NCAA NOTES : Raveling in Middle of 3 ‘Critical’ Issues That Affect Coaches

George Raveling’s decision to turn down an offer to become executive director of the National Assn. of Basketball Coaches certainly hasn’t affected his commitment to the 4,000-member organization.

During a Thursday news conference here, the Trojan coach, who also serves as vice president of the NABC board of directors, outlined what he called three “critical” issues facing his profession.

The primary concern, he said, is an NCAA provision, advocated by university presidents, that will eliminate one assistant coach from each Division I-A staff beginning Aug. 1. A staff now can include one head coach, two full-time assistants and two part-time graduate assistants or volunteer coaches. The new rule will limit staff size to one head coach, two full-time assistants and one so-called “restricted earnings” coach, who can be paid no more than $16,000 annually by the school.

“That $16,000 in a metropolitan area is a substandard wage,” Raveling said.

The NABC is offering an alternate plan, called the “one-three concept,” which would allow a coach to hire three full-time assistants with no limitations placed on earnings.

“I think we can build a strong case for the presidents to establish that it would be a more workable situation for all of us and that we can achieve their academic goals, if they would allow us to have three assistant coaches,” Raveling said.

Added Kansas Coach Roy Williams, who also attended the news conference: “We’re not asking for more (coaches). Roy Williams wouldn’t be in college coaching if it wasn’t for part-time assistants (Williams got his start as a part-time assistant on Dean Smith’s North Carolina staff). Mike Krzyzewski (of Duke) was part-time. We’re not reaching for the moon, by any means.”

Regardless of the NABC’s position, the rule will remain in effect for at least one year. The staff limits could then be repealed or amended at the 1993 NCAA convention.

If the rule isn’t changed, there is the possibility of a lawsuit brought against the NCAA by the Black Coaches Assn., Raveling said. The BCA has retained a lawyer and has been studying the situation.

The second item on the NABC agenda dealt with scholarships. As part of cost-cutting measures, the number of available basketball scholarships will be reduced from 15 to 13. Raveling said a compromise is in order: 14.

According to Raveling, fewer scholarships means that more coaches will be tempted to play injured players, to think twice about redshirting, to try to encourage borderline players to leave the team, thus forfeiting their athletic grants-in-aid.

“It leaves you no margin for error in recruiting,” Raveling said.

But asked to choose between the scholarship or coaching limits, Raveling said the NABC constituency “would vote for the one-three concept.”

The NABC also wants coaches to be allowed to send more than two coaches for off-campus evaluations of recruits during the summer.

“It’s the most critical part of the recruiting process,” said Raveling, who cited statistics that show 72% of all recruits take advantage of the early signing period.

Other proposals: Allow coaches to call recruits before the completion of their junior year in high school; work harder with university presidents to agree on what Raveling called “a shared vision.”

Raveling didn’t limit his comments to NABC matters. He added some personal proposals of his own, including one that would put a moratorium on new NCAA legislation. Under his proposal, legislation could be passed only once every three years.

Raveling also said that the NABC could enhance its financial position by changing its name to the Russian Assn. of Basketball Coaches.

“Then we could get $24 billion from (President) Bush,” he said.

But especially noteworthy were his ideas on how the NABC might one day react if their proposals, present and future, are ignored.

“I can’t say that we’re going to do these things, but I think that I could give you examples of what would be extreme measures: strike . . . you don’t show up for practice at the Final Four . . . you delay the games . . . the players decide they’re not going to play. I say this all the time. The day we all better hope (doesn’t occur) is that the players don’t ever decide that they’re upset about things. Because the players have no influence.”

Trivia time: How many coaches have taken teams representing more than one school to the Final Four?

Kansas’ Williams, whose No. 1-seeded Jayhawks were upset by Texas El Paso, recently had an angry confrontation with a fan.

“Boy, you really let us down,” the fan said to Williams.

“What do you mean?” Williams said. “What’d you have, a dollar on the game? Hey, it’s my life!”

End of conversation.

Trivia answer: Seven. Jack Gardner, Kansas State and Utah; Frank McGuire, St. John’s and North Carolina; Hugh Durham, Florida State and Georgia; Larry Brown, UCLA and Kansas; Gene Bartow, Memphis State and UCLA; Lute Olson, Iowa and Arizona, and Lee Rose, North Carolina Charlotte and Purdue.

Rumor of the day: Xavier’s Pete Gillen and Massachusetts’ John Calipari are the leading contenders to replace Rollie Massimino at Villanova.