Iowa State player ruled ineligible

[FarmerClone]

Incoming freshman shooting guard Lucca Staiger was declared ineligible by the NCAA because two of his former teammates on a club team in Germany took too much money and the NCAA ruled this team a pro team because of it. Staiger and Fabian Boecke (Washington State) were both given a year of ineligibility because of the ruling even though neither took any money and were playing on a team that the German government considers a non profit club team.

Reggie Bush takes thousands in incentives from an agent while at USC and the NCAA does nothing. Shouldn't the new guilt by association rule from the NCAA mean that the current USC players should all be ineligible for a year because of the fact that Reggie took too much mney while at USC those making them a pro team?

I am so miffed this morning it isn't even funny and I thought tornado might find this story interesting. Losing Staiger means ISU will have next to no chance of pulling the upset in Peoria.

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071026/SPORTS020604/710260395/1003/SPORTS

[DUBulldog]

I am so pissed this morning it isn't even funny and I thought tornado might find this story interesting.

Tornado has often documented the problems encountered by players from Boys to Men Academy and Decatur Christian. This continues the trend of eligibility problems for players from those schools, although it had nothing to do with Lucas' time there.

[tornado]

I saw Staiger play several games while DCS was in Peoria last November.
He was one of the only two true, solid D-I kids Decatur Christian had (Hobson wasn't playing), and I am really sorry to hear this.
Can he sit out this year and still play next season? Or will ISU revoke the scholarship forcing the kid to juco or back to Europe to play pro ball?
Greg McDermott's other Euro (foreign) recruits like Polakovic, Raffington, Santos all fizzled out, a couple tried junior college, but none has ever really played D-I ball!

Also -- it seems every kid from Decatur Christian has some kind of curse attached, convincing me that the year all those kids spent playing prep-school-caliber ball was a complete curse rather than a blessing.

Speculating......Darrington Hobson, Beas Hamga, Staiger, Mpondo, Bjegovich and others....all these Decatur Christian kids have been declared ineligible and haven't been able to play at the D-I level.
Were the people at DCS THAT WRONG on what they were thinking and doing for these foreign players,
or is the NCAA on a witch hunt and targeting the DCS kids to hammer home a point about certain prep schools/diploma mills?

Now the only one left from Decatur Christian that has yet to be declared ineligible is Mario Stula at DePaul. If I were Jerry Wainwright, I guess I'd be a little worried each time the phone rings....

[BU ICEMAN]

Hold on Farmer, there's always a chance......

But, as much as this helps BU, it hurts as well. Sure, it's gonna help us for our game vs. IoSU, but we also need IoSU to win all their other games to make our (hopeful) win against them look that much better in both RPI and public perception. Ugh.

[tornado]

Farmer Clone, I have done a little digging and here is what I have come up with.
Indeed it is a relatively new rule that governs foreign players applying for eligibility at NCAA D-I institutions, since it is next to impossible for the NCAA to police all that goes on in Europe. Some Euro players are playing and receiving money from age 14 on....as in the Toni Kukoc case, and so NCAA simply drew arbitrary boundaries that they consider professional play.
The defined viollation is quite clearly stated in the new NCAA rule.......
If more than one of the teammates on any club team you play for receives compensation above the bare minimum, then the entire team is considered professional and none of those who played on that team are immediately eligible.

As in the Ray Brown case (even tho it was a different violation)...the penalty, therefore, is clear...the kid LOSES an entire year.
Of course the NCAA could modify or waive the rule, but again, as in the Ray Brown case, they just don't want to open a can of worms and bargain every case, so they stood by the rule.

BUT....Creighton's Manny Gakou was caught in the exact same situation two years ago, and received ONLY a seven game suspension...because the NCAA had not yet instituted the NEW rule requiring the full year of lost eligibility.

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=38&u_sid=2244029

http://ads.omaha.com/media/maps/cws2005/www.omaha.com/index184b.html?u_pg=528&u_xid=428&u_sid=2074112

Staiger can still go play at a junior college this season, but when he returns, he will have only 2 years left, as the NCAA will count the juco year and the penalty year as two separate years of eligibility burned up, and so I guess Lucca is best to stay at Iowa State and do whatever he must to be athletically and academically eligible next season, and don't give the NCAA any rope to hang you!

[soycityhoops]

Tornado...Here are the facts

Here is information on all DCS players:

Lucca Staiger-Declared ineligible at IA State for up to 1 year pending appeal for his involvement with his club team.

Mario Stula- Frosh at DePaul- could face the same thing since he was in a similar situation

Ozren Bjeoglric- Frosh at Liberty- never played anything illegal because of the lack of availability in his hometown

Ivan Gombovic- Plays at Winchendon School in Massachusetts- He was a 2 year kid from the get goes because of his lack of command with the language. Ivan could face the same punishment.

Duro Bjegovic- Plays at Missouri State West Planes (JUCO) He needed a 23 on his ACT because of poor grades when he arrived in America. Duro could face the same punishment.

Beas Hamga- Was cleared to play as a frosh next year at UNLV. There were questions about the physics and chemistry grades he received in Cameroon. The NCAA says that Beas??™ last year in school in Cameroon was as an 8th grader.

Johann Mpondo- Full NCAA qualifier that signed last year with Rhode Island during the spring period. They the signed 2 more big guys in the same class and he opted for a post graduate year at Massanutten in Virginia. He will either enroll mid-year at a D-1 or in fall of 2008.

Ty Nurse ??“ Attends the Canadian Junior National team??™s new academy in Hamilton, ON.

Darrington Hobson- He is the poster child for all that is wrong with ???prep school??? basketball. He actually meets all the criteria to be an NCAA qualifier. Unfortunately, he received many of his credits from 2 separate schools that are no longer in existence (Gulf Shores Academy & Calvary Baptist Christian School). The NCAA red flagged his case and he was not able to provide the documentation on the classes from those schools to prove his case. He is now enrolled at Eastern Utah Community College. He hopes to enroll at New Mexico mid year 2008.

THESE WERE THE ONLY KIDS BROUGHT IN FOR BASKETBALL AT DCS (9)

It is important to know that all these kids were given a chance by DCS to receive a year of quality education. They were not given grades and they spent hours studying. With the nature of the NCAA sliding scale it would have been much easier on the kids to attend a school that gave them A??™s. DCS did not do that.

As far as the amateurism issues go, it is important to know that last January the NCAA changed the rules. They changes the rules on playing with a compensated player from: miss 1 game NCAA for every 8 game played with a pro (MAX 20% of 1 year) to miss 1 game for every 1 game played with a pro (max 1 full year). In addition, they created the amateurism certification subcommittee. The Staiger case was the first witch hunt they have completed. This case and the ultimate outcome of it will set the precedent for how the NCAA will treat future cases on European kids.

[tornado]

Soy City....thanks for your input..........

But could there be a couple corrections...fill us in.........

Beas Hamga was NOT declared eligible, and quite the contrary,
won't be playing any ball this year as he is completely ineligible.
"Hamga's status is that he will not be able to compete in games until the 2008-09 season.
He will be considered a redshirt freshman next fall."

http://unlv.scout.com/2/690066.html

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sports/2007/sep/17/566633641.html

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=5079

And you list nine guys "brought in for basketball" but how about:
Jeliso Palacio, Birama Konate, Chris Nandoe, Nikola Gacesa, and Alioune Diallo
all of whom are names that were listed on the DCS roster at one time or another,
and Konate definitely played some games before disappearing from the roster in mid-season.

soycity--- As I am certain you know more about the DCS situation that I do as an outside observer...then please speculate on
what's going on....is it a witch hunt by the NCAA? How can all these kids get so much scrutiny from the NCAA,
and all end up struggling so much with eligibility?


Lastly, FarmerClone, I have to admit that from the picture of Greg McDermott at yesterday's press conference, he looks like he's lost a little weight and gotten in better shape....he looks really great!

[soycityhoops]

Clarification

I should have been more specific in regards to Beas, by NEXT year, I meant 2008-2009. UNLV has hired legal counsel to appeal the decision. The only reason he faces problems was because another school (that lost out on him) sent a letter to the NCAA stating that their compliance office determined last two years in Cameroon to be junior high.

Those were the only 9 players brought in that played games.

Birama Konate came to Decatur but was not up to par academically. He was sent to central park Christian school in Birmingham before ever attending a class, or participating in a game or practice. He did play about 10 days worth of pick-up ball in the late summer.

Nikola Gacesa passed his SAT last summer and enrolled at Florida International last year.

Jelisio Pelasio signed a pro contract developmental deal with a team in Spain and is still in Argentina on loan from the Spanish team. He is a very good player that has a chance to some day be an NBA player.

Chris Nandoe and Allioune Diallo are still in Africa after being denied student visas (very common from Africa).

In regards to your other question, I don't think it is a witch hunt against DCS. Kids that attend prep schools are high risk kids most time. Otherwise, they would not have left their old school (ie. Hobson). The NCAA has gotten bad with their dealings with overseas kids. The hypocritical thing about it all is that Duro, Lucca, Ozren, Ivan and Mario all have scraped by on perdium rather than sign professional contracts. The only reason they did this was to play college basketball.

I think all are still on track to play college basketball. Every one of these kids are serious about academics or they would not have made it through a very tough academic year at DCS.

[tornado]

Thanks..............I guess I saw this article from the Herald in November of 2006 stating Konate was on the team.

http://www.herald-review.com/articles/2006/11/10/sports/local_sports/1019055.txt

[FarmerClone]

Farmer Clone, I have done a little digging and here is what I have come up with.
Indeed it is a relatively new rule that governs foreign players applying for eligibility at NCAA D-I institutions, since it is next to impossible for the NCAA to police all that goes on in Europe. Some Euro players are playing and receiving money from age 14 on....as in the Toni Kukoc case, and so NCAA simply drew arbitrary boundaries that they consider professional play.
The defined viollation is quite clearly stated in the new NCAA rule.......
If more than one of the teammates on any club team you play for receives compensation above the bare minimum, then the entire team is considered professional and none of those who played on that team are immediately eligible.

As in the Ray Brown case (even tho it was a different violation)...the penalty, therefore, is clear...the kid LOSES an entire year.
Of course the NCAA could modify or waive the rule, but again, as in the Ray Brown case, they just don't want to open a can of worms and bargain every case, so they stood by the rule.

BUT....Creighton's Manny Gakou was caught in the exact same situation two years ago, and received ONLY a seven game suspension...because the NCAA had not yet instituted the NEW rule requiring the full year of lost eligibility.

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=38&u_sid=2244029

http://ads.omaha.com/media/maps/cws2005/www.omaha.com/index184b.html?u_pg=528&u_xid=428&u_sid=2074112

Staiger can still go play at a junior college this season, but when he returns, he will have only 2 years left, as the NCAA will count the juco year and the penalty year as two separate years of eligibility burned up, and so I guess Lucca is best to stay at Iowa State and do whatever he must to be athletically and academically eligible next season, and don't give the NCAA any rope to hang you!

I had heard about the rule today, but what I don't get is how can the NCAA make new rules and apply them retroactively? And what I mean by that is Lucca played for this club team two years ago, before the rule existed. How can they now change the rules after the fact and screw the kids over? I can understand making the rule and applying it to any student athlete from this point forward (ie if Lucca had played on the team AFTER the rule was created), but changing the rules on 16 year old kids after the fact seems like nothing more than bullying. The NCAA is a sham and should be ashamed of itself. At some point all the member institutions need to stand up and smack the NCAA down. Only a minority of the schools are getting all the favoritism. I don't understand why the majority does not stand up and say they will not take it any more. These are kids and Lucca is a good kid. One that worked hard and did everything he was asked to do to reach his dream of playing college ball in America only to be dumped on by the NCAA.

Now to top it off, it sounds like ISU may have lost another player today due to injury for 4-6 weeks. This, if true, means we likely will be without two potential starters for the Bradley game.

[tornado]

The rule, Farmer, is applied as soon as the player applies for eligibility from NCAA, and according to the report, Lucca submitted his application last spring
"....completed the online registration form required for certification on May 24"

...at which time the rule was in effect.

[Da Coach]

Here is a USA Today article that was just posted about the NCAA's new rules on foreign players--

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/2007-10-26-eligibility-rule_N.htm?csp=34

[tornado]

That's just a reprint of the Des Moines Register article...

You could probably take a team of the kids who have been lost at Iowa State over just the past two years, and have a pretty good team.
Theo Davis, Mike Taylor, Dodie Dunson, Shawn Taggart, Will Blalock, Curtis Stinson, Tasheed Carr, Robert Faulkner, Lucca Staiger, Aaron Agnew, Corey McIntosh, and more.

[tornado]

Now to top it off, it sounds like ISU may have lost another player

Indeed, starting center, senior Jiri Hubalek, broke a bone in his foot
(an avulsion fracture) and is out at least two weeks.
The game between Iowa State and BU isn't until Nov. 14, so it is borderline
whether they'd have Hubalek back as that's just a little over 2 weeks away.
If not, then that's FOUR (maybe 5) players that would have been projected as starters
that won't be available when we play them this season in the return game
from BU's 76-66 win over at Iowa City last Dec. 16th (2006).
(Mike Taylor, Lucca Staiger, Dodie Dunson, Jiri Hubalek, and Corey McIntosh who started 12/16/06)
We might end up seeing a lot of Craig Brackins. As many here will recall,
Brackins played center in 2005-2006 for Chicago Boys to Men, and Xavier
Crawford played backup center behind Brackins.

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071027/SPORTS020604/71027010/1003/SPORTS

[FarmerClone]

That's just a reprint of the Des Moines Register article...

You could probably take a team of the kids who have been lost at Iowa State over just the past two years, and have a pretty good team.
Theo Davis, Mike Taylor, Dodie Dunson, Shawn Taggart, Will Blalock, Curtis Stinson, Tasheed Carr, Robert Faulkner, Lucca Staiger, Aaron Agnew, Corey McIntosh, and more.

Yep, at some point in the future I am hoping ISU is due some good fortune instead of the continual revolving door. ISU should have transfers Farnold Degand and Tasheed Carr as upclass starters this year. Carr will be starting for St Joes and Degand will be starting for NC State. ISU should have two returning starters in the guard court, instead we will have a true freshman point guard and two JUCO transfer walk ons leading the guard court. While I do feel our freshman point guard has NBA level talent, he is still a freshman. Our frontcourt will be our strength even with Jiri injured and they will need to lead the way for our team until our guards get their feet under them.