Men's basketball coach Frank Ostanik is being investigated by UAF on charges of obstruction of justice made by the university police.

The charges were forwarded to the Fairbanks District Attorney's Office in October, but Ostanik has not been charged with a crime. As the administrative review brings more of the charges to light, Ostanik's response is that the accusations made about him need to be looked at with a little more perspective.

In one charge, police say Ostanik hindered prosecution in the burglary case from early September, when two UAF men's basketball players stole laptops and other items from apartments on campus.

A cell phone was stolen by basketball player Chris Adams, one of the burglars, on the same night, but was not reported to police. Police reports say if authorities had known about the phone theft, the case would have been solved sooner.

Ostanik said this is ridiculous. He said he only found out that it was Adams who stole the phone from Kari Reabold, a women's basketball player, the day before Adams and Jordan were charged with the burglary.

"I am very bothered by the idea that had we known about this sooner we would have solved these crimes sooner," Ostanik said. "That's highly speculative."

Police reports, obtained by the Sun Star last month, also say Ostanik and assistant coach Rich Mendoza offered Reabold whatever she wanted, implying they wanted the situation handled internally.

Again, Ostanik said this untrue. Ostanik said they asked Reabold how she wanted to handle it and went from there. They had Adams tell the women's basketball coach that he stole the phone, he said.

"It was deemed that he'd pay for a month of service," said Ostanik about the cell phone. "I covered nothing up."

Police reports also say when women's basketball coach Lynne Andrew confronted Ostanik about the theft and asked him why he hadn't kicked Adams off the team yet, Ostanik said if he lost Adams this year, he'd only win 10 games.

Ostanik confirms he said this, but it did not mean that he wanted to cover the incident up.

Ostanik dealt with the situation by announcing to the team that Adams stole the cell phone. Ostanik said he made the team run laps as Adams watched and told Adams he had to run every morning for the next week as punishment. The coach also suspended Adams for two games. Ostanik said he believes in second chances and was prepared to offer Adams one.

"We have to be able to trust each other whether it's in the locker room or on the road," Ostanik said. "I was of the mind that he made a terrible mistake, and if he does something again, he's gone."

Andrew and Reabold declined comment.

Police also say Ostanik hindered prosecution by advising the team that laptops are traceable through the Internet.

Chris Jordan told the coaches that his laptop was stolen and would not report it to police because he did not think police could find it, Ostanik said. Ostanik then told Jordan that police could trace his laptop if it was used on the network and find it for him. At this point, nobody knew anything about the burglary in the student apartments.

"This makes it sound like I knew they stole the laptops," Ostanik said, "and that they better not plug them into the system or they're going to get in trouble. It's absurd."

Police also say Ostanik was involved with a fantasy football league, which is against NCAA rules.

Ostanik said it was brought to his attention that fantasy football might be against the rules, and he looked into it. He found out that it was true and decided not to get involved.

Although the district attorney's office has decided not to press charges against Ostanik, who has been at UAF for 11 years, the coach said he worries every day about his job at UAF.

"We had two kids who did something very, very bad," Ostanik said. "I feel sick to my stomach over that every day."