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By Arlie Rahn
Arizona Daily Wildcat
November 21, 1996
Should the Arizona basketball team be in need of a miracle against No. 7 North Carolina tomorrow night, Miles Simon won't be there to help.Simon, whose 70-foot desperation shot helped Arizona down No. 5 Cincinnati last Feburary, will not be with the Wildcats in Springfield, Mass., tomorrow night when they face the Tar Heels in the Hall of Fame Tip-Off Classic because he failed to comply with the team's academic regulations.
"We cannot elaborate on the situation except to say that (Simon) was not on the plane," UA sports information director Tom Duddleston Jr. said.
Athletic director Jim Livengood's office said he would not comment on the situation until today. Both Bill Morgan, assistant athletic director for administrative services and compliance, and Mike Fisher, director of academic services for CATS, the Commitment to an Athlete's Total Success, said they would not comment.
Simon was forced to sit out Sunday's exhibition win over the Melbourne Magic for the same reason.
"This situation is very hard to deal with," Simon said Tuesday. "There really is not anything else I can say."
For Simon, this was also going to be a big game because North Carolina was on his list of colleges as a senior at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, Calif. While Simon's coach told the Tar Heel coaching staff of his interest, the sentiment was not returned, as North Carolina signed two other guards.
"We wrote him a letter saying that we thought he was a very talented player, but we didn't need any more shooting guards because we had already received commitments from Donald Williams and Dante Calabria," North Carolina head coach Dean Smith said during a teleconference Tuesday.
Simon, who averaged 13.2 points and 4.0 rebounds per game last season, is the team's top returning scorer and rebounder. In his UA career, he has notched 30 double-figure scoring games and has an 11.6 points per game average.
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