By
Keith Carmona
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Olson returns to Wildcats, blasts NCAA's 5/8 rule
When Lute Olson returned to his office yesterday after a week in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, a new construction project commenced on the Arizona campus.
Olson isn't building a new bookstore or student union. He's spearheading the reconstruction of the UA men's basketball program.
Welcoming him home were the scattered pieces of an Arizona team that now finds itself in the midst of a rare rebuilding process.
While Olson basked on the beach last week, life back home in Tucson wasn't nearly as peaceful.
Four underclassmen - sophomores Gilbert Arenas and Jason Gardner and juniors Richard Jefferson and Michael Wright - declared their eligibility for the NBA draft, leaving the UA program with nine scholarship players on the 2001-2002 roster.
Given Arizona's recruiting talents, that wouldn't have been a problem until this season, when the NCAA's new 5/8 rule went into effect.
The rule states that a school can only sign five players in a given recruiting class and no more than eight in two years.
The Wildcats jumped at that opportunity, securing five high school seniors last fall because they knew they would be losing five seniors - Loren Woods, Eugene Edgerson, Lamont Frazier, Justin Wessel and John Ash.
So now with the four early draft entrants, Olson isn't allowed to give any scholarships in the spring signing period to undecided high school seniors or junior college transfers.
"I believed that the NCAA had made a huge mistake and that this would become the next embarrassment to college basketball (when the rule was passed)," Olson said, reading from a letter he sent Pacific 10 Conference commissioner Tom Hansen last September.
"I question the rationale behind such a thoughtless decision by the commissioners and CEOs (of the NCAA conferences)."
The regulation began last fall to discourage school transferring and early NBA entries, Olson said.
"If either of those are true, then we just have people with their heads in the sand," he added. "One cannot legislate against either of those."
UA athletic director Jim Livengood has already begun working on a petition to the NCAA to allow UA some relief from the 5/8 rule. While they would like to fill the rest of the 13 scholarships given to Division I basketball programs, the UA petition merely states that any assistance would be appreciated.
The odds aren't in Arizona's favor.
Eight similar requests, including one by new Texas Tech head coach Bobby Knight, have already been denied.
"It's a long shot, but we've got to do something to ensure our basketball program can operate like it should next year," Livengood said. "You never know what the trigger mechanism is with these petitions, but we've tried to put ourselves in the position of the people that will be reading it.
"This committee at the NCAA doesn't know much about the Arizona program, so we're in the works of putting together an appeal that will help them comprehend the bind we're in."
The athletic department hasn't submitted the petition yet, and Livengood said there's a sense of urgency because if UA is granted its bid, they will need to scamper around the country to recruit for the spring signing period.
"There's no way to determine how long the NCAA will take in making their decision, either," Livengood said. "Hopefully they'll recognize that we have the worst possible combination for this rule. We had a significant number of seniors graduate and had a number of underclassmen leave for the draft.
"Right now, everyone is looking at us with nine or 10 (players if Gardner re-enrolls), but that's the best-case scenario. If the team suffers some academic casualties or a player gets a season-ending injury, Lute might have to run practices with seven or eight players."
Olson said that despite UA's current hardships, he doesn't place blame on the recently departed underclassmen.
Had he been in Tucson, he said that he wouldn't have even tried to dissuade any of them from making the professional leap.
"I have never discouraged a kid from going because I think that would be a huge mistake on my part," Olson said. "What if I talked them into coming back and then all of a sudden, he has a career-ending injury or he has a bad year? All I am concerned about is that they make a decision based on fact, not on rumors that are flying around or information they're getting off the streets."
Olson was scheduled to meet with Gardner yesterday afternoon following his press conference. Though Olson said he wasn't going to instruct the point guard in either direction, he was glad to hear that his preseason All-American point guard has not hired an agent and has left himself an out.
If Gardner decides not to return to UA next season, the Wildcats will have one point guard (freshman Will Bynum of Chicago) on scholarship.
Jefferson, Arenas and Wright all leave Olson's program with his blessing.
"I always felt that if (Jefferson) had a great year, he'd be going," Olson said. "With the job he did in the playoffs, it puts him in a very strong position with where he'd go in the draft. And if you would have asked me if anyone would have left early, I would have guessed Gilbert.
"I think he's going to be an outstanding pro and that he grew a lot this year from a maturation standpoint. He could gain a lot from an additional year, but I can certainly understand his position. It's not too surprising."
Wright indicated to his coaches at the beginning of the season that he was already seriously considering making an early NBA entry.
"I would have hoped that he would have continued with his classes and not retained an agent to test the waters," Olson said. "Now, it's either sink or swim for him."
