Tuesday, December 4, 2001
The cell phone was on during lunch, not a normal habit for Riley Wallace. Wallace still waiting
on word from NCAABy Cindy Luis
cluis@starbulletin.comBut these are not normal times for the Hawaii men's basketball coach, who is awaiting word from the NCAA on his three foreign-born players.
During yesterday's Honolulu Quarterback Club luncheon, the crowd was all ears, hanging on Wallace's words. Wallace's ear was to the phone ... which did not ring.
Why the delay? It's not clear, which only adds to Wallace's opinion of the NCAA.
"I don't like them," he said. "Never have, never will."
Wallace thought he had one answer yesterday after speaking with Texas Tech athletic director Gerald Myers. The Red Raiders have a junior forward named Pawel Storozynski who played in the same French league as Hawaii's junior forward Luc-Arthur Vebobe.
But the ruling on Storozynski has only confused the issue with Vebobe. Originally, the NCAA had penalized the Texas Tech player 11 games; it was later reduced to seven games.
"We don't know what standard they're using," said the Hawaii coach. "They were using 20 percent (of pro games played for a sit-out penalty) then talked about 10 percent for some lower leagues.
"What the coaches are hoping is for a clearinghouse for foreign players so you know how the different leagues rate. But it's completely unfair for someone like (senior guard) Predrag Savovic, who has been playing for three years in this country and they're now coming after him his senior year."
UH officials are submitting paperwork to the NCAA this week, declaring that both Savovic and Vebobe are ineligible for having competed in pro leagues. The maximum penalty, as passed by the NCAA Board of Directors last month, is eight games.
That would mean the two would be eligible for the Rainbow Classic opener against Portland on Dec. 19.
Wallace acknowledged that Hawaii is not Duke, and said that if Blue Devil players had been under investigation, a decision likely would have been made by now.
Players in the Big East, SEC and ACC -- big-name conferences -- have had their eligibility questions answered during the past few weeks.
There are some 340 foreign-born players being investigated by the NCAA at 60 Division I schools. One was officially cleared yesterday when Hawaii received written clearance on senior forward Mindaugas Burneika; the Lithuanian native had received verbal clearance prior to Hawaii's Nov. 16 season opener.
Notes: Wallace, who creates the Rainbow Classic pairings, said he's now rethinking his "gimme" opener with Portland. The Pilots had lost at Duke 104-62 last Tuesday but came home and edged Pac-10 favorite Oregon 79-78 on Sunday. ... Sophomore Haim Shimonovich was nominated for WAC Player of the Week honors after his performance against Northwestern State last Tuesday. Shimonovich had career highs of 16 points, 12 rebounds and 5 blocked shots and hit the game-winning layup with 4.4 seconds to go in the 60-58 victory. The award went to Nevada guard Garry Hill-Tomas, who averaged 21 points, 5.5 rebounds and three assists in wins over San Francisco and Santa Clara.
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