HOUSTON -- Houston Rockets forward Maurice Taylor, one of four ex- Michigan players at the center of a booster scandal, lashed out at the NCAA on Thursday for its treatment of college athletes.

"The NCAA uses kids all the time," said Taylor, who is serving a five-game suspension for violating the NBA's substance abuse policy. "There is not a kid getting paid in college. The NCAA gets paid off of every major guy that is in college. It's definitely hypocritical.

"How can you be making money off somebody else and not giving anything to them?" he said.

Telephone messages left by the Associated Press at the offices and homes of NCAA public relations staff were not immediately returned.

Taylor said NCAA policies are causing high school players to look past getting a college education.

"If you look at anybody that can play nowadays, coming out of the top 20 to 25 (players), they look at college as a pit stop," Taylor said. "Even if they look at college, the first thing you hear is: `I've got to make a better situation for my family.'

"Going to college is not making that happen. At the max, it's four more years of struggling."

Taylor's comments came the day Michigan punished its men's basketball program after a federal investigation revealed that former booster Ed Martin gave a total of $616,000 to NBA star Chris Webber and three other ex-Michigan players, including Taylor.

Taylor admitted to accepting $105,000 from Martin.

Michigan announced Thursday it would prohibit the team from playing in the postseason after the upcoming season, and the team also will forfeit victories from five seasons, as well the 1992 and '93 Final Four appearances.

Taylor declined to criticize Martin, who pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to launder money.

"He never did anything wrong to me," Taylor said after Rockets practice. "As far as I know, he's a good guy. I'd never call him a criminal. He's the guy that's always nice and cordial toward me. Me taking something from him, I can't call him a criminal. It's a chapter in my life that's closed."