Ohio State gets hit by NCAA for using ineligible player
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/bigten/2006-03-10-ohio-state-probation_x.htm
By Rusty Miller, The Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State was placed on three years' probation Friday for using an ineligible player, a ruling that wipes out records from four NCAA tournament appearances by the men's basketball team — including a trip to the 1999 Final Four.
The NCAA did not impose penalties on this season's team, which is 22-4 and ranked seventh in the country, beyond the two scholarships Ohio State previously eliminated. The announcement came about two hours before the top-seeded Buckeyes' quarterfinal game against Penn State in the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis.
The Buckeyes won't be barred from postseason play as a result of using the ineligible player from 1999-2002 under former coach Jim O'Brien. However, the school will have to repay tournament revenues of about $800,000 for the four years in which Boban Savovic played. He received improper gifts, including housing and cash, from a booster.
Ohio State must take down the 1999 Final Four banner which hangs from the rafters in Value City Arena.
Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said before the game in Indianapolis that the penalties are extremely serious but the school was glad to put the two-year NCAA investigation behind it.
"The positives are closure," he said. "We're going into the Big Ten tournament and we want our student-athletes to have the opportunity to participate in this tournament understanding there won't be any sanctions they have to deal with. ... They can play without that stress."
The NCAA said the university and O'Brien, who was fired over $6,000 he gave a recruit, failed to monitor the men's basketball program. If O'Brien gets a job at another college in the next five years, he and his new school, he must appear before the NCAA's infractions committee to discuss whether he will face additional limits.
Former assistant coach Paul Biancardi, now the head coach at Wright State University in Dayton, was prohibited from recruiting until Oct. 1, 2007. If he does, Wright State could face NCAA sanctions.
Ohio State had acknowledged eight of nine violations alleged by the NCAA. The school fired O'Brien in June 2004 and held last season's team out of the postseason to try to avoid any additional penalties.
Other penalties include a public reprimand and a reduction in on-campus visits by basketball recruits next year.
Being put on probation means the university must not have a major violation in the next three years, Smith said.
"We just have to continue to operate as we have and we'll be fine," Smith said. "(Coach) Thad Matta has said he's been on probation since he's been here."
Seven violations involved the men's basketball program under O'Brien. The other two involved women's basketball and football.
Matta and his players planned to address the penalties after their game, and the Wright State athletic director planned a news conference about Biancardi Friday afternoon.
O'Brien, who also planned to make a statement Friday, was fired after he told then-athletic director Andy Geiger that he gave a recruit $6,000 five years earlier.
Last month O'Brien won his lawsuit accusing the university of wrongfully firing him. Ohio State could have to pay him as much as $9.5 million.
O'Brien, the Buckeyes coach for seven years, said the loan of his own money to Aleksandar Radojevic, a 7-foot-3 prospect from Serbia, was not a violation because he knew Radojevic already had forfeited his amateur status by playing professionally.
"The $6,000 payment was a blatant violation," NCAA infractions committee vice chairwoman Josephine Potuto said in a news release. "The circumstances surrounding this violation are especially troubling because the former coaches concealed the cash payment from administrators at the institution for over five years."
The payment became public amid a court battle over another situation that led to three other violations.
Kathleen Salyers had sued two prominent boosters, saying they failed to pay her the $1,000 a month they promised to feed, house and support Savovic. Salyers also said she did schoolwork for Savovic.
The NCAA said Savovic committed academic fraud because a booster wrote papers for him, and the university did not adequately monitor his living situation.
In addition, five women's basketball players received free dental work totaling $13,760 in violation of NCAA bylaws. Troy Smith, the star quarterback in the Buckeyes' victories over Michigan the past two years, received $500 from a booster. Smith was suspended for the team's 2004 bowl game and the 2005 opener.