Baylor's internal investigation into NCAA violations is expected to say former men's basketball coach Dave Bliss acted alone without any booster involvement in setting up the tuition payments of two non-scholarship players last season, a source close to the investigation told ESPN.com on Monday night.

Roberts seeks release

Preseason Wooden All-American junior forward Lawrence Roberts was expected to receive a release from Baylor to talk to other schools about transferring and likely will make up his mind whether he'll stay with the Bears by late this week. The NCAA still has to rule as to whether it will accept Baylor's self-imposed one-year postseason ban and two-year probation before ruling on waivers for Baylor players who want to transfer. Under NCAA rules, a player can transfer without sitting out a season if the NCAA-sponsored postseason ban is equal to that player's remaining eligibility. Roberts has two seasons remaining and wouldn't qualify under that definition. He doesn't want to sit out next season, and his father, Lawrence Sr., isn't sure his son is willing to do so, either. Regardless, Arizona, Indiana and Arkansas all could be possibilities if Roberts can get a waiver and play next season. Arizona assistant coach Josh Pastner coached Roberts in their native Houston before Roberts' enrollment at Baylor and when Pastner was a player with the Wildcats. Arizona does have a scholarship available and can add another newcomer under the five-eight rule after losing signee Ndudi Ebi to the NBA in June. "We enjoyed Baylor, but there are a lot of unknowns right now," Cynthia Roberts said. "We haven't made a decision." Lawrence Roberts Sr. is hoping that the NCAA looks at his son's case as a special circumstance. He said his son is heart-broken and has had a roller coaster, emotionally spent summer. The death of Dennehy and the ongoing investigation into his murder began the disastrous summer. Lawrence Roberts Jr.'s grandfather became ill and later died. Then, Roberts suffered tendinitis during the tryouts for the Pan Am Games team in Orlando. Coach Tom Izzo of Michigan State said Roberts likely would have made the team, but his injury meant he had to be cut before the tournament last week in the Dominican Republic. And then, last Friday, Bliss resigned. "He didn't plan this, but he's lost his coach, the athletic director (Tom Stanton) and two teammates (Dennehy and Carlton Dotson, who is charged with Dennehy's murder)," Lawrence Roberts Sr. said. "That's more than anyone has had to contend with. Any compassionate person would see that." -- Andy Katz

Baylor is hoping to wrap up the investigation soon and hand over the findings to the NCAA in the hope that it won't penalize the university any further.

Baylor put itself on a two-year probation and banned the team from the 2004 postseason. The plan would be for the NCAA to take Baylor's findings and not have to re-interview the people involved in the case, especially family members of Patrick Dennehy, the Baylor player who was shot to death in June.

The report will say that the payments for the remaining tuition for Dennehy, a redshirt transfer from New Mexico, and Corey Herring, a seldom-used freshman reserve last season, were taken care of by Bliss after they had qualified for some financial aid. Family members of Dennehy have been quoted as saying that they were unaware of how the tuition was being paid. A source close to Herring said Bliss didn't pay for him to attend Baylor, but that would be understandable considering the violation was conducted in a clandestine manner without the knowledge of the two players involved.

Sources said the violations occurred because Bliss was reacting to the five-eight scholarship rule and the pressures to get players to be competitive in the Big 12. Bliss didn't have scholarships available to give to Dennehy and Herring during the 2002-03 season.

Bliss already had given out five newcomer scholarships for the 2002-03 season. The NCAA rule states that a school cannot give more than five in one season, no more than eight in two seasons. Baylor had only 11 players on scholarship entering last season but couldn't go to the maximum of 13 because of the five-eight rule. Bliss gave a 12th scholarship to then senior walk-on Andre White, who was already in the program and didn't count as a newcomer.

Herring was a seldom-used reserve who played in 18 games, averaging 6.2 minutes, 0.2 points and 0.9 rebounds a game. Baylor found itself in a predicament of being short of players when Wendell Greenleaf was dismissed from the team in August 2002 for violations of team rules and Logan Kosmalski transferred to Davidson.

Bliss resigned Friday. His staff is expected to formally resign or be fired once a full-time head coach is in place.

Bliss met with family members and players Monday on campus to explain his departure and to implore the team to stick together for the betterment of Baylor. He didn't meet with Baylor investigators Monday but remains cooperative in the inquiry.

"He said he was sorry for the things that have happened and that it is his responsibility," said Cynthia Roberts, Lawrence Roberts' mother, who drove up from Houston with her son for the meeting at Baylor's Ferrell Center. "He said he's responsible since it happened on his watch. He told us that these group of kids were great to coach and he was definitely looking forward to coaching them. He said he hoped they would stay at Baylor."

Bliss and assistants Doug Ash and Rodney Belcher left after Bliss' remarks, leaving the meeting to Baylor president Robert Sloan. The crux of the meeting was the rights of the players and whether they had options to transfer with school starting Aug. 25.

The players and their families were told of a Big 12 rule that prevents the players from transferring to another conference member school unless the player sits out a season and loses a season of eligibility.

Lloyd Sayman, father of senior Matt Sayman, said the families were told the school is looking for a coach "yesterday" and a "permanent coach, not an interim."

The players -- who included signee Tyrone Nelson, who has asked for a release from his National Letter of Intent -- and family members were briefed on the coaching search.

Baylor is expected to lean on Houston Rockets general manager Carroll Dawson, a former Baylor coach, for guidance in the search. Sloan is going to name a committee Tuesday that could include Houston Astros owner Drayton McLane and Dr Pepper CEO Jim Turner, the same two men who helped pick Bliss.

Meanwhile, a number of coaches continue to work intermediate sources about the opening: Sam Houston State's Bob Marlin, Southwest Missouri State's Barry Hinson, Texas-Pan American's Bob Hoffman, Stephen F. Austin's Danny Kaspar, Louisiana-Lafayette's Jessie Evans, Indiana assistant John Treloar, Oklahoma assistant Jimmy Tubbs and Morehead State's Kyle Macy. John Lucas, whose son John Lucas is on the team, remains a popular choice to the families of team members.

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.