 |
 |
|
| | Wednesday, March 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ESPN.com | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A players-only congress opposes the idea of either reducing or eliminating the time coaches can spend evaluating high school players during the summer, according to votes taken in the first teleconference held by the Student Basketball Council on NCAA issues.
The National Association of Basketball Coaches helped coordinate a 47-member congress that met via teleconference Sunday night. Duke's Shane Battier was named the chair and spokesperson, and the call included other other high-profile players such as DePaul's Quentin Richardson, Stanford's Mark Madsen, Purdue's Brian Cardinal and Syracuse's Etan Thomas. The congress is made up of a cross-section of classes, ensuring that it carries any momentum gained this season into next year. All of the votes were in response to issues put on the table by the Working Group on College Basketball Issues, which is in favor of reducing summer recruiting time, limiting scholarships and changing the starting date of the season. That group was formed last year, and met in the spring and summer of 1999. The Student Basketball Council also voted against moving the starting date of the regular season from the Friday before Thanksgiving to the Friday after the holiday. The players voted 90 percent against limiting schools to four scholarships each season. The players actually favored (by 84 percent) allowing coaches to contact juniors in high school, giving them 10 contact days with those players in the spring of their junior season. The players were also against having freshmen complete 12 hours of degree credits and achieve a 2.0 GPA in their first semester to remain eligible. As it stands now, freshmen do not need to meet eligibility requirements to remain eligible for second semester. The players' votes will be sent to the NCAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, the NCAA management council and the NCAA board of directors and its chair, Syracuse president Kenneth "Buzz" Shaw. The council didn't address the amateurism issues facing players this season (such as Michigan's Jamal Crawford, St. John's Erick Barkley, UCLA's JaRon Rush or Auburn's Chris Porter) because the NCAA vote on deregulating amateurism isn't until October. "We are immediately concerned and highly disappointed about the image that a lot of players are getting due to perceived violations of NCAA rules," Battier said in a statement. "We feel that a lot of these players are getting a bad reputation and are being vilified in the eyes of the public when, in fact, nothing morally wrong has occurred. So, as a group, we are trying to come together and support our brothers who have been ostracized."The executive council of the Student Basketball Council (Battier, Madsen, Cardinal, Thomas, Dayton's Brooks Hall, Butler's LaVall Jordan and Old Dominion's Andre McCullum) will meet at the Final Four in Indianapolis. The full student council will hold another conference call in April. In a press release, Battier said he was excited about the voice for athletes on these issues. "Down the road, we will look at different issues facing college basketball like the new contract CBS signed with the NCAA and how that pertains to the college basketball player, eligibility of student athletes and continued discussion concerning diversity issues within the NCAA member institution athletic departments," Battier said. "We want to make our voices known and let people know within the NCAA structure how players feel and produce recommendations for real change," Battier said. | ALSO SEE Daily Word: Players get a voice  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||