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Iowa State player ruled ineligible

More news out of Iowa State.......

Senior Center Jiri Hubalek is returning from a broken bone in his foot. He worked out this week and is doing pretty well. He should be dressed this weekend for Iowa State's first game but I'll bet coach will be pretty careful using him if he isn't needed.

A report from the Ames, IA Tribune, on their web page GoCyclones.com,
says that freshman Clayton Vette is a redshirt candidate as is Texas guard Charles Boozer, although the shortage of guards will probably mean Boozer will play.
But McDermott says he has talked with Vette about it and is "50-50 on it" and will decide by Friday.
Vette is a 6-9 freshman, and in the Cyclones' two exhibition games he 2-9, avg. 4ppg, and was low man in minutes allotted among scholarship players.

Iowa State plays at Bradley next Wednesday. Three of the top 6 in minutes played in the game last season against BU are no longer with the team (Mike Taylor, Dodie Dunson, Cory McIntosh) and the likely starting lineup this year will include Hubalek & Johnson as the only familiar faces, and with only six day more to heal, we may not see a lot of Hubalek.
 
Sounds like even Coach McDermott isn't optimistic about the final decision on Lucca Staiger
???It??™s in their hands,??? Iowa State basketball coach Greg McDermott said Tuesday.
???We??™ll wait and see. My mind tells me one thing. My heart hopes my mind is wrong.???

http://www.ottumwacourier.com/iowasports/local_story_312151124.html

If it comes down to hoping the NCAA does the right thing for the student athlete than I am not optimistic either. Texas freshman Dougas Balbay played on a team with professionals in Turkey and I have not seen the NCAA had him down a penalty yet. The NCAA will not overturn their suspension for Lucca, they just won't.
 
Clone...nobody knows better how the NCAA picks certain fights and nails them hard than the Bradley fans do.
 
You may be right tornado, but ISU definitely has garnered it's fair share of kicks in the nutts from the NCAA. Two years ago prize recruit Theo Davis was declared ineligible for entry to ISU by the NCAA. After spending a year at one of the NCAA recognized sham schools Philadelphia Lutheran, he magically then qualifies to play for Gonzaga.

About a decade ago, ISU had one of the top recruiting classes in the nation and in it was CJ Bruton, an Australian that was set to be our stud point guard for the early Fizer years I believe. The NCAA ruled he had received too much compensation for meals and travel when playing for a team in Australia and declared him ineligible. He went on to be drafted in the NBA without having played D1 ball and ISU had to play some really poor point guards.

I know we are not along in the hose jobs, but it gets really old watching the USC's of the world blatantly getting away with having payers get paid and then watching the NCAA screw a kid like Lucca. It makes me sick.
 
A little followup on Iowa State's Lucca Staiger:

"Iowa State freshman guard Lucca Staiger is still awaiting a decision from the NCAA concerning his eligibility this season.

"Last week there was a fire in the NCAA building so they closed their doors for two days,'' Iowa State coach Greg McDermott said today. "It happened to be when they were working on Lucca Staiger's case. That's kind of the way things have gone.''

The NCAA's museum and headquarters in Indianapolis, Ind., were closed for a day after Wednesday's small fire, apparently caused by an electrical problem. Some exhibits at the NCAA Hall of Champions sustained water damage from sprinklers, according to the Associated Press.

"What are the odds of that?'' McDermott said. "It's almost comical.''

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/p...20071119/SPORTS020604/71119008/0/SPORTS020604
 
A little followup on Iowa State's Lucca Staiger:

"Iowa State freshman guard Lucca Staiger is still awaiting a decision from the NCAA concerning his eligibility this season.

"Last week there was a fire in the NCAA building so they closed their doors for two days,'' Iowa State coach Greg McDermott said today. "It happened to be when they were working on Lucca Staiger's case. That's kind of the way things have gone.''

The NCAA's museum and headquarters in Indianapolis, Ind., were closed for a day after Wednesday's small fire, apparently caused by an electrical problem. Some exhibits at the NCAA Hall of Champions sustained water damage from sprinklers, according to the Associated Press.

