Friday, August 3, 2001
Basketball coaches Reggie Minton never had a situation like this in 16 years as head basketball coach at the Air Force Academy. He's dealing with issues involving foreign athletes.
to appeal to NCAA
The national association is
united in the belief that its
members were following the rulesBy Dave Reardon
dreardon@starbulletin.comMinton is now assistant director for the National Association of Basketball Coaches. One of his current tasks is to lobby the NCAA to back off on a rule interpretation that could cost international players their eligibility.
Several University of Hawaii players, including all-Western Athletic Conference guard Predrag Savovic, could lose some or all of their remaining eligibility, as the NCAA has asked for information on the playing background of international players at 52 U.S. universities.
For the past month UH and other schools have been collecting information requested by the NCAA on their foreign athletes' playing background. The information is due back to the NCAA today.
At the heart of the matter is a new NCAA rule interpretation that would penalize the internationals for having played in foreign leagues with or against former or current professionals -- regardless of whether they were paid themselves.
A source said the NCAA has information that Savovic played in more than 30 games among professionals in his native Yugoslavia (Savovic said he was not paid). If the NCAA uses its precedent of one game of eligibility lost for each game played with pros, Savovic could lose his entire senior season. This is what happened to Hawaii center Haim Shimonovich last season, who missed 22 games when UH reported that he had played 22 games among professionals in his native Israel.
"To me, if guys got paid that's one thing. If guys were getting illegal money, if they are professionals, they shouldn't play (in college)," Minton told the Star-Bulletin. "But when I heard from the coaches in Hawaii and elsewhere, I got the first inkling that this was something different, that they weren't getting paid."
Minton, other NABC officials and attorneys met with coaches last week in Las Vegas to discuss several issues, including foreign players.
"It's safe to say anyone who has a foreign player was speaking out against (the NCAA action)," Minton said.
Coaches fear widespread suspensions for breaking rules they say have been changed from the time they recruited the players.
"They go into recruiting in good faith," Minton said. "Coaches who have foreign players are very careful explaining to them in the recruiting process the rules. They did it in good faith, so they're upset because the interpretation has changed."
Hawaii head coach Riley Wallace said support has been widespread from the coaching fraternity.
"Most all of the coaches are in agreement, even the ones who don't have (foreign) players," Wallace said. "Everyone agrees the way it's going down is unfair."
Minton said the NABC has had informal discussions with the NCAA on the issue, but "nothing is exploding one way or the other yet," he said.
"I think the NCAA understands our concerns and hopefully will take them into consideration and look at this closely," Minton added. "I'm sure this is something that all of us want to see get resolved as soon as possible so everyone can press on. I know from our vantage point the sooner the better, but not too soon and jeopardize a positive result."
Minton said if a compromise cannot be reached to the coaches' satisfaction, the issue will not die.
"The other option is to take some type of legal action," Minton said. "I'm not a lawyer, but I think our country is made up of people from all over the world. With citizens and non-citizens you would hope they are all treated fairly and the same under the law."