Unless the NCAA plays hardball, the UH-Manoa men’s basketball team could get its postseason ban lifted and possibly the return of two scholarships for this season and the following.
Last December, the NCAA leveled those penalties, delivered a fine and put UH on probation for three years after former coach Gib Arnold was found to have violated conduct rules after a 21-month investigation.
On Friday, the NCAA announced the sanctions will be reviewed under a less stringent penalty structure by the NCAA’s Infractions Appeals Committee.
“This is very encouraging, and we appreciate the NCAA for all of their work on this matter,” UH athletic director David Matlin said in a press release. “We are looking forward to a final decision. This has been a very difficult time for our athletics department, in particular, our men’s basketball program. However, we believe we’ll all come out of this much stronger.”
The NCAA also upheld its finding that Arnold violated NCAA ethical codes. The NCAA earlier found no Level 1 violations, the most serious of the four tiers of infractions, by Arnold.
In its appeal in February, UH argued that under the previous structure a postseason ban based on the facts of the case would have been unprecedented.
According to the NCAA news release, UH’s case is being sent back because the Committee of Infractions incorrectly applied a new penalty structure.
Basically, the NCAA goofed.
But UH isn’t in the clear or has a slam-dunk appeals case because its compliance department, tasked with making sure rules and standards are followed, sort of dropped the ball.
The NCAA appeals committee also noted that there was no evidence UH encouraged unethical conduct by the coaches involved or failed to warn the coaches that such behavior would not be acceptable.
That’s not small potatoes, but at least UH can sense a sign of relief.
Perhaps, the best thing going for an athletic department, besides an ESPN TV tree that grows money, is momentum.
Pete Carroll came out of the wilderness, changed the culture at USC, and the hot-ticket Trojans contended for national championships.
Then USC got steamrolled by the NCAA in the wake of the Reggie Bush rules violations for improper benefits (house, stuff for mom and dad, etc.). Bush was forced to return his 2005 Heisman Trophy.
The Trojans haven’t been the same since.
UH is coming off a glorious year for both basketball programs.
The Rainbow Warriors won the Big West championship and their first NCAA Tournament game, a 77-68 first-round victory over California.
The Rainbow Wahine also captured the Big West crown. It was the first time since 1994 that both programs advanced to the NCAA’s Big Dance in the same year.
Even money can’t buy that type of momentum, which engages the local fans and corporate sponsors, whether they’re in the Stan Sheriff Center or at home watching OCSports on channel 16.
Obviously, the best-case scenario for the Rainbow Warriors is to get all those sanctions wiped clean.
But the “failed to warn the coaches that such behavior would not be acceptable” part is a thorn in their shoe, a painful impediment, and a reminder of all that went wrong.
It’s interesting that UH’s sanction review news came out one day after it was announced that Division II Chaminade will play in the Maui Invitational every other year, starting in 2018.
That 2018 field of Arizona, Auburn, Duke, Gonzaga, Illinois, Iowa State, San Diego State, and Xavier looks like an NCAA Tournament quarterfinal bracket.
Maybe there’s an open door for the Rainbow Warriors to sneak in, and Matlin is well-connected to ESPN, which televises the Maui Invitational.
Before UH, Matlin spent 13 years rubbing elbows with ESPN and managing the Hawaii Bowl, Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic, and the Hawaiian Islands Invitational, which allowed him to build relationships with NCAA conferences, athletic directors, and national organizations