"What are the odds of that?'' McDermott said. "It's almost comical.''

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/p...20071119/SPORTS020604/71119008/0/SPORTS020604

Such is the life of a Cyclone fan. We could sure use Staiger for tomorrow as we get ready to face Minnesota likely playing gain without Wes Johnson. Without Staiger and Johnson we are missing two of our top four scoring threats. By the time we get them back, we may have lost too many games to make a run at any postseason tourney hopes. We have UNI, Drake, Iowa and Oregon State all coming up after Minnesota.
 
With the experience we've had here at BU I can suggest you should
put too much faith in getting any help or consideration from the NCAA.
 
The Des Moines Register had some more info about the Staiger situation....sorry for no link, but for some reason I can't bring up the Register's website at work.

Anyway, apparently one of McDermott's former UNI recruits, Vince Polakovic, who is now at San Francisco was also penalized 20+ games by the NCAA for playing on the same team in Germany that Staiger did. It turns out there were a couple of professional players on that team.....both of whom (coincidentally?) had been former players for McDermott at UNI....Jon Godfread and Ben Jacobson.
 
Here is that link
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071204/SPORTS0208/712040390/-1/SPORTS09

But then, this fits right in with a number of things I have said for years about Greg McDermott, and his recruiting of kids he had never seen play ball, and kids from Europe who he had never seen play in a game.
I think he has been careless and tied up scholarships on numerous kids who either never played - never panned out, were deemed ineligible, or quit the teams such as Polakovic, Raffington, Anthony Davis, and even guys like Dunham, Brister, and Staiger.....who either just weren't ready or who ended up sitting a year.
 
Lucca Staiger was granted an opportunity to appeal his case, and actually had his hearing already, and
word is they are expecting a decision in the next day or two. I wouldn't be surprised if the NCAA sticks to its guns,
but they might reduce his penalty or award him back the lost year even if he has to wait 'til next season to play.

Either way....the fact that Staiger was granted an appeal hearing so soon, is a little of a good sign.
Normally nothing in the NCAA works very fast or efficiently, unless it has to do with coming down on BU with penalties!
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071218/SPORTS020604/71218048
 
That last article has an interesting line at the end--

It's enough to make you wonder if Brand, the NCAA's president, and the rest of his posse secretly delight in the misery of others. There's a word in German for that: schadenfreude. There's a term in English, too. Humbug.
 

The NCAA completed their witch hunt with the final denial of the appeal. Yet their inconsistency in enforcing this rule is laughable and wreckless. For example, Baylor center Mamadou Diene spent last summer playing basketball in a professional league in Spain and was third in the league in blocked shots yet he is playing for Baylor with no penalty.

Texas freshman Dougas Balbay played in a professional league in Turkey and has received no penalty.

Every member of the AIS (the Australian Institute of Sports) signed a contract to play for said team in the second tier of professional basketball in Australia. While the contract they signed did not include any money, NCAA rules state that a player cannot sign any contract, whether for pay or not, to play for anyone and still remain an amateur. AIS players are all over the country including Aaron Bruce (Baylor), Alecs Maric (Nebraska), Andrew Ogilivy (Vandy), Patrick Mills (St Marys), and others. Yet no penalty has been waged on any of said players. The NCAA used Lucca as an example but is turning a blind eye to many, many more cases very similar. At some point, members of the NCAA need to say enough is enough. But so long as the USC's and Ohio State's of the world are getting their backs scratched, it is unlikely that any of the smaller schools will be able to make enough fuss to make a difference.
 
I have been saying for a couple years that the tremendous influx of Euro and African players WILL force the NCAA to revise and standardize their rulings.
Almost every D-I team has one or more foreign players (we have had Saihou Jassey and a couple Canadian kids), so just how sure can the NCAA be that accurate academic records and records of playing for pay are being seen in order to deem the kids eligible?
The story of Mac Koshwal is just one funny example of how some of these kids clearly falsify documents and lie about their age and their schooling.
The examples Farmer Clone gives also shows how inconsistent the anti-pro rules are enforced.
But if a questionable kid just happened to end up at UNC, UConn, etc....then watch how fast they get qualified!!!!!

