NCAA TOURNAMENT / DAILY REPORT : Stoudamire Eligible for Arizona; Davis Still Appealing

The NCAA on Tuesday restored Arizona guard Damon Stoudamire’s eligibility for the NCAA tournament, but teammate Ben Davis remains ineligible.

The school declared both players ineligible Saturday because of violations of NCAA rules, then appealed Monday for reinstatement.

Stoudamire, an All-American who helped Arizona reach the Final Four last season, was ruled ineligible for violating a rule concerning gifts--his father apparently accepted an airline ticket from a sports agent.

“The penalty for that ineligibility is to sit one game,” Athletic Director Jim Livengood said Tuesday.

That suspension, the NCAA said, was served when he sat out Saturday’s game against Arizona State.

Davis, who received plane tickets, cash and other gifts worth about $3,000 that the NCAA considers preferential treatment, also sat out the game, a 103-98 double-overtime loss to the Sun Devils.

Stoudamire will play when the fifth-seeded Wildcats (23-7) begin tournament play Thursday against 12th-seeded Miami of Ohio (22-6) in the opening game of the NCAA’s Midwest regional in Dayton, Ohio.

Stoudamire practiced with the team Tuesday before it left for Dayton. Davis, ruled ineligible for the rest of the season, did not.

The NCAA’s eligibility committee, made up of Division I school representatives, will hear an appeal by telephone today. A decision is expected by the end of the day.

Livengood said there were strong extenuating and mitigating circumstances to merit restoring Davis’ eligibility.

“We have no knowledge whatsoever that the individual involved is anything more than a friend of Ben Davis,” said Livengood, adding the gifts included a pair of shoes, a motel room, probably three plane tickets and some spending money.

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Stoudamire, Ed O’Bannon of UCLA and two sophomores from the Atlantic Coast Conference--Joe Smith of Maryland and Jerry Stackhouse of North Carolina--joined Shawn Respert of Michigan State on the Associated Press’ All-America team.

Smith, a 6-foot-10 center, was the leading vote-getter, being named on all but four first-team ballots from the 66-member national panel that selects the weekly poll. He finished with 313 points in the 5-3-1 voting, two more than O’Bannon.

Randolph Childress of Wake Forest was joined on the second team by Corliss Williamson of Arkansas, Kerry Kittles of Villanova, Rasheed Wallace of North Carolina and Lou Roe of Massachusetts.

The third team was Bryant Reeves of Oklahoma State, Tim Duncan of Wake Forest, Ray Allen of Connecticut, Kurt Thomas of Texas Christian and Lawrence Moten of Syracuse.

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Maryland Coach Gary Williams is once again running practice this week after a bout with pneumonia. He has lost some weight and his voice is still a bit hoarse, but he will be on the bench Thursday night when the 10th-ranked Terrapins face Gonzaga in Salt Lake City.

“I yelled a couple of times yesterday, probably not at game level,” Williams said Tuesday. “My lungs are a lot better and I feel pretty good. I certainly feel like I can coach.”

Williams, 50, took it easy Monday because he wasn’t sure if he could make it through the two-hour practice.

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North Carolina Coach Dean Smith anticipates that Wallace will be ready for Friday’s first-round Southeast Regional game against Murray State. Wallace, who twisted his left ankle in the ACC tournament championship game Sunday, was scheduled to go through drills with no contact Tuesday.

But Smith has learned over 34 years as a head coach not to trust his heart or what players tell him regarding their physical condition before a big game.

“Hubert Davis in ’92 against a good Alabama team twisted an ankle and limped off,” Smith recalled. “He kept telling me he was OK. I put him back in. We almost lost the game.

“It’s the ‘Hubert Davis Rule’ from now on. If the doctors say it’s OK to play, then he goes.”

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Kentucky assistant athletic director Bernadette Locke-Mattox was appointed head coach of the school’s women’s basketball team. Locke-Mattox was hired in June 1990 as an assistant to men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino, becoming one of the first women to coach a Division I men’s program.