This week, the Great Lakes Valley Conference will hold its spring meetings in St. Louis. One item that's not on the agenda but certainly expected to be a topic of discussion is what's going on with the University of Southern Indiana men's basketball program.

Over the past 10 days, the program has been in a tailspin. First, head coach Rick Herdes stepped down after "irregularities" were found in his program. Five days later, a seething USI fan base, which included the high-profile resignation of the school's booster club president over Herdes' resignation, found out what happened.

The program may have committed up to five NCAA violations, which forced the school to impose various sanctions, including the forfeiture of all of its 2008-09 games and the return of money received for its NCAA Tournament appearance.

Three of the violations were related to transportation benefits, one was an academic violation and the other found to be improper contact with a recruit. USI Athletic Director Jon Mark Hall said during a Wednesday news conference the transportation violations stem from plane tickets and automobile transportation.

Two unnamed players were ruled to be ineligible after getting university help to get plane rides to their homes. Those players eventually could be reinstated by the NCAA.

While these violations don't appear to be nearly as serious as the compliance issues that rocked the Kentucky Wesleyan athletic department earlier in the decade, the situation is another black eye for the league.

"It is unfortunate," GLVC commissioner Jim Naumovich said. "But USI had a system in place where they were able to detect what happened internally. So you can take solace that they had policies and procedures in place that worked."

USI still has to wait and see if it faces any further sanctions from the NCAA and GLVC, but it would be a surprise if any were forthcoming. The school self-reported the problems and acted swiftly to rectify them. The fact Herdes stepped down and his young assistants -- Aaron Brothers and Tyson Schnitker -- were put on leave should help the school's case against more punishment.

USI has one of the premier men's basketball programs in NCAA Division II. But like Kentucky Wesleyan found out after its men's basketball program was caught in NCAA violations, it likely will be a long road back to the top.

Wesleyan is just now starting to get back to the form that helped it rule the nation a decade ago. In his fourth season last winter, Todd Lee got the Panthers back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in five years.

Hall said he hopes to have a coach in place as soon as possible. According to the Evansville media, no players have yet told Hall they want to leave. With just one senior gone from last season's team -- pending the reinstatement of the two underclassmen caught up in the violations -- the Screaming Eagles figured to be one of the top teams in the GLVC again next season. But how they'll look come November is anyone's guess.

-- dobrien@whig.com/221-3365