VESTAL - The Bearcat hoops team has officially started practice, three-and-a-half weeks before its first game.

And this season is guaranteed to be anything but normal after the dismissal of six players, the athletic director's resignation and most recently, head coach Kevin Broadus being placed on a paid leave of absence after admitting to a minor recruiting violation.

Throughout the entire scandal, University officials have kept almost entirely quiet.

That changed somewhat Friday night at the school's Late Night Madness event.

New interim athletic director Jim Norris answered four questions before ending the scheduled media session.

One question he did answer was why Kevin Broadus was placed on that indefinite leave of absence.

"He's reshifted his focus and he's going to make himself available for the review that is about to begin and I wanted his attention to be spent on that and I wanted him to be available at all times whenever the review team needed him," Norris explained.

Norris also says he has no idea how long that independent review of the athletic department will take, but no decision will be made on Broadus's future until it is completed.

This past June, the University signed Broadus to a contract extension through 2014.