Wednesday, September 29, 1999

Key Rainbow
hoops recruit
cleared to play

Losing 6-9 Troy Ostler could
have cost UH four to five wins,
head coach Riley Wallace says

By Pat Bigold
Star-Bulletin

One of the Rainbows' top basketball recruits was ineligible for the coming season until yesterday, UH head coach Riley Wallace revealed.

He said Troy Ostler, a 6-foot-9, 205-pound "high major" scholarship player from Salt Lake City Community College (Utah), was cleared by the NCAA to play the 1999-2000 season after a successful appeal by Wallace.

Wallace said Ostler is so important to the program that losing his services could have cost Hawaii four to five games in the win column.

Ostler averaged 14 points and eight rebounds per game and led the Scenic West Athletic Conference last season in blocked shots (2.0).

Hawaii is due to open its season at home on Nov.7 against the Chinese national team.

Wallace had signed Ostler to a letter of intent last spring believing that the forward was a full qualifier.

Ostler, too, had been led to believe he had that eligibility status from the time he took his high school ACT test in December 1996.

But in fact his scores made him a partial qualifier.

Wallace said that the test standards for qualifying to play Division I-A ball had been tightened in August 1996 but no one made Ostler aware of it.

Judging by the old test formula, he had earned full qualifier status and would be able to enter a Division I-A program without graduating from junior college.

But shortly after Ostler arrived on Aug. 23 to accept his scholarship, the coaching staff made a routine check with the NCAA clearinghouse and found his 1996 ACT score fell just short for a full qualifier.

"Technically, Ostler was a partial qualifier and therefore he had to graduate junior college," Wallace said.

Under normal circumstances, Ostler would have to leave school and enroll in another junior college to complete his associate degree program.

"But because he was ill-advised, misinformed throughout his college career, he's been cleared," said Wallace.

"We learned from this," he said. "From now on, anyone we recruit from junior college who says he's a 'predictor' (full qualifier) and doesn't have to graduate, we're going to the clearinghouse."

Wallace said the decision to let Ostler play showed the "compassionate" side of the NCAA.

Wallace said that every school recruiting Ostler believed he was a full qualifier.

A partial qualifier can receive scholarship aid and can practice with the team but cannot play in intercollegiate games. He also loses a year of eligibility.

Wallace said that another key recruit, forward Phil Martin of Ontario, who was signed to a scholarship in August, remains ineligible. But an appeal is forthcoming on his behalf.

Before signing with Hawaii, Martin signed a letter of intent with a Division II school in Pennsylvania.

"He did that because he was told he was not eligible for Division I," said Wallace, who expressed optimism that Martin will win the appeal for clearance.

He said it's an easier case than Ostler's.

"We didn't want to deal with his appeal until we got the first one taken care of," Wallace said.

Wallace said that the Pennsylvania school has released Martin from his letter, and the matter now is in the hands of the letter of intent committee.

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