NCAA Forces Mills to Sit Out Season

Chris Mills, the would-be University of Arizona basketball star, was ruled ineligible to play this season in an unusual decision announced Wednesday by the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.

The NCAA ruled that Mills had voluntarily transferred from the University of Kentucky--meaning he could not be granted a waiver of the residency requirement--even though the NCAA had already banned him from playing at Kentucky again.

Mills, who has three years of college eligibility remaining, must sit out a year before regaining his eligibility. In Tucson, Mills said that he planned to seek legal advice but stopped short of saying he would sue the NCAA.

However, Claud Mills said that Wednesday’s ruling does not end his son’s chances of playing this season, adding: “This is not the last straw.”

Although Chris Mills was not mentioned by name, he was one of the central figures in an NCAA investigation of the Kentucky basketball program, which resulted in its being placed on probation for three years.

The NCAA said that former Kentucky assistant coach Dwane Casey had sent $1,000 in cash to Claud Mills in a package that was discovered open in an air-express company. As part of Kentucky’s penalty, Chris Mills was barred from playing at the school.

Mills decided to transfer to Arizona, which in July requested that he receive a waiver of the NCAA’s one-year residency requirement.

The NCAA made its decision solely on the fact that Mills had never appealed his ineligibility at Kentucky.

“That was the major difference,” NCAA President Dick Schultz said. “They didn’t have to go into any other issues.”

Albert M. Witte, president of the NCAA Council, said the Division I steering committee, which settled the matter at a meeting in Indianapolis, decided that Mills fit within the category of voluntary transfer students.

“The committee saw no reason to make an exception in his case,” Witte said.

Mills could have petitioned Kentucky to appeal before the NCAA’s eligibility committee but did not and so voluntarily transferred, the steering committee said. Witte said that committee members therefore saw no reason why Mills ought not sit out a year, the same as any other transfer student.

But Claud Mills said that a Kentucky athletic official had told him the university would not appeal on behalf of Chris Mills.

“When the NCAA said voluntarily , well, he didn’t volunteer,” Claud Mills said. “And Joe Burch told me he wouldn’t write an appeal for Chris. Joe Burch suggested that Chris go elsewhere if he wanted to play. If he wanted to come back (to Kentucky) as a student, he couldn’t stop him.”

Burch was the acting athletic director at Kentucky after the scandal-caused resignation of Cliff Hagen, and before C.M. Newton took the job. Burch could not be reached for comment.

Robert Lawson, Kentucky’s faculty representative to the NCAA, said he was unaware of such a conversation. Lawson also said he had not known of an appeal process, and even if the Millses were uninformed of it, they didn’t seem to be interested anyway.

“I am fairly sure neither Chris nor his father ever indicated any interest at all (in an appeal),” Lawson said. “That would have meant staying here as a student.”

Claud Mills said he will confer with family attorney Ron Hecker and announce a plan to restore Chris Mills’ eligibility at Arizona this season.

“I am quite shocked,” Claud Mills said. “Chris is very disappointed. He felt he just didn’t voluntarily transfer . . . and he didn’t. I don’t think the NCAA had all the information.”

Mills, a 6-foot-7 forward/guard from Fairfax High School, averaged 14.3 points and 8.7 rebounds a game as a freshman at Kentucky. Arizona Coach Lute Olson, whose 6-11 center, Brian Williams, is eligible this year after transferring from Maryland, said he was surprised that Mills wasn’t eligible but said his team is still a good one.

“I felt from the beginning that the chances were good,” Olson said. “I was basing that on conversations I had with people. I became concerned on this thing when it went further and further. It almost seemed like somebody was looking for a reason why he shouldn’t be eligible.”

Olson said he expects Mills to remain at Arizona as a student until his eligibility is restored.

Mills, 19, seemed confused by the ruling. Asked if he had been adequately advised on the appeal process at Kentucky, Mills said: “I guess I wasn’t.”

Then, was it properly explained?

“Not really,” Mills said. “The way I got it, the best thing for me was to leave Kentucky.”

Mills said he had been thinking positively about the impending NCAA decision but admitted that he wasn’t ready for what was handed down.

“It doesn’t feel good,” he said. “I would like to be playing this year, but I will just sit back and cheer them on. All I can do is accept it right now.

“They were probably trying to find something. . . . if I was doing anything wrong,” Mills said. “I didn’t.”