Posted on: Saturday, December 1, 2001

UH wants basketball players to sit out 8 games

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

A worst-case scenario has now become a best case.

University of Hawai'i attorneys and officials will recommend to the NCAA next week that Rainbow Warrior basketball players Predrag Savovic and Luc-Arthur Vebobe be penalized the first eight games of this season for their past participation with professionals in Europe.

"Nobody wants that, but that's what we'll have to end up taking," UH head coach Riley Wallace said.

Under new guidelines set by the NCAA on Nov. 1, eight games is the maximum penalty for players who participated with professionals in Europe. Savovic and Vebobe have already sat out six games while awaiting a decision.

If the NCAA accepts UH's recommendation, the two players will sit out upcoming games against Alcorn State (Dec. 10) and San Diego State (Dec. 14), and then make their season debuts on the opening night of the Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic on Dec. 19.

"What can I do?" said Savovic, the team's leading scorer last season. "What ever (the NCAA) says, I have to do. I can't do anything about it."

UH originally recommended that Vebobe be penalized 2.2 games, and Savovic zero. "We were assuming that the leagues they played in weren't pro leagues," Wallace said.

But the NCAA is apparently leaning toward declaring both leagues (Savovic in Yugoslavia and Vebobe in France) as professional.

Also, because the cases have dragged on for months, Wallace said the team was willing to accept the eight-game suspensions. The 'Bows have started 5-1 without Savovic and Vebobe.

If UH officials had stayed with their original recommendation, the cases could have extended beyond eight games.

"No matter how you look at it, it's not fair," Wallace said. "But we just want to go with it and get it over with."