UH's Savovic still awaiting ruling on eligibility

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

Even in his home country of Yugoslavia, Predrag Savovic could not escape the heat last weekend.

UH's Predrag Savovic was a first-team All-Western Athletic Conference selection. Advertiser library photo

It has been a fitting theme for his summer. Thousands of miles away in America, an even more intense heat was bearing down on Savovic. Still, he is keeping his cool.

He is one of several Division I men's basketball players from foreign countries under investigation by the NCAA.

Last month, the NCAA issued memorandums to 52 Division I schools questioning the eligibility of players from Europe. In short, the NCAA was concerned that players may have participated on teams with paid professionals in European leagues before coming to America.

UH received two of those letters — inquiring about Mindaugas Burneika of Lithuania and Bosko Radovic of Yugoslavia — and was already conducting its own research on Savovic. During the process, UH officials also discovered that a fourth player, LucArthur Vebobe from France, also might come under scrutiny.

Savovic, a first-team All-Western Athletic Conference selection last season, may be the most high-profile player among the cases.

"I'm pretty sad that all this is going on," Savovic said in a telephone interview with The Advertiser. "I can't speak for everybody, but I know we didn't break any rules."

Because he believes that, Savovic said he has been preparing "harder than ever" in Yugoslavia this summer for his upcoming senior season at UH. Last season, he averaged 17.6 points per game to lead the Rainbows' WAC Tournament championship team.

"I'm coming back, for sure," he said.

Savovic is also confident that the NCAA will rule in his favor. "I truly believe that if there is any justice, I won't sit out anything," he said. "Not even the nine games."

He has admitted participating in nine games as an unpaid player with professionals in Europe's Korac Cup in 1996. In 1997, he enrolled at Alabama-Birmingham. He transferred to UH in 1998, and sat out one year due to NCAA transfer rules. He has started all 60 games the Rainbows have played over the past two seasons.

"I've gone through all of this every year I've been playing in America," Savovic said. "I've said it in interviews, it's on the Internet ... everything is out there. I have nothing to hide."

Savovic said he has been training daily with Dr. Mingo Bulut, one of Yugoslavia's top physical therapists.

Getting ready for return

"I'm staying in great shape because I know this is my biggest season ever," Savovic said. "To be honest, I don't even think about what's going on with the NCAA. My thinking is that I'm going to be playing the whole year."

What's more, Savovic is on track to graduate from UH next spring with a business degree. He maintains a grade point average around 3.25.

"If I felt like I did something wrong, I could play pro (in Europe) right now," he said. "But I'm not even interested in that. All I want to do is go back to Hawai'i, finish school and play basketball and go back to the NCAAs (Tournament)."

Rumors have been published recently, hinting that the NCAA may declare Savovic ineligible for the entire upcoming season. Hawai'i head coach Riley Wallace questioned the validity of the reports, as did NCAA spokesperson Jane Jankowski.

Although the NCAA sent two representatives to Europe last spring, Jankowski said it was "a general visit to learn more about how the leagues work and the systems that are in place there. It wasn't a trip to gather information on certain individuals."

Wallace believes a worst-case scenario will force Savovic to sit out those nine games, plus one more for his participation in the NCAA Championship Tournament last season. A precedent was set last year when Rainbow center Haim Shimonovich sat out 22 games, one for every game he played with professionals in Israel prior to enrolling at UH.

Interpreting the rules

A best-case scenario would "grandfather" all the current foreign players into this season with no punishment, while the rules are clarified by the NCAA for future recruiting purposes. That scenario is supported by the National Association of Basketball Coaches.

"Based on legislation as they understood it, these coaches felt like they could recruit a player who was not paid as a professional and would be safe in recruiting that player," said Reggie Minton, assistant director of the NABC. "Now it appears that the interpretation has changed and they are no longer eligible. That's what we're saying is not fair."

Minton, a former basketball coach at Air Force, said the NABC has made its feelings known to the NCAA on behalf of the coaches of foreign players who were not paid as professionals in Europe.

"Our suggestion is to not change the interpretation of the legislation in mid-string," he said. "These players have been playing under the premise that they're (eligible), some for more than one year. Keeping them (eligible) would seem like the simple solution, although I don't think that would end the controversy."

Radovic is believed to have played in nine games with professionals, Vebobe six and Burneika zero. Radovic played in five games as a freshman for UH last season before suffering a season-ending leg injury. Burneika played in all 31 games as a junior last season and averaged 7.4 points and 2.7 rebounds. Vebobe played last season at Foothill College in California.

UH officials were scheduled to mail paper work on all four players to the NCAA last week. Jankowski said there is no deadline for a subsequent NCAA ruling on the foreign players.

"We all played already," Savovic said. "Why suspend us now? That's not justice. There's supposed to be justice in America."