Cincinnati’s Blount Eligible Again : Basketball: NCAA committee reverses ruling against 6-10 center, who was a medical redshirt at Rancho Santiago.

Corie Blount says he doesn’t blame anybody for the administrative problem that kept him from playing for the University of Cincinnati basketball team until Saturday.

Blount was declared ineligible in September when the NCAA ruled that a medical redshirt waiver he had received while playing for Rancho Santiago was not binding. The NCAA said Blount was considered to have played three years instead of two in community college and was prohibited from playing this season because he had apparently used up his athletic eligibility.

The university appealed the NCAA’s original decision, arguing that Blount should be entitled to one more year of eligibility. University officials said the four games he played in 1988-89 for Rancho Santiago should not be counted against him. A newly formed NCAA committee reversed the NCAA’s decision.

Blount was reinstated Saturday and the 6-foot-10 senior center played hours later for No. 9 Cincinnati, scoring eight points and grabbing seven rebounds in a 70-64 victory at DePaul.

“I thought deep inside that they would do the right thing,” Blount said. “I wasn’t too worried about it.”

He shot four of nine from the floor in his return, but said he expects to get sharper as he gets more playing time.

“I missed some easy shots, but it felt great to be back,” he said.

His 1988-89 season was cut short when he broke his foot, but Blount played two more seasons at Rancho Santiago before transferring to Cincinnati for the 1991-92 season. He averaged 8.2 points and 6.3 rebounds last season as the Bearcats made it to the Final Four.

Blount, from Monrovia, said he wonders why it took so long to resolve the dispute.

“It was basically my fault for playing in those games (in 1988-89),” he said. “It wasn’t that I did anything wrong, it was just that I played in games I shouldn’t have played in. I just had to deal with the consequences. I guess I was angry about not playing, but I wasn’t pointing the blame at anybody.

“I’ve still got 16 more games to prove myself.”