Putting suspensions in context

[markshir]

When I found out Lucca had to sit out a year, and not only sit out, but lose a full year of eligibility, I thought that sounded a little harsh. So I decided to do some research on NCAA-mandated suspensions and found... yep, it's almost unprecedented.

Starting with the most similar cases I could find:

• Amit Tamir of California was suspended for eight games for playing with professionals in Israel.
• Em Clements, a women’s basketball player for Penn State was suspended for 4 games for actually receiving illegal benefits (though miniscule in nature) while playing in Australia).
• Tomas Nagys of Clemson was suspended for eight games for playing with professional players in Lithuania.

Continuing on to basketball players who knowingly took money or other benefits during the recruiting process or after their playing career had begun:

• Kansas lost sophomore forward Darnell Jackson for nine games thanks to a suspension levied by the NCAA for some $5000 in gifts. This one is particularly notable because it is referred to as “the longest suspension to a player from a major program” in the article, confirming a bias that is often assumed.
• JaRon Rush of California was handed a 44-game NCAA suspension for accepting illegal payments (at least 5000 dollars) prior to joining the Bruins’ basketball team.
  [*]Melvin Ely of Fresno State was suspended for six games for receiving a hotel room paid for by a sports agency after playing for several years at Fresno.
  [*]Patrick O’Bryant and Will Franklin, both of Bradley, served 8 and 6 game suspensions, respectively, for accepting money for summer jobs they did not do
  [*]Randolph Morris of Kentucky received a 14 game suspension for actually declaring for the NBA draft and remaining in the draft, and returning to Kentucky after going undrafted. He participated in 21 games last season before entering the draft again this year.

The suspensions in football are just as notable for their lack of severity:

• 9 players from LSU (football) were suspended after they sold their National Championship rings, but did not miss any games because the NCAA had “unclear rules on the issue”.
• Mike Echols of Wisconsin earned a one game suspension for receiving extra benefits from a local store after playing for Wisconsin.

• 
  [*]Chris Kemoeatu of Utah was suspended for one game for kicking an opposing player in the face, burying a steel cleat inside the player’s eye socket, the penalty for a “flagrant personal foul".
  [*]All the participants in the Miami-FAU brawl received mandated 1 game suspensions from the NCAA.

What do most of the schools listed here have in common? Well... multiple Final Fours or BCS bowl games in past twenty years is a fairly common thread. Furthermore, players who played with professionals in Europe or Australia at the EXACT same time that Lucca was doing it have typically received suspensions between four and eight games.

The only suspension that I could find that even compares is that of JaRon Rush at UCLA, who accepted at least five thousand dollars during his recruiting process in a booster's attempt to swap him towards attending UCLA. Yep NCAA, I think they're on the same order of magnitude.

 

[Wesley]

Where's the Justice, Batman?

 

[BvK1126]

Great find! Though it would be a little easier to read without all the HTML coding making it almost indecipherable. :wacko:

You should e-mail this information to Miles Brand. I don't put much stock in the online petition, but the more we flood Brand's e-mail to make him realize the absurdity of this situation, the more likely we are to see some action, in my opinion.

 

[markshir]

I just fixed the formatting, hope that helps.

 

[wesley_w]

Chris Kemoeatu of Utah was suspended for one game for kicking an opposing player in the face, burying a steel cleat inside the player’s eye socket, the penalty for a “flagrant personal foul".

For that he should be playing prison ball.

 

[moforisu]

When I found out Lucca had to sit out a year, and not only sit out, but lose a full year of eligibility, I thought that sounded a little harsh. So I decided to do some research on NCAA-mandated suspensions and found... yep, it's almost unprecedented.

Starting with the most similar cases I could find:

• Amit Tamir of California was suspended for eight games for playing with professionals in Israel.
• Em Clements, a women’s basketball player for Penn State was suspended for 4 games for actually receiving illegal benefits (though miniscule in nature) while playing in Australia).
• Tomas Nagys of Clemson was suspended for eight games for playing with professional players in Lithuania.

Continuing on to basketball players who knowingly took money or other benefits during the recruiting process or after their playing career had begun:

• Kansas lost sophomore forward Darnell Jackson for nine games thanks to a suspension levied by the NCAA for some $5000 in gifts. This one is particularly notable because it is referred to as “the longest suspension to a player from a major program†in the article, confirming a bias that is often assumed.
• JaRon Rush of California was handed a 44-game NCAA suspension for accepting illegal payments (at least 5000 dollars) prior to joining the Bruins’ basketball team.
  [*]Melvin Ely of Fresno State was suspended for six games for receiving a hotel room paid for by a sports agency after playing for several years at Fresno.
  [*]Patrick O’Bryant and Will Franklin, both of Bradley, served 8 and 6 game suspensions, respectively, for accepting money for summer jobs they did not do
  [*]Randolph Morris of Kentucky received a 14 game suspension for actually declaring for the NBA draft and remaining in the draft, and returning to Kentucky after going undrafted. He participated in 21 games last season before entering the draft again this year.

The suspensions in football are just as notable for their lack of severity:

• 9 players from LSU (football) were suspended after they sold their National Championship rings, but did not miss any games because the NCAA had “unclear rules on the issueâ€.
• Mike Echols of Wisconsin earned a one game suspension for receiving extra benefits from a local store after playing for Wisconsin.

• 
  [*]Chris Kemoeatu of Utah was suspended for one game for kicking an opposing player in the face, burying a steel cleat inside the player’s eye socket, the penalty for a “flagrant personal foul".
  [*]All the participants in the Miami-FAU brawl received mandated 1 game suspensions from the NCAA.

What do most of the schools listed here have in common? Well... multiple Final Fours or BCS bowl games in past twenty years is a fairly common thread. Furthermore, players who played with professionals in Europe or Australia at the EXACT same time that Lucca was doing it have typically received suspensions between four and eight games.

The only suspension that I could find that even compares is that of JaRon Rush at UCLA, who accepted at least five thousand dollars during his recruiting process in a booster's attempt to swap him towards attending UCLA. Yep NCAA, I think they're on the same order of magnitude.

Great find, I think you should sent this to the NCAA and contact someone from ESPN to have them raise a stink for us. I would think some big time sports reporter would love to take this and run with it.

 

[IsUaClone2]

Where are the crack investigative reporters from the Des Moines Register? :SLEEP:

I thought they liked to break major stories onto the national scene. I can't believe that they would pass up something handed to them on silver platter with all the work including the obvious conclusion already done for them.

Maybe they are more afraid of the NCAA in Indiana than they are the people and schools in their own state. :wideeyed:

 

[moforisu]

Forget the Rag this needs to be National news. It's the only way the bigs at the NCAA will back down. Someone give Dicky V a call!!!

 

[hiwhatis]

I sent a message to ESPN.com including a couple of quotes from this thread and the story from the front page. Hopefully they'll have an article on this or something to raise some national attention to the unfairness of his suspension.

 

[ISUAlum2002]

Where are the crack investigative reporters from the Des Moines Register? :SLEEP:

They're still working on the D-1 Scheduling story.

Did Witosky ever have to answer the tough questions on the radio about the holes in his story on that? When it initially came out, he refused to do any radio shows on it because they were "still investigating."

 

[Wesley]

Where are the crack investigative reporters from the Des Moines Register? :SLEEP:

I thought they liked to break major stories onto the national scene. I can't believe that they would pass up something handed to them on silver platter with all the work including the obvious conclusion already done for them.

Maybe they are more afraid of the NCAA in Indiana than they are the people and schools in their own state. :wideeyed:

Where is *****, M&M, Jon Miller, Rag, CR Gazette when we need them? Some day the hawks might have the same dilemna for a fellow such from Poland.

 

[brianhos]

Where is *****, M&M, Jon Miller, Rag, CR Gazette when we need them? Some day the hawks might have the same dilemna for a fellow such from Poland.

I dunno, Jon Miller was ranting about it for half his show on friday. He said it was a pretty big joke. The problem is we are not a national name, so I could not even find mention of it on espn.com.

 

[Llama006]

Just a couple of small corrections:

Randolph Morris was not suspended for entering the draft and not being drafted. That is 100% legal. He was suspended because a sports agency payed for several of his individual workouts for NBA teams. While he never officially signed with the agency, they often do things for free for unsigned players in hopes that the player will sign at a later date. Still, Morris 'appearently' knowingly took the money, and that is why he had to sit out all the pre-conference games that year. The thing that bugged me about the whole decision was that the NCAA didn't make their decision until well into the season. It seems to me like these decisions that can completely change a kid's life could and should be done in a more fair and TIMELY manner.



Also, JaRon Rush is from Kansas City and played for UCLA. I know you say Bruins later in the bullet, but the 'Jaron Rush of California' kind of threw me off since he and his brother Kareem both played for Penbrook Hill in Kansas City for high school.


Very good post in spite of the minor errors (that probably didn't even need to be corrected). Lucca is a good kid, and he doesn't deserve this. Lucca had the chance to start 4 years at Iowa State, and as much as individual awards are secondary to the team, these penalties are denying him of those individual longeivity awards he might have had the chance to mess with if he were to get major minutes in every game for 4 years.

I wish him the best, and I think his sentence will be reduced. I just hope they do it before he's already missed more games than the sentence.

 

[tejasclone]

When I found out Lucca had to sit out a year, and not only sit out, but lose a full year of eligibility, I thought that sounded a little harsh. So I decided to do some research on NCAA-mandated suspensions and found... yep, it's almost unprecedented.

Starting with the most similar cases I could find:

• Amit Tamir of California was suspended for eight games for playing with professionals in Israel.
• Em Clements, a women’s basketball player for Penn State was suspended for 4 games for actually receiving illegal benefits (though miniscule in nature) while playing in Australia).
• Tomas Nagys of Clemson was suspended for eight games for playing with professional players in Lithuania.

Continuing on to basketball players who knowingly took money or other benefits during the recruiting process or after their playing career had begun:

• Kansas lost sophomore forward Darnell Jackson for nine games thanks to a suspension levied by the NCAA for some $5000 in gifts. This one is particularly notable because it is referred to as “the longest suspension to a player from a major program†in the article, confirming a bias that is often assumed.
• JaRon Rush of California was handed a 44-game NCAA suspension for accepting illegal payments (at least 5000 dollars) prior to joining the Bruins’ basketball team.
  [*]Melvin Ely of Fresno State was suspended for six games for receiving a hotel room paid for by a sports agency after playing for several years at Fresno.
  [*]Patrick O’Bryant and Will Franklin, both of Bradley, served 8 and 6 game suspensions, respectively, for accepting money for summer jobs they did not do
  [*]Randolph Morris of Kentucky received a 14 game suspension for actually declaring for the NBA draft and remaining in the draft, and returning to Kentucky after going undrafted. He participated in 21 games last season before entering the draft again this year.

The suspensions in football are just as notable for their lack of severity:

• 9 players from LSU (football) were suspended after they sold their National Championship rings, but did not miss any games because the NCAA had “unclear rules on the issueâ€.
• Mike Echols of Wisconsin earned a one game suspension for receiving extra benefits from a local store after playing for Wisconsin.

• 
  [*]Chris Kemoeatu of Utah was suspended for one game for kicking an opposing player in the face, burying a steel cleat inside the player’s eye socket, the penalty for a “flagrant personal foul".
  [*]All the participants in the Miami-FAU brawl received mandated 1 game suspensions from the NCAA.

What do most of the schools listed here have in common? Well... multiple Final Fours or BCS bowl games in past twenty years is a fairly common thread. Furthermore, players who played with professionals in Europe or Australia at the EXACT same time that Lucca was doing it have typically received suspensions between four and eight games.

The only suspension that I could find that even compares is that of JaRon Rush at UCLA, who accepted at least five thousand dollars during his recruiting process in a booster's attempt to swap him towards attending UCLA. Yep NCAA, I think they're on the same order of magnitude.

Do you happen to have any links or citations for this stuff? If so, I'd love it add to FreeLucca.com somehow.

 

[kentkel]

I realize that the following link I am providing below, is NOT dealing specifically with the sport of basketball, but it gives some perspective on what has been allowed in college sports & perhaps why there is suddenly more attention on the issue of the amateur status of international prospective student-athletes. The article is about a Baylor Tennis champion who had participated in pro tournaments (& received $) while attending BU.

Foreign Pros in College Tennis: On Top and Under Scrutiny

ForeignPros

The article makes this statement: "many international students competing in college are failed professionals."
The article claims that this has been a major problem in lower-revenue sports like tennis & it points major blame on the NCAA for not cracking down and finds fault with the loopholes that exist.
After reading the article, I asked myself, "Is the current ruling that’s affecting Lucca the result of the NCAA overreacting to its impotence on this issue in the past? If so - how can a 16 year old be considered a "professional" or a failed "professional" who is "illegally" coming to the US to compete in amateur sports?"
On a related matter, it would be interesting to have pitted Durant’s AAU team against Staiger’s "club" team and seen who would have won. My guess is that Staiger’s team would have been on the short end of that competition! So who really was the professional? Durant could have gone straight to the NBA if he hadn’t been "forced" to go to college.

 

[markshir]

Durant's AAU team would have KILLED Staiger's club team... not even a close game.

 

[PolkCityClone]

if someone can fix the inaccuracies, I will gladly send it to the review board members.

 

[Llama006]

if someone can fix the inaccuracies, I will gladly send it to the review board members.

Well the Morris thing is definitely worthy of mention... just so long as it is done so accurately.

Morris was suspended for accepting money to pay for his NBA workouts from an agency that represents NBA players. That suspension was 14 games, while Lucca's suspension for NOT accepting money is more than double that.


I really doubt the person who wrote this post would care if you edited the Morris section for the sake of accuracy.

 

[markshir]

Nope... go ahead. I wasn't really intending for this to be "published" but I'm fine with anyone making edits or adding to it. It was just pulled from a variety of news articles over the past years.

 

[jkrapfl]

Nikola Dragovic of UCLA was suspended for basically the exact same thing last season. The only catch, he was suspended for a grand total of 10 games.

UCLA BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK: DRAGOVIC TO SIT FIRST 10 GAMES. - Free Online Library