Following comments made at a post-game press conference after the Northern Michigan University women’s basketball game against Wayne State University on Monday, December 16, NMU head women’s basketball coach Troy Mattson issued the following statement of apology to WSU student-athlete Shareta Brown.

"I would like to apologize to Wayne State University, their coaching staff, their players, and Shareta Brown for the unwarranted comments I made," stated Mattson. "I would also like to apologize to the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference as my comments were unjustified and should not have been said."

"A mistake was made and given the circumstances I decided to impose a four-game suspension," said NMU Director of Athletics Forrest Karr. "We have a great deal of respect for Wayne State University’s department of athletics. Their key administrators have strong backgrounds in compliance and Rob (Rob Fournier, WSU Director of Athletics) is a consistent advocate for the importance of going above and beyond just following the rules."

Mattson will serve a four-game suspension as a result of his statements. Those four Wildcat women’s basketball games are December 18 at Lewis, January 2 at Tiffin, January 4 at Ohio Dominican, and January 8 at home against Ashland.