Kansas forward Silvio De Sousa was suspended for two years because his guardian allegedly sought money for his services. Miami’s Dewan Hernandez was suspended this season and 40 percent of next season for also allegedly entering into an agreement and accepting benefits from an agent.

There was no evidence De Sousa was aware of his guardian’s plan. There was also no evidence Hernandez received any payments. Yet, the NCAA hammered both. Hernandez has opted to go pro. De Sousa may as well.

Now, for the head coaches whose programs were involved in the FBI investigation into corruption into college basketball, there are allegations assistant coaches were working with agents, sneaker company executives from Adidas and financial advisers to steer players to their respective schools in exchange for large sums of cash, and accepting handouts to push those players back to the professional moneymakers when turning pro.

Crickets. Nothing but crickets from the NCAA.

Nothing has happened to Sean Miller of Arizona or Andy Enfield of USC. Bruce Pearl of Auburn is sitting pretty. So is Bill Self of Kansas. Those coaches are back recruiting at an elite level like nothing happened, while the assistant coaches USC (Tony Bland), Arizona (Emmanuel “Book” Richardson), Oklahoma State (Lamont Evans) and Auburn (Chuck Person) were all arrested. Bland has pled guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery, and so has Richardson and Evans. Person’s hearing is coming up in June.

Meanwhile, players have had their college careers ruined or postponed. The only head coach to feel the wrath was Rick Pitino, and he was fired “with just cause” by Louisville. The NCAA had no part in that.

While there may not be any concrete evidence directly tied to these coaches, whatever happened to the so-called responsibility for coaches to monitor their programs? Head coaches are supposed to be aware of their assistant coaches’ activities and promote an atmosphere of compliance with NCAA rules. According to NCAA enforcement charging guidelines, “ultimate responsibility for the integrity of the program rests with the head coach.” Instead, it seems the NCAA hopes this all just goes away without having to dole out any punishment.

Of course, coaches getting the benefit of the doubt while their players do not extends well beyond the FBI investigation. That’s just the obvious example.

We see it all the time in terms of how the NCAA allows coaches to switch jobs on a whim but forces student-athletes to sit out when going from one school to another. Coaches get paid the big bucks, and there are many in the industry, amazingly enough, who have a problem with the grad-transfer rule that allows players to be eligible immediately.

Coaches are allowed to change positions without being forced to sit out or being punished, allowed to say one thing and do another. Yet the players who make the coaches and universities money, who are not allowed to even profit off their likenesses, are forced to pay with eligibility or spending time on the sideline, delaying their professional clock.

It’s one thing for this archaic amateurism model to continue, as the NCAA seems dead set on. It’s another for the kids to be the ones being punished, time and again, while the coaches get to skate. This week was just the latest instance of the gross inequality that exists within the NCAA, a far-too-familiar pattern that doesn’t have an end in sight.

The game of the year in the Big East is slated for Saturday in Milwaukee, No. 10 Marquette hosting No. 14 Villanova. The two games between these two powers will likely determine the league’s regular-season champion. There is just one league loss between the two. But, in my eyes, the bigger game is Tuesday, at least the more important one for the league.

That’s when St. John’s visits Marquette, a rematch of the Johnnies’ 89-69 rout on New Year’s Day. The Big East has two tournament locks in the two ranked teams, but it desperately needs a third team to emerge from the rubble that is third through ninth places. One loss separates seven teams.

The Johnnies, tied for third place with Georgetown and owning three quadrant one wins, match up well with the Golden Eagles, as the first encounter illustrated — they held Big East Player of the Year front-runner Markus Howard to eight points on 2-of-15 shooting — and a win here would set them up for a big stretch run.

Five of their next six games are at home, including a Feb. 17 showdown with Villanova at the Garden. When on, St. John’s is top-25 good, and it has shown signs of improved play of late, hammering Creighton on Wednesday and hanging with second-ranked Duke for a half on Saturday. A win Tuesday could catapult the Johnnies.

No. 2 Duke at No. 3 Virginia, Saturday, 6 p.m.
The first meeting, a 72-70 Duke victory in Durham, N.C. on Jan. 19 without star freshman guard Tre Jones, lived up to the hype. The second showdown could go a long way toward the Blue Devils, who have lost just once this season at full strength, landing the top-overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. Virginia’s back-line defense had no answer in the first matchup for Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett, allowing the two top NBA prospects to combine for 57 points on 21-of-35 shooting from the field.

1. Duke, Virginia, Tennessee, Michigan
2. North Carolina, Michigan State, Kentucky, Purdue
3. Gonzaga, Marquette, Virginia Tech, Houston
4. Villanova, Wisconsin, Maryland, Nevada

Up: Patrick Ewing
The Knick great can really coach. Georgetown is likely not going to make the NCAA Tournament this year barring a stunning run, but Ewing has the freshmen-heavy Hoyas tied for third in the Big East with St. John’s after pushing Villanova for 35 minutes on the road Sunday despite leading scorer Jessie Govan getting shutout. Georgetown, led by impressive freshmen James Akinjo, Mac McClung and Josh LeBlanc, along with N.C. State impact transfer forward Omer Yurtseven, will be top-25 good next year.

Up: Lipscomb
Looking for a March dark horse? Look no further than Lipscomb, which is undefeated in the Atlantic Sun. The Bisons have already won at TCU and SMU, fell by just four to Louisville and smoked America East favorite Vermont by 25 points. They are deep — 10 players average at least 4.1 points per game — and have a star in guard Garrison Mathews, a 6-foot-5 senior averaging 19 points and shooting 42 percent from 3-point range.

Down: N.C. State
Everyone’s eyes popped at seeing Saturday’s point total, an unimaginable 24 in the Wolfpack’s ugly loss to Virginia Tech on Saturday. Sixty-one players scored more on Saturday than N.C. State did as a team. But this was just an extension of its recent struggles. It has now lost four of six games to sink closer to the bottom of the ACC than the top of it.

Down: Locals
Saturday was billed as a big day in the area, the chance for St. John’s and Seton Hall to back up big wins, Rutgers to continue its recent winning ways and Hofstra to add to its nation-leading winning streak against one of the top teams — Northeastern — in the CAA. And not one was victorious. Granted, all four games were on the road, and all four teams were underdogs. But the only team that even had a chance to prevail was Seton Hall, and that was only possible thanks to a furious rally at Butler after trailing by 17. St. John’s was annihilated at Duke by 30, Hofstra saw its 16-game win streak snapped in a 75-61 setback and Rutgers served as an antidote for previously struggling Ohio State.