NCAA’s Emmert hopes for reform
NCAA President Mark Emmert is hopeful the scandal roiling college basketball will lead to major rule changes, but schools paying players is likely a nonstarter.
In a 45-minute phone interview Friday with the Associated Press, Emmert said he expects a commission to reform college basketball to put forth proposals to modernize NCAA rules on player-agent relationships, devise new ways to handle high-profile enforcement cases and address the NBA’s one-and-done rule. The commission, led by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, is on track to give its recommendations to NCAA leadership when the Division I Board of Directors meets April 24-25.
Emmert says he does not think the NCAA is in crisis and that the “vast majority of what’s going on inside” the associations is working “incredibly well.”
“Yes, we’ve got these very serious issues which require serious change and they erode people’s belief in the integrity of all college sports,” Emmert said. “That’s a very serious problem and that’s got to be addressed and we’re doing that right now and I’m really optimistic that before basketball season next year we’re going to have really meaningful change that makes this circumstance, if not completely go away, dramatically better than the problems that exist today.
Encino Crespi High guard Brandon Williams, who had committed to Arizona, announced via Twitter that he is reopening his recruitment. He’s the second Southern California player to change his commitment following a report that Wildcats coach Sean Miller allegedly discussed a $100,000 to secure a top recruit, which he’s denied. Crossroads’ Shareef O’Neal changed his commitment from Arizona to UCLA.
Chicken noodle or tomato? J.R. Smith didn’t serve up any explanation. Cleveland’s mercurial shooting guard declined an interview request a day after the Cavaliers suspended him one game for throwing a bowl of soup at assistant coach Damon Jones . ... All-Star Cavaliers forward Kevin Love, sidelined since Jan. 29 with a broken left hand, said he could return sooner than expected. The initial timetable was for him to be out two months. “If I can get back before eight weeks, great,” he said. “So I’m hoping that that is the case.”