ALBUQUERQUE (AP) -- New Mexico coach Ritchie McKay acknowledged a member of his staff violated an NCAA rule that prohibits contact between coaches at one school and athletes at another.

Paperwork regarding the violation has been reported to New Mexico's compliance officer and will be sent to the Mountain West Conference compliance office and the NCAA enforcement staff, McKay said Saturday after the Lobos' 76-69 victory over Utah (No. 23 ESPN/USA Today, No. 22 AP).

"One of our coaches, Duane Broussard, had a conversation with Bradley players, and technically, and let me repeat technically, you're supposed to call the athletic director for permission first,'' McKay said after Saturday's game.

McKay, in his first season at New Mexico, maintains that contact between Broussard and members of the Bradley basketball team was innocent, violating the letter of the law but not the spirit.

"Since Ken Kavanagh has chosen to bring so much attention to it, we felt it was honoring to do so (self-report),'' McKay said, referring to Bradley's athletic director.

The prohibited contact included, but was not limited to, sophomore Danny Granger, who transferred from Bradley to New Mexico at the semester break this season.

Broussard and McKay are both former Bradley assistants. Broussard had several phone conversations over the past 10 months with Granger and other athletes he coached at Bradley before joining the Lobos staff.

Bradley officials had previously filed complaints against New Mexico with the NCAA alleging McKay and his staff had tampered with Granger, inducing him to transfer.

Bradley athletics director Ken Kavanagh, who has refused to release Granger from his scholarship there, said the violations by New Mexico were blatant and repeated.

"If this was just a matter of calling up saying `Happy Birthday' or `How is your sick cousin?' ... That's an innocent violation of the bylaw,'' Kavanagh said. "But that's not what this is. It's a long way from that.''

McKay initially said nothing was wrong with such conversations as long as they were not of a recruiting nature. He said he has changed staff policy to prohibit such communication.