Auburn Self-Reports Money Thrown at Basketball Players by Florida Fans

The Auburn Tigers men's basketball program is reportedly taking no chances with an incident at the end of Saturday's road loss to the Florida Gators.According to Tom Green of AL.com, Auburn self-reported to its own compliance department the fact Florida fans threw money at the Tigers players as they were leaving the floor."It was real money, and I think there's $5 or $6 that are out there, and because you guys know we're compliant, we've actually turned that money over to compliance," head coach Bruce Pearl said, per Green. "Really. I don't know, it was five or six bucks, but our people have the money. I don't know what they're going to do with it, probably give it to charity, but we've already self-reported."Green explained Florida fans threw the money to taunt the Auburn programwhich is involved in the FBI's investigation into bribery and corruption in college basketballand it didn't sit well with guard Bryce Brown."That was kind of different," Brown said, per Green. "I've never seen nothing like that. I'll remember that next time we play them. I didn't like that. I didn't like how they tried us like that. I didn't like that."Green noted former Auburn associate head coach Chuck Person was arrested in September as part of the fallout from the FBI's investigation "and is alleged to have accepted $91,500 in bribes to funnel Auburn players toward a crooked financial adviser."Person was fired and is facing federal charges, while the school held out players Austin Wiley and Danjel Purifoy because of potential eligibility issues.The FBI's investigation has been a cloud over the entire college basketball season, andPat Forde and Pete Thamelof Yahoo Sports published a detailed report on Friday citing documents and bank records revealing "an underground recruiting operation that could create NCAA rules issuesboth current and retroactivefor at least 20 Division I basketball programs and more than 25 players."Despite the off-court issues, Auburn has impressed this season and is well on its way to its first NCAA tournament appearance since the 2002-03 campaign.The Tigers are 24-5 overall and in first place in SEC play at 12-4. Mustapha Heron, Brown and Jared Harper are each averaging better than 13.5 points per game, and Auburn was a No. 3 seed in the most recent bracket prediction from ESPN'sJoe Lunardi.
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