Michigan State Athletic Director Bill Beekman has issued a response in defense of head basketball coach Tom Izzo after a report from ESPN says that Izzo and two assistant coaches “sought out” a witness in a 2017 sexual misconduct allegation.

The report states that Izzo and two assistant coaches contacted the witness before he spoke with police or the school about the situation. The allegation is against Brock Washington, who is currently suspended by the team, for forcibly groping a female student in 2017.

“Tom Izzo has been a beacon of integrity in his profession for nearly four decades, including a quarter century as head coach,” Beekman said in a release. “Michigan State’s Office of Institutional Equity has gone on record to say that no policies were violated in regards to any actions taken by the men’s basketball staff during a Title IX investigation into a student. There’s nothing to support any claims that any member of the men’s basketball staff conducted their own investigation, or interfered with any ongoing investigation. Any insinuation to the contrary is nothing more than an attempt to smear a coach, a program and and entire university.”

Last week, ESPN reported that a woman at Michigan State reported to police that she was raped by a member of the Spartans’ basketball team (Washington). The prosecutor’s refusing to file charges, the woman requested that the Michigan attorney general investigate the matter.

Michigan State police told prosecutors that there was “probable cause” that Washington sexually assaulted a woman when she was too intoxicated to provide consent.

You can read more from ESPN’s report here.