Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 19, 1993 TAG: 9310190124
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: STEVE BERKOWITZ THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
Many coaches began gathering here Monday for a two-day issues forum being held by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), the organization that represents all men's college basketball coaches.
However, about 20 to 30 coaches began gathering in Washington. They also belong to the Black Coaches Association (BCA), a group comprising African- American college coaches that is boycotting the NABC forum and instead meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus.
"That's their choice," said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, a member of the NABC board of directors. "I empathize with them. Hopefully, we can both get things done."
Men's basketball coaches have been disappointed at recent NCAA conventions by the votes of the Division I schools that have reduced men's basketball scholarships, altered coaching staffs and shortened the formal preseason practice period.
Those issues, as well as gender equity, athlete welfare, coach-administrator relationships and ethics, will be discussed at the NABC forum. In addition to the coaches, the event will be attended by NCAA Executive Director Dick Schultz and a number of college chief executive officers, conference commissioners and athletic directors.
But NABC Executive Director Jim Haney said: "The social agenda that the BCA has identified, some of those items go beyond the areas of NCAA legislation that are governing our sport. We haven't really discussed those social issues."
The BCA intends to. Both organizations want Division I schools to revise their decision to reduce the number of men's basketball scholarships from 15 to 14 last season and down to 13 this season. The move was made as part of a broad cost-reduction effort that included cutting football and women's scholarships, but the scheduled cuts in women's scholarships were delayed for gender equity reasons by a vote at the 1993 NCAA Convention.
(Haney said Monday the NABC has proposed eliminating off-campus scouting of opponents and has "talked very seriously" of supporting a return to two-person officiating crews (schools currently use three-person crews) as means of creating money to restore a 14th scholarship.)
The BCA also wants Division I schools to re-examine their decision to toughen the freshman eligibility standards, commonly known as Proposition 48. Beginning in August 1995, the current minimum requirements for an athlete to be eligible to play as a freshman (a 700 out of 1,600 on the Scholastic AssessmentTest or 17 out of 36 on the American College Test and a 2.0 grade-point average in a core curriculum) are scheduled to be replaced by an indexed scale. Athletes with an SAT score of 700 or an ACT score of 17 would need at least a 2.5 core GPA. Athletes with a 2.0 core GPA would need a 900 on the SAT or 21 on the ACT. The BCA believes the new standards will disproportionately affect athletes from low socioeconomic backgrounds.
In addition, the BCA wants to address the lack of African-Americans in leadership positions on the executive staffs of USA Basketball - the sport's national governing body - and the NCAA. For example, none of the NCAA's 14 senior executive staff members is an African-American. "There are members of the Congressional Black Caucus who are extremely concerned with what's going on with blacks in the NCAA," BCA Executive Director Rudy Washington said. "We're going to close the doors and sit down and talk." Haney didn't seem to mind the attention the NABC event has received as a result of the BCA's boycott.
"Certainly, attention has been paid to the Black Coaches Association and their concerns, and at the same time, the issues summit has gained attention - maybe not in the fashion we had first anticipated, but it certainly has," Haney said.
Several coaches, including the Naval Academy's Don DeVoe, questioned the BCA's tactics, though.
"I think the timing is not particularly good," said DeVoe, the former Virginia Tech coach. "What we're here for is to show unanimity and gain support."
by CNB