Coaches Close Ranks Over Requirements : College basketball: They say they want to be free to do their jobs, but fear present climate might restrict their methods.

With the Final Four serving as their platform, leaders of the National Assn. of Basketball Coaches said Thursday they will fight to stop the encroachment of outside influences on their profession.

Mike Krzyzewski of Duke and George Raveling of USC were the most vocal during an emotional discussion aimed at thwarting attempts to tell coaches how to do their jobs.

With this season’s highly charged firing of Lou Campanelli at California, the coaches are feeling vulnerable, even if they do not say so. Furthermore, they are reeling from January’s defeat at the NCAA Convention in Dallas, where men’s basketball scholarships were reduced from 14 to 13 and severe restrictions were placed on the summertime earnings of part-time assistants.

Although Krzyzewski said the Campanelli situation has not motivated the group to speak out, much of the concern involves the recent attention being paid to coaching styles.

Put simply, the question is this: When is screaming at players appropriate and when isn’t it?

“The climate is to go overboard in setting an example,” Krzyzewski said. “There is a public perception of how a person should coach all the time.”

Some coaches said their ability to discipline and control athletes could be hampered by the recent scrutiny. Campanelli was fired in midseason for verbally abusing his players, Cal officials said.

“You’ve got to be careful about (standardized limits),” Krzyzewski said. “Leaders might not play it safe. (They) do things by feel. You can’t be afraid to take some action.”

Raveling said coaches must relate to players individually, because there is no sure-fire method of motivation and communication.

“As a coach, you have to be concerned with attempts to surrender to others the decisions of how you will teach and lead,” he said. “You need the ability to discipline and direct young persons to higher level of achievement and success.”

When recruiting Mark Boyd from Stone Mountain, Ga., Raveling said Boyd’s mother made it clear what she expected of him as a coach.

“ ‘I don’t want no foolishness,’ ” Raveling recalled her saying. “I knew what she meant. I was taking her son 3,000 miles across the country. She was saying, ‘I expect you to deal with him as I would.’ ”

The basketball coaching leaders, who also included Johnny Orr of Iowa State, George Blaney of Holy Cross and Jim Haney, the group’s executive director, said they are seeking ways to enhance the salaries of the so-called restricted-earnings coaches. These usually are third assistants who do not recruit off-campus, spending much of their time with administrative tasks and scouting.

They used to earn most of their income during summer camps or clinics. But in an attempt to cut costs, the NCAA decided to restrict their earnings to $16,000 per year. Starting this August, they cannot earn more than $4,000 from a camp.

Richard Schultz, executive director of the NCAA, said the situation needs to be rectified and that the rules force coaches into circumventing the system to help their assistants.

“The coaches don’t want to do this,” Schultz said. “They want to follow the rules. But it is a problem.”

Notes

Richard Schultz, NCAA executive director, said interest in a college football playoff format is increasing among coaches and athletic directors, two groups that have traditionally opposed the idea. Schultz said coaches are against a one-game playoff, but favor a bigger tournament that would incorporate the bowls. “They can see the potential of it, and many feel football needs a shot in the arm much like basketball has received from the Final Four,” Schultz said.

With plans to build a casino along the Mississippi River, some in New Orleans were concerned that they would no longer be considered for Final Four championships. But Schultz said that as long as sports betting was not allowed, he did not expect problems.