Ferd Lewis
Foreign players' status still unknown
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist
Like most schools, the University of Hawai'i gets a jump on men's basketball practice Friday night with its annual version of Midnight Madness.
And like 50 other schools, the Rainbows are still waiting to hear from the NCAA about the eligibility of some of their foreign players.
Three months after UH sent off its reams of paperwork on Mindaugas Burneika and LucArthur Vebobe to NCAA headquarters, it is still waiting for word to come down from the mount.
It awaits a decision from the wise souls in Indianapolis where, after seven months of paper passing, the NCAA presumably knows everything about Predrag Savovic, including what he puts on his Wheaties.
What the Rainbows and everybody else don't know is whether they'll have a full complement of players for their season openers. Or, if they must do without somebody, who and for how long?
"Nothing has been forthcoming," said Hugh Yoshida, UH athletic director. "There's no timetable yet."
Despite the NCAA's protestations that this isn't an anti-foreign witchhunt, the longer it drags out, the more you have to wonder.
For while the NCAA legislative tide is toward liberalization of amateur rules, its enforcement people have dug in their heels on the status of foreign players, apparently determined to make an example of them.
Even as it is allowing U.S. nationals to receive reward money for playing in Olympic-style events such as this summer's basketball Youth World Championships, where Americans pocketed $5,000 for winning the gold medal, the NCAA continues to target foreigners. Players whose only transgressions, it seems, might be that they merely played with or against professionals and have a different governing structure than here in the United States.
The NCAA is stubbornly sticking to the premise that anybody who plays with or opposite professionalsÊ— even if they do not accept a Dinar, Litas or franc themselvesÊ—Êis considered a professional and should therefore be ineligible.
Never mind that collegiate golfers can compete side-by-side with the pros in PGA Tour events without fear of sanction. Or that tennis players, too, can compete against the pros without falling under NCAA scrutiny.
And that's giving the whole thing the look of a narrow-minded crusade as the start of the season approaches. Several groups, including the Collegiate Commissioners Association and American Basketball Coaches Association, have attempted to mediate a common sense middle ground. All apparently without success.
The betting is that the whole thing will come full circle, winding up in the lap of the NCAA Management Council in two weeks, desperate for somebody to make a common sense decision.
