NCAA reviewing pair's eligibility

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer

The NCAA is reviewing the eligibility of two of the University of Hawai'i's three foreign players on the women's basketball team, according to people familiar with the process.

The inquiry, reportedly centering on Janka Gabrielova of Slovakia and Arijana Sijercic of Bosnia, comes seven months after the school went through a lengthy and expensive review involving three foreign players on the men's team.

UH athletic director Hugh Yoshida said the school has submitted a follow-up report and, "based upon the information available to us we feel there is a strong case supporting their eligibility."

Women's basketball coach Vince Goo said, "everything looks good; we're just waiting for one more piece of documentation on one of them."

The NCAA this month sent 35 letters to member schools asking them to review the eligibility of specific players regarding amateurism rules, according to an NCAA spokesperson. Some schools, including Nevada-Las Vegas, which held out two players, have benched athletes pending clearance.

Although the NCAA said some of the letters have involved men, it was also the first round of inquiries involving women.

At issue in many of the cases is whether the athletes participated in leagues overseas that either paid players or mixed professional players with amateurs.

The case of the UH men wasn't resolved until December when Predrag Savovic, currently the team's leading scorer, was assessed a seven-game penalty for past participation with professionals in a league in his native Yugoslavia prior to coming to the United States.

Teammate Luc-Arthur Vebobe of France received a six-game suspension while Mindaugas Burneika of Lithuania was not sanctioned. Vebobe later left UH.

UH associate athletic director Jim Donovan said the school has been billed approximately $33,000 by the Kansas law firm of Bond, Schoeneck & King for its assistance with the men's cases.