MARQUETTE – The Northern Michigan University women’s basketball team will be without its head coach on the bench for about three weeks after Troy Mattson was suspended by the school on Tuesday.

The 10th-year coach was suspended for four games by NMU athletic director Forrest Karr after comments he made were recorded in a postgame news conference following Monday afternoon’s home loss to Wayne State.

Mattson issued a statement on Tuesday apologizing to the Wayne State program and specifically its star player.

“I would like to apologize to Wayne State University, their coaching staff, their players and Shareta Brown for the unwarranted comments I made,” Mattson said in his statement released by the university on Tuesday evening. “I would also like to apologize to the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference as my comments were unjustified and should not have been said.”

NMU did not cite the specific comments that brought about his suspension, but Mattson is heard on video available on the Facebook page of The North Wind, the NMU student newspaper, as saying this at the postgame conference when asked why Brown wasn’t named GLIAC preseason Player of the Year:

“Because … uh … every coach in our league knows they cheated to get her there and we will not vote for her. There you go, there’s your answer.”

Mattson was also quoted about Brown, “Her problem is that she doesn’t work hard all the time” but also that she is “the best (NCAA Division II) player in the country” after she had transferred from Division I Detroit Mercy in 2013 to the Division II GLIAC school also located in Detroit, where she played throughout the 2013-14 season.

On Monday, Brown scored 21 points and grabbed 19 rebounds in the Warriors’ 69-57 victory at the Berry Events Center.

Karr said that “a mistake was made and given the circumstances, I decided to impose a four-game suspension,” according to NMU’s news release.

Karr also said the Wildcats “have a great deal of respect” for Wayne State’s athletic department.

“Their key administrators have strong backgrounds in compliance and Rob (Fornier, WSU director of athletics) is a consistent advocate for the importance of going above and beyond just following the rules,” Karr is quoted as saying.

Mattson had 120 wins as NMU women’s coach entering this season and his teams have qualified for the GLIAC postseason tournament four times in the past five years. Northern won the tourney last spring, drawing a berth into the NCAA national tournament.

Previous to that, he was associate head coach of the NMU men’s basketball team from 1994 to 2005 and also coached at Lake Superior State and Munising High School. He is a 1981 Westwood High School graduate and played collegiately for the Wildcats from 1982-85.

Mattson’s suspension begins with the Wildcats’ next game on Thursday at nonconference foe Lewis University and also includes three subsequent GLIAC games – Jan. 2 at Tiffin, Jan. 4 at Ohio Dominican and Northern’s next home game, Jan. 8 against Ashland. He will be eligible to return to the bench on Jan. 10 in a home game against Lake Erie.

The Wildcats have three assistant coaches, all in their first year with the team, but one of whom will likely be picked as acting head coach in Mattson’s absence.

They are former players Mariah Dunham and Annie Rubendunst and veteran Michigan Tech men’s and women’s assistant Rae Drake. While Rubendunst played for the Wildcats last season, Dunham was an assistant for the Lake Superior State women’s team a year ago and before that coached at Baraga High School as a head coach for two seasons.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Writer Ryan Stieg and Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. Email them at sports@miningjournal.net.