Here's one kid who lied about his age and did everything to hide his academic background and overseas playing experience.
But he wanted to play at UConn and is 7-3 -- so presto---------eligible!!
http://media.www.dailycampus.com/me...ports/Thabeet.Declared.Eligible-2404178.shtml
 
Question for PTTB

Question for PTTB

I have a question...
what ever happened to Everette Pedescleaux?
http://unipanthers.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/pedescleaux_everette00.html
http://unipanthers.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/pedescleaux_everette00.html

He was highly touted coming out of HS as both a football and basketball player. He accepted a basketball scholarship to UNI but then chenged his mind when a football scholarship came along from Minnesota.
Then he left Minn., transferred to UNI and was on FB scholarship, but still walked on for basketball, although appears to have never even played one minute, not even in an exhibition.

This season (now his junior year eligibility-wise) he isn't listed at all on the basketball roster, but is still listed on the FB roster,
and seems to be playing defensive tackle and getting some decent playing time.
I assume he is done playing basketball?
 
Another recent NCAA ruling of interest is on Mario Stula.
Stula was from Decatur Christian and went to DePaul. His penalty from NCAA is even worse than Lucca Staiger's

Stula is ruled ineligible for an entire season plus seven games, so he will sit out this entire season and still not be eligible until the 8th game next season, due to his play on teams in europe that used pro players.
http://depaul.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=775022
 
Another recent NCAA ruling of interest is on Mario Stula.
Stula was from Decatur Christian and went to DePaul. His penalty from NCAA is even worse than Lucca Staiger's

Stula is ruled ineligible for an entire season plus seven games, so he will sit out this entire season and still not be eligible until the 8th game next season, due to his play on teams in europe that used pro players.
http://depaul.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=775022

And Texas's Dougas Balbay that I mentioned was recently handed down an "approximately" ten game suspension for next year due to playing for a pro team. Now will the NCAA crack down on the AIS athletes like Ogilvy at Vandy, Pat Mills at St Marys, Aaron Bruce at Baylor or Alecs Maric at Nebraska? They should all face large penalties as well.
 
It is a really silly rule, and they are doing a mediocre at best job enforcing it.

These second and third tier foreign semi-professional teams that pay a couple of guys (the ones not expecting to go to America and play ball) are not even close to the talent level of the top AAU programs in America that often times have multiple future NBA players on them. Beyond that these players are forced to play for these teams if they want to be seen by American scouts and have a chance to play over seas. It is a double edged sword. If they stay off the teams, they have no chance at being seen. If they join the teams, they have to throw away a year of their basketball career.

Beyond that, the penalty for playing on one of these teams was not as severe (20% of 1 year maximum) at the time Lucca actually played for that team in Germany. 20% of a year is a penalty someone could live with (although I think that is even uncalled for with all things considered). It seems to me as if the NCAA should have put word out about the rule change several years before they started enforcing it so that players were aware of the penalty of playing on one of these teams.

Beyond that, the timing was terrible. The NCAA didn't announce Lucca's ineligibilty until a week or two prior to the first game. He was all set to be a member of the starting lineup, and the NCAA just threw this at him a week before the season. That is just a terrible thing to do to a kid.



And lastly, although you guys have already hit on this, the NCAA needs to enforce their rules consistantly. Every foreign player in the country played on one of these teams. If you go after Lucca, you have to investigate all of them, and you have to give them all the same punishment... Of course it is OK for Darren McFadden to accept a loaded SUV and still play in a bowl game while Lucca did everything exactly as he was told to get to play college basketball in America (never accepting money... turning down the major money to play professionally at a high level) and he has to miss out on an entire year.

It really is unfortunate.

Stula too. They don't deserve it.
 
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