Lopes was involved in separate infractions cases for improper recruiting practices at Oklahoma, where he served as an assistant to current Indiana head coach Kelvin Sampson from 1995 to 2002, and Fresno State, where he went 50-37 in three seasons as the head coach before resigning in March 2005.

Lopes' Oklahoma-based attorney, Toby Baldwin, did not immediately return a phone message left at his office Friday by The Associated Press.

In April 2006, the NCAA Division I Infractions Committee released its findings regarding the Fresno State violations, saying Lopes and members of his staff had made 457 impermissible telephone calls to prospects between April 2002 and October 2004. Of those calls, 73 were made to one prospect and 57 to another. Lopes made 234 of the 457 total calls, the committee said.

The committee placed Fresno State on four years probation and cited the school for a lack of institutional control of the men's basketball program. Lopes was given a three-year ''show cause'' penalty _ retroactive to his resignation date _ which means he may not seek employment with another NCAA school before March 2008 without first appearing before the committee to determine if his duties should be limited.

In May 2006, the committee released its findings in the Oklahoma case. It said Lopes had made 165 of nearly 600 impermissible recruiting calls made by Sampson's staff. The committee said Lopes' violations in the case warranted another ''show cause'' penalty. The committee said that three-year penalty would run concurrently and independently to the one it imposed against Lopes for the Fresno State violations.

After the penalties for the Oklahoma case were announced, Baldwin called the NCAA's order ''vague'' and said it was unfair that Lopes' penalty was more severe than the one imposed upon Sampson. Part of the NCAA's punishment against Sampson was a one-year ban on recruiting phone calls and off-campus visits. Baldwin said Lopes had banned himself for one year from coaching or contacting basketball prospects in person or over the phone before receiving the NCAA order.

Lopes appealed the penalties to the NCAA Division I Infraction Appeals Committee, saying they were excessive and inappropriate in both cases.

The appeals committee — which met on Oct. 21 but didn't release its report until Friday — rejected Lopes' appeal, noting the number of recruiting violations, the extended period of time over which they occurred and an apparent pattern of violations at two different schools.

Both the infractions committee and appeals committee cited Lopes' ''failure to heed very clear warnings about the commission of NCAA violations'' made during infractions hearings in December 2002 and June 2003 involving Fresno State's previous coaching staff, hearings the NCAA said Lopes attended.

The chairman of the appeals committee was Christopher L. Griffin of the law firm Foley and Lardner, LLP. Committee members came from Notre Dame, Miami of Ohio, Southern California and Harvard.