BCA could call timeout during the tournament

Sporting News, The, March 28, 1994 by Gene Wojciechowski

Will they or won't they?

As the mediation process between the Black Coaches Association and the NCAA moves toward an uncertain conclusion, the threat of a BCA-sponsored boycott remains a distinct and unfortunate possibility.

Make no mistake: If the BCA doesn't get what it wants -- which is satisfactory progress in its dispute with the NCAA -- there could be a walkout during the middle of the tournament. It's the organization's most powerful negotiating tool and one that has a short shelf life. After April 4, the date of the NCAA championship game, the BCA's boycott leverage is reduced to nothing.

The BCA remains upset about many things. Among the concerns:

* Academic eligibility standards and its impact on minority student athletes.

* Possible tainted research and data involving those eligibility standards.

* Continued lack of minority hiring in the upper reaches of the NCAA administrative hierarchy.

* Fewer educational opportunities for minority athletes.

* Less access of coaches to players.

Point man for the BCA is executive director Rudy Washington, the Drake coach who isn't shy about dropping hints about shutting down the NCAA Tournament.

"We have the ability to stop work now," Washington says. "This is no different from a man ignoring his wife, and his wife wants a new pair of shoes. So she asks for them for six months, and one day the husband comes home and nothing is done that was usually done and it becomes a crisis. So he takes her out and they go buy the shoes.... She creates a crisis. This is no more than that.

"We've been talking about these things for years, and the NCAA kept saying, 'Yes, we'll put a committee together. We'll study it. We'll do this, yes, yes.'

"And then we say, 'Well, we're not going to play any basketball. You're not going to make any money. This thing is going to stop until something is done.'

"Call it a crisis, a dramatic gesture, if you will. As a result, we get the attention to deal with these avenues. We were forced to do this. This isn't something we wanted to do."

Washington has received death threats. His job security has been questioned, partly because of his active role in the BCA and partly because of Drake's 11-16 record and the admission of NCAA rules violations by two assistant coaches. The assistants have since been dismissed.

Unlike several of the BCA's established spokesmen -- Temple's John Chaney, Southern Cal's George Raveling, Georgetown's John Thompson -- Washington has more to lose if a boycott backfires.

"Absolutely," Washington, 42, says. "There's no question about it. But I probably have more to gain, because I'm younger. If you're talking about public perception and all that, I'm probably just starting my career. I feel strongly enough about the issue that I need to fight that. Unfortunately, most of our people, meaning African Americans, will die like they lived their lives: asleep. They never know what's going on around them. I just felt a real need to take a step and make some things work for us."

Of course, not every member of the BCA is thrilled with the possibility of a strike, especially if it is based on the refusal of the university presidents to add a 14th scholarship to men's basketball.

"Most organizations are fighting for things that aren't even important," says Southern Coach Ben Jobe, a 22-year veteran of the business. "This is not the civil-rights movement. This is not the war on poverty. This is not ethnic cleansing. This is not pro-life. Abortion. This is not crime. This is not the killing of black youngsters by black youngsters. So ... I'm not going to be wasting my energy ... on fighting for a 14th scholarship for a kid who probably doesn't want to be going to school in the first place.

"So if you have an important issue, call me. If not, don't bother me."

The BCA insists that the 14th scholarship issue has been misunderstood. The BCA, Washington says, is angry about what the lack of a 14th scholarship represents: lost opportunities for minority players.

Maybe so, but Jobe says that isn't how it was presented to him. When two BCA members called him earlier in the season asking for his support, the only topic discussed was the loss of a single scholarship, from 14 to 13.

"That's all they talked about, that 14th scholarship," he says.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department continues to mediate discussions between the BCA and the NCAA. Mum's the word after each session.

"I think the worst-case scenario is there's a boycott, and coaches and players lose scholarships and jobs," Washington says. "The best-case scenario is sitting down at the table and working toward a solution."

More strangeness in the desert

Rumors continue that if Rick Barnes leaves Providence for Clemson, Rollie Massimino will be wooed to leave Nevada-Las Vegas. But don't count on it.

UNLV is no Shangri-La these days, but Massimino can't pull the rip cord to his parachute just yet. Even though he misses the East Coast ... even though the situation between the Jerry Tarkanian Faction and UNLV President Robert Maxson Faction is a mess ... even though the program itself remains in flux (thanks to NCAA penalties), Massimino says he isn't going anywhere. At least not yet.