An internal review did not substantiate allegations of racial discrimination against an Arkansas college basketball coach by a former player who said he was booted from the team because of his dreadlocks, university officials said.

Tyler Williams, a 22-year-old senior who was set to return to the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith, said he was dismissed from the men’s basketball team after coach Jim Boone told him during an Aug. 16 meeting that he wouldn’t recruit players with a similar hairstyle.

But the university’s chancellor, Terisa Riley, said Wednesday in a letter to students, faculty and staff that its equal employment opportunity officer did not find “substantial evidence” to support Williams’ claim of racial discrimination.

“However, the process revealed a need for better communications when addressing a sensitive matter, particularly when raised by a student,” Riley wrote. “The past few weeks have been tremendously challenging for me and for many members of our community. We have spent this time asking incredibly difficult questions about our core values and how we show people that we value and respect them.”

Williams, who was the team’s top returning scorer, recorded the meeting with Boone and his parents after the coach allegedly made earlier comments indicating his disapproval of Williams’ look, according to a recording provided to The Oklahoman.

“It’s not that we don’t recruit them, but we make it very clear that once they get in here, they’re not going to have their hair that way,” Boone told Williams.

Boone momentarily relented, though, saying he didn’t “think it was fair” for him to tell Williams how to cut his hair since the guard played for the team before the coach joined the program in April.

Boone dismissed Williams after the senior questioned why his locker was moved, leading the returning senior’s parents to allege “blatant and demonstrative” discrimination by the coach in an Aug. 19 letter to university officials that went viral online.

In the future, Riley said, the university’s athletic department will no longer condone or allow verbal or written policies regarding the hairstyle of players. The university will also hire a director of campus diversity and inclusion, she said.

The university was unable to release details of its investigation into the allegations against Boone because they’re legally protected as part of his “performance and evaluation file,” according to Riley’s statement.

An attorney representing Boone, meanwhile, had insisted that Williams was not mistreated and decided to leave the university in early August after two players joined the team from other schools, likely cutting into his playing time.

Williams has since transferred to Southern Nazarene University in Oklahoma, where he’s awaiting an NCAA waiver to play basketball this fall, The Oklahoman reports.