NCAA Council gives UH hope

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

The NCAA Division I Management Council cleared a significant hurdle for the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team yesterday.

The council recommended a policy that would penalize a player no more than eight games for past participation with professional players in Europe. More specifically, the council's recommendation "would be to withhold a student-athlete from a maximum of 20 percent of contests or eight games," according to an NCAA release.

In other words, if a foreign player is ruled to have played 10 games with professionals in Europe, he will have to sit out two games this season. According to the recommendation, no player can be penalized more than eight games, even if that player previously played more than 100 games with professionals.

Hawai'i has three players under investigation for past participation in European leagues — Predrag Savovic, Mindaugas Burneika and Luc-Arthur Vebobe.

"It's just one stage, so we still don't know," UH head coach Riley Wallace said. "I don't want to say anything until we know for sure."

The council's recommendation will be forwarded to the Division I Board of Directors meeting scheduled for Nov. 1.

Until yesterday's council meeting, players who were ruled to have played with professionals had to sit out one NCAA game for every game played with those professionals. UH center Haim Shimonovich was a victim of that rule last year, and had to sit out 22 games.

In July, Hawai'i was one of 52 schools that received letters of inquiry from the NCAA concerning the eligibility of its foreign players. Since then, numerous proposals have been submitted to the NCAA by various organizations seeking a more lenient policy.

If the recommendation is passed by the Board of Directors, the next step by the NCAA would be to determine how many games each foreign player played with professionals.

Savovic is believed to have played between nine and 11 games with pros in Yugoslavia; Vebobe played around the same amount in France; Burneika did not play in any such leagues in Lithuania.

Also yesterday, the Council recommended modifying the "5/8" scholarship rule. Currently, basketball teams can offer no more than five scholarships in one year, and no more than eight over two years.

A new proposal would allow teams to offer five scholarships in one year, but no more than nine over two years. An additional proposal was made to compensate teams with players who leave school early but are on target to graduate within five years.