the Flames' next four games: two at a tournament this weekend at Young Harris College, a Jan. 3 game at Mountain State in West Virginia and a Jan. 6 home game against William Carey. They will be back on the Lee sideline for the 5 p.m. home game against Belhaven on Jan. 7.
The Cleveland school's official statement, created in response to an initial inquiry from Chattanoogan.com and a follow-up from WTVC's Keith Cawley, was that the two "are suspended due to unsportsmanslike conduct after the Spring Hill game on Dec. 3. Assistant coaches Paul Cretton and Frank Davis will be coaching the team for the next four games."
The Flames are 5-2 with both losses the Dec. 2-3 weekend in Mobile, Ala. The game at Spring Hill wound up 77-62 for the home team, which outscored Lee 16-1 in overtime. One Lee player was called for a technical foul in the second half, and Brown and another player received technicals in the extra period; that player was ejected.
One Spring Hill player got into verbal exchanges with Brown and Templeton late in the overtime, and the tension continued in the postgame handshaking line.
Lee confirmed that Spring Hill sent a report about the incident to the Southern States Athletic Conference "for review by the Conduct and Ethics Committee, but ... our action was taken prior to and independent of that review." The statement added that Brown and Templeton will not work with the team this week but will "resume normal day-to-day activity with our basketball program when the team returns after the holiday," other than sitting out the first two games in January.
Lee athletic director Larry Carpenter declined to comment beyond the released statement, and the two coaches were not at liberty to speak.
Brown, a former Boyd-Buchanan School standout who played at Chattanooga State and then starred at Covenant College for two years, has had 11 seasons in a row with at least 20 wins, including a 33-2 season in 2007-08 at Lee. He coached at Bluefield (Va.) College from 1998 to 2005 before coming to Lee.
Templeton is in his fifth year on the Lee staff after assisting his father at Tennessee Temple University, where Josh was a two-time National Christian College Athletic Association All-American after a standout high school career at Temple's academy.
Spring Hill athletic director Jim Hall began his collegiate athletic career at Temple in 1997 as an assistant basketball and baseball coach and the facilities coordinator, answering to Kevin Templeton.