The recent ruling that John Wilkins is deemed ineligible is WRONG on so many fronts that I hardly know where to start..
Let's start with the fact, that in all of it's history I cannot find a single example even remotely close to this case where the NJCAA deemed a kid ineligible because of a trivial amount of foreign play...never...no where...ever in all of history..........
What I can find is plenty of cases where the exact same kinds of situations have been completely overlooked by NJCAA and the kids were allowed to play without quesiton.
There are so many such cases that I will give only a few examples...but almost every junior college team in the nation has a few European and foreign kids, many of whom have played club ball overseas with pro players on their teams.
Note the rosters for ICC and other local basketball teams, and even ICC's soccer team which has at least half a dozen foreign, Euro, and African players, all of whom have played overseas on club teams exactly like John Wilkins (I hope I didn't just scr*w the ICC soccer team!)
But as perfect individual examples....we'll start with Beas Hamga..
He was on the same Decatur Christian basketball team as Iowa State's Lucca Staiger, and like Staiger, Beas was informed when he decided to go D-I that he'd have to sit out a year because iof the professional play in his past....so that's exactly what happened when he went to UNLV. Beas has since left UNLV and bounced around a bit, but now he's on the roster of Weatherford CC in Texas (junior college) and the NJCAA has allowed Beas full eligibility even though the NCAA had ruled that Beas had so much overseas professional play that he was docked an entire full season of play at the D-I level.
http://njcaa.org/colleges_college_roster.cfm?sid=4&collegeid=1318&slid=2&category=Roster
Next example....Nikola Kechman...who played junior college ball at Eastern Arizona College (juco) but the NCAA had found that he had played professionally and he was docked nearly a full third of a season! BUT-- NJCAA didn't mind...they never batted an eye and gave Kechman full eligibility.
The last example was a kid named Jiri Hubalek...who ended up playing his final two seasons at Iowa State. But he was ruled to have been compensated and paid by a "friend" who had given him extra benefits and a free car in addition to his European play....so Jiri was penalized for his professional connections and had to sit out 10 FULL games in 2005-2006.
But did the NJCAA find anything improper?? Nope...he wasn't docked a single minute at the junior college level!!
And it goes on an on...tons of Euro kids with professional backgrounds are allowed to play in junior college....and yet the NJCAA has singled out John Wilkins and nullified any chance he might have to play junior college ball...even though the NCAA has ruled his pro connections were miniscule and amounted to a handful, maybe 12 minutes total of late game "garbage time" play.
So what exactly is the real issue here....what is driving this...?? Is there a conspiracy??
I think I have some clues and I think I know the answer........
Recall the summer before last when John Wilkins did get some exposure during the AAU season, and it was stated in the press that he received over 50 Division I offers and that more than 75 top level coaches came to see him play in Las Vegas and wanted to recruit the kid.
Well, that means a whole lot of top coaches with lots of pull and lots of influence know how good John Wilkins is....and many have even expressed it...and many don't want the kid to play at a mid-major!
Add to that I have heard from some pretty solid sources that at least a few of those top, influential D-I coaches DEFINITELY did NOT want John Wilins going to Bradley....and they really don't like the idea of a kid who's a difference-maker "falling" to the mid-major level.
Even one of the top, widely known "insiders" in college basketball and recruiting told me personally that there were certain influential people who were going to try to see to it that BU did not get JW...and that it was going to be hadr for John to ever gain eligibility.
Then..bingo---NCAA does NOT allow Wilkins initial eligibility and he cannot enroll at BU..now someone has "gotten" to and influenced NJCAA (a completely separate operation) to make such a bizarre and unprecedented ruling that nobody anywhere has ever heard of such a thing...it is so far beyond any silly ruling ever seen that it is clear something fishy is going on...and I am not the only one who thinks so, trust me...
But here are even a couple more reasons that this ruling is just flat wrong...
--it cheats junior college fans and NJCAA basketball itself of a very fine player and a good student.
--it really may not even impede Wilkins' plan to move to D-I next year anyway....that is unless something further and MORE unexpected happens...and don't doubt that it still could...I kinda fear we oughta bank on it....
would it surprise anyone if NCAA comes up with something else even more wild, bizarre, and unprecedented?? Anyone actually think NCAA is done screwing with BU and screwing with John Wilkins??
--and finally the kid has done every single thing that has been askeded of him...
in the same way that all the Iowa State fans thought it was so terribly unfair and wrong to penalize Lucca Staiger just because someone else on the team was a pro...this holds here, too...
Wilkins did NOTHING wrong...but even so, when he came to the US, he also tried everything to get his transcripts and studies in order...and it just isn't his fault that the ignoramuses in Belgium wouldn't cooperate.
Then John Wilkins took the ACT and got a very, very good score...again..foiling yet another avenue that the sneaky NCAA could have used to torpedo him.
But in the end, they found a way to force Wilkins to go the juco route...
but I wonder....
what if John Wilkins had verballed to say, Indiana or Kansas....then since it was already summer of 2008, he would not have been expected to sign a LOI...so he could have just dallied and waited for the NCAA to rule, and of course, they WOULD HAVE certainly ruled differently if they thought he was going to IU or Kansas...and would have qualified him...
THEN---- at the last minute, a few days before enrollment, then John should have reneged and gone to BU.....
if only it had happned that way...although I don't douibt the NCAA scum would still have found a way...
Now John's options are few...
-there's talk of seeking legal action, maybe an injunction vs. NJCAA to allow him to play.
Jereme Richmond used this ploy vs. IHSA to overturn an ineligibility ruling.
-But also John could just stay in juco and NOT play, but finish his studies and get to BU next fall..but I fear the NCAA is still working on some backroom plot to change their ruling and deem John ineligible..
-I have noted that all California junior colleges are NOT under NJCAA jurisdiction, as they have their own ruling body and maybe John can seek to play in California, maybe Yuba??
-he could try to go pro, but difficult given he hasn't played either high school or college ball and hasn't played much at all in a couple years.
In the end, I doubt that I can easily hide my disregard and disdain for the ruling bodies, NCAA and NJCAA...and their open and obvious ongoing bias against non-BCS schools.
I guess I do have a little pulpit from which I can call them out, and try to keep the pressure on to be fair...but other mid-majors sooner ot later are going to get caught in the same shaft...it is ongoing and it is a commonplace occurrence for non-BCS guys.
Bobby Knight once said something about if it was inevitable.....;)
Meanwhile NCAA has decided it's time to come down on yet another tiny non-BCS school to deflect the attention away from all the blatant unpunished cheating going on at USC, Indiana, Kentucky, Memphis, etc...
Wow, they really, really hammered tiny Miles College...
http://ncaa.org/wps/ncaa?key=/ncaa/ncaa/media+and+events/press+room/news+release+archive/2009/infractions/20091104+d2+coi+rls+miles+college
Someone Miles must have been a threat!!
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