2 More Euro Players get Docked Games

[tornado]

Clemson's Catalin Baicu docked five games

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/acc/2008-10-21-clemson-baciu_N.htm

Ohio State's Nikola Kecman gets docked 8 games

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3681110

...just for thought...not to provoke discussion in a speculative sense about anyone in particular.

[tornado]

Here's another story on a European player...

Nikola Vucevic...he accepted a scholarship to USC last spring to play at USC this fall......
and all his data, paperwork, etc. were forwarded to NCAA by May '08.
Yet, they are already 6 games into the season, they have yet to hear from the NCAA on an eligibility ruling.
SIX MONTHS so far and the NCAA still has not ruled on Vucevic's eligibility in
connection with his participation on teams in Europe that employed pros.

USC also had a transfer's request to waive the one year wait to be eligible (Alex Stepheson transferred to USC from UNC and was requesting to be eligible immediately but was denied by NCAA as the NCAA has now said they will crack down and be harder on these transfer waivers.)
they also lost one other of their big men (Kasey Cunningham) to season ending knee surgery, and supposedly two other NCAA investigations (into the Reggie Bush improper benefits and the OJ Mayo improper benefits) are still churning along slowly.

Looks like USC needs a full time staff of people just to deal with all those NCAA issues, but don't expect the NCAA to come down too hard on USC in the Bush/Mayo cases......nothing yet has suggested they even care about all that cheating....
now if it was Bradley......hmmm...

http://www.dailynews.com/sports/ci_11108761

[BUFAN]

When will we know anything about the status of John Wilkins? Has he enrolled at BU for second semester, is he on campus, can he practice with the team, if not when, etc., etc., etc.. Everytime I hear NCAA clearing house I worry...

[SaintLouBrave22]

When will we know anything about the status of John Wilkins? Has he enrolled at BU for second semester, is he on campus, can he practice with the team, if not when, etc., etc., etc.. Everytime I hear NCAA clearing house I worry...

I would guess that at the latest we would know something by the 14th as thats when finals are over and obviously you should be registered for 2nd semester by then, even though most students have already started doing so.

[Bradleyguy10]

This is looking worse and worse....

[tornado]

it is as it is, and like worrying about the weather, we can do little about it..
I suspect as has been stated in the press,
that John Wilkins plans on enrolling at BU for the 2nd semester and then await the ruling from NCAA.
You'd have to figure that once NCAA has completed all the rulings for the kids who started at fall semester like this kid Vucevic,
then the case load to review for the mid-term is likely to be quite small, as Wilkins is the only one I know of who requires
such a ruling for mid-term, so then the NCAA should have no excuse not to get on it right away and come up with an edict.

[SFP]

The negative Nellies are in full force again. JW will be in uniform when it happens. It is out of our control and I'm sure the AD is doing everything within their power to make this happen. We will not hear a thing from JL and company until they can make a comment. So why is no news on this board always bad news? We'll find out in 2 weeks. It does look like the NCAA treats all schools the same when it comes to their Euro players, so hopefully JW does not have anything in his past that will dock him games. I'll go by my gut that JW will be eligble to play 2nd semester and it will take him through mid-January to work into the rotation. If we get an AW back the next 3 weeks and works his way into the rotation also by mid-January there will not be a team in Valley who will want to play us come March.

[tornado]

.... It does look like the NCAA treats all schools the same when it comes to their Euro players,....

the evidence would suggest otherwise...

all the kids from mid-majors have been docked 8 to 30 games...
Some of the lower "majors" like Lucca Staiger at Iowa State and Mario Stula at DePaul have been docked a full season.

BUT.. the kids at the top major schools are only getting only a game or two or at MAX, 5-8 games penalty..

http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=9704

http://www.bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=9883

then of course there's the case of Middle Tennessee State going ahead and playing one of their recruits, then finding out later she had played in 8 contests in Europe on a team with pros.
The NCAA deemed it a MAJOR VIOLATION and hammered MTSU horribly hard as can be seen in this story.
Come on....the gal would have been eligible after a few games had they known about the pro connection and sat her out, but by playing it constituted an act the NCAA went wild over and they clobbered MTSU!

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/ncaa?ContentID=1654

you can bet that as much as USC has been cheating lately, the NCAA will still clear the kid there to play....

[BradleyBrave]

As Tornado said, it's pointless to worry about and is out of our hands. I personally don't see him suiting up this year, but that's just a gut feeling on my part. As talented as he may be, I am not sure what kind of overall impact he would have even if he does play. He won't be in DI shape at any point in the season, and hasn't had any time to develop any kind of chemistry with the team or any time to learn or gain knowledge of our system. If he had been practicing this whole time, it would be different. But you don't just add guys who've never played DI basketball and are out of shape at midseason and get results.

[SaintLouBrave22]

As Tornado said, it's pointless to worry about and is out of our hands. I personally don't see him suiting up this year, but that's just a gut feeling on my part. As talented as he may be, I am not sure what kind of overall impact he would have even if he does play. He won't be in DI shape at any point in the season, and hasn't had any time to develop any kind of chemistry with the team or any time to learn or gain knowledge of our system. If he had been practicing this whole time, it would be different. But you don't just add guys who've never played DI basketball and are out of shape at midseason and get results.

If he doesn't get in 2nd semester, I don't ever see him in a BU uniform...

[Bradleyguy10]

I don't know about that...I can see your reasoning and I wouldn't be terribly surprised but I mean...I think this kid seems to have a conscious and wouldn't feel right about giving his word and then ditching us just because the NCAA ruled on something that was out of our hands, but again I say..I wouldn't be surprised.

Another thing what is up with these suspensions. I can see how it could have an affect when it's a whole season, but anywhere between 2 and 8 games is kind of a joke. What's the point of suspending people who played in Europe at all? Is the NCAA suddenly satisfied that since you played in Europe it can all go away if you sit out two games...what does that do?

I guess I just don't understand the point of it much...someone enlighten me.

[SFP]

Bradleyguy10 I've been scratching my head regarding the NCAA since the 80s. They will never get a prize for being the most logical group. The only area of consistency has been letting the BCS guys get away with anything they want.

[BradleyBrave]

Bradleyguy10 I've been scratching my head regarding the NCAA since the 80s. They will never get a prize for being the most logical group. The only area of consistency has been letting the BCS guys get away with anything they want.

Until the government threatens their tax or anti-trust exemption, they'll continue to arbitrarily enforce their rules. They're one of the few governing bodies in America that truly answers to no one.