Des Moines, Iowa ? Iowa State University men’s basketball coach Larry Eustachy has told the school’s athletic director Eustachy used “bad judgment” and made “bad decisions” in late January at a party near the University of Missouri campus.

Athletic director Bruce Van De Velde said Eustachy came to him and president Gregory Geoffroy this month after finding out a student at the party had given photographs of Eustachy to The Des Moines Register.

According to The Register’s copyright story, 12 photos show Eustachy during the early hours of Jan. 23 with beer. In several photos he’s embracing and kissing women on the cheek or being kissed on the cheek. The Register printed a few photos in its Monday edition.

“I am certainly aware of the role drinking has played in my behavior. I am addressing this matter,” Eustachy said in a statement issued Monday by Des Moines lawyer Jerry Crawford.

Crawford would not comment when asked if that meant Eustachy would seek counseling.

Eustachy, 47, went to the party at a student apartment with Missouri men’s basketball player Josh Kroenke hours after the Cyclones lost, 64-59, to the Tigers. A Missouri spokesman said Kroenke confirmed attending the party with Eustachy, who is a friend of Kroenke’s father, Stan.

Board of Regents member David Fisher of Des Moines said he was “shocked and stunned” by the reports of Eustachy’s behavior and didn’t think it too extreme to fire Eustachy.

The coach said he regretted his actions.

“I want the people of Iowa and the fans of our program throughout the nation to know how sorry I am to have disappointed them with some poor decisions I have made,” Eustachy said in his statement. “But words are cheap at a time like this, and I hope to be measured by my future conduct.”

Party On

That wasn’t Eustachy’s first campus party after a road game, according to students in another Big 12 Conference town.

Iowa state coach Larry Eustachy watches a practice. Eustachy is under fire after students at Missouri and Kansas State said he behaved badly at campus parties.

In January 2002, the coach was at an early-morning fraternity party in Manhattan, hours after his team lost a game to Kansas State, students told the Register. On that occasion, a fraternity member said he wound up in an argument with Eustachy because he found the coach’s arm around his 19-year-old sister.

The woman told the Register that Eustachy walked into the house and complimented her on her appearance, saying that she should be attending Kansas University, where the women are “much hotter.”

Neither Iowa State officials nor Eustachy disputed the authenticity of the Missouri photos.

Van De Velde previously had confirmed the authenticity of a photo of Eustachy and a group of young adults posted on a Missouri Tigers’ fan Web site. That photo appeared days after the January game.

Eustachy, paid more than $1 million a year, is the state’s highest-paid public employee. Married since 1987, Eustachy and his wife, Stacy, have two sons — Hayden, 10, and Evan, 8.

The scandal is the second for ISU basketball in two months. On March 3, Iowa State assistant coach Randall Brown resigned after he was charged with possession of child pornography and obstruction of justice.

Eustachy’s contract with Iowa State runs through 2011. It stipulates that he must provide “positive representation of the university and the university’s athletic programs in private and public.”

In a statement issued by Eustachy, he confirmed meeting with Geoffroy and Van De Velde last week about “a variety of issues.”

Van De Velde wouldn’t say if disciplinary action had been taken or was pending against Eustachy. He also would not say whether the coach’s actions could lead to his dismissal.

“Larry understands that he has made a poor decision and not used good judgment,” Van De Velde said. “He understands, and we have made it clear to him, the importance of his public image and the obligations he has for the institution. And he has expressed remorse … to our university administration and to me.”

Eustachy, the Cyclones’ coach for five seasons, won back-to-back Big 12 Conference championships in 2000 and 2001. The team advanced to the NCAA’s Elite Eight in 2000, when Eustachy was named national coach of the year. The team has struggled the last two seasons, finishing under .500 in league play.

Party Pics

The photos were taken by Sean Devereaux, a junior English major at Missouri who lived at the apartment where the party was held. Devereaux said he took the pictures because he wanted to show Eustachy had attended a party at his apartment.

Iowa State coach Larry Eustachy can't watch during a loss to Kansas University at Allen Fieldhouse. Eustachy is under fire because of his actions at college parties.

Devereaux said he later decided to make the photos public because he was bothered by Eustachy’s being at the party for more than three hours. There are reports the coach declined to leave the party around 3 a.m., despite being urged to leave by individuals who accompanied him. He allegedly left the party between 4:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. after residents of the apartment called a taxi for him.

“He was here and acted very uncoachlike,” Devereaux said. “I didn’t think personally he could hang that long, being an old man. But I figured he would have left with the people who he came with.”

Van De Velde said Eustachy didn’t provide him with a full explanation about the party or his activities when questions were first raised in January.

“Coach Eustachy has been forthcoming since and has expressed remorse,” Van De Velde said. “He has told us he has used bad judgment and that he made bad decisions. He has admitted that.”

Not the first time

As far as the K-State party specifics, Kurtis Wenger said he entered into an argument with Eustachy at the Kappa Sigma house after seeing the coach with his sister about 1:30 a.m.

“I got angry about it,” said Wenger, a senior at Kansas State. “I was like, ‘Get your arm from around my sister.’ I grabbed her in front of everyone and pulled her away from him.”

Nicole Wenger, a sophomore at Kansas State, said she was the first person at the fraternity house to meet Eustachy, who was accompanied by a couple of other men.

“I didn’t know who they were,” she said.

She said Eustachy asked her whether she would show him around the fraternity because “there is a party going on tonight, and I just want to make sure my players aren’t here.”

While she was escorting Eustachy around the fraternity, the coach told her she was “pretty good-looking” and asked where she was from, Nicole Wenger said. She responded that she was from Lawrence.

“He was like, ‘What are you doing here? Why aren’t you going to KU?’ The girls down there are much hotter. You belong there,”’ she said.

She said others began to take pictures of Eustachy during the tour of the fraternity. She said she had a picture of Eustachy with his arm around her shoulders.

“People are snapping pictures, he has beer in his hands. I thought he was … not representing himself very well,” she said. “I was pretty close to him because he was talking really close to my face. I could smell alcohol.”

She said several partygoers later began to razz Eustachy because the Cyclones had lost that night.

“Guys were giving him hell about losing,” Nicole Wenger said. “And he goes, ‘My team sucks.'”

That night’s loss had dropped the Cyclones’ record to 9-10 overall and 1-4 in Big 12 Conference play, the school’s worst start in league action since the 1993-94 season.

Van De Velde was asked whether Eustachy made Iowa State officials aware that he had been at early-morning student parties, such as the one at Kansas State.

“He has not gone into detail about what he has done and who he has done it with,” Van De Velde said. “But, like any individual who might go out and have a drink at an establishment, coach Eustachy has done that and has been upfront with us about it.

“Nothing has been talked about in terms of where he has socialized or who he has socialized with, but he has been upfront with us that this is not the first time he has gone out after a game and had dinner and a drink.”

Travel plans

Eustachy does not like to fly and usually drives to games while the team goes by chartered airplane. The team returns home immediately after the game. Eustachy often does not drive back until the next day.

Van De Velde refused to say if Eustachy would be ordered to travel with the team.

“We haven’t gotten that far yet,” Van De Velde said. “I wouldn’t expect that would change dramatically from what we have done in the past. I am not sure how that necessarily impacts on his actions here.”

The athletic director said Eustachy should be a role model for Cyclone student-athletes.

“All of our coaches and staff have to set a good example for our student-athletes,” Van De Velde said. “It has been clearly pointed out to him, and he understands that he will have to avoid these types of situations in the future.”