Cincinnati ? Police arrested Mississippi men’s basketball coach Andy Kennedy early Thursday after a cab driver said the coach punched him while calling him “bin Laden” and other racial insults.

A pretrial hearing has been set for Jan. 16. Kennedy was charged with a first-degree misdemeanor count of assault, which would carry a maximum sentence of six months in jail for conviction.

Kennedy denied the allegations, and his attorney, Mike Allen, entered a written plea of not guilty in Hamilton County Municipal Court on Thursday.

The complaint filed in Municipal Court alleges that Kennedy assaulted Mohamed Moctar Ould Jiddou and “punched victim with a closed fist while shouting racial slurs.” Kennedy, 40, was arrested at 1:15 a.m., police documents show.

Police subsequently arrested Bill Armstrong, director of operations for the basketball team, on a charge of disorderly conduct.

Kennedy, a former assistant and interim head coach at Cincinnati, coached the Rebels in a 77-68 loss to No. 9 Louisville in the SEC/Big East Invitational on Thursday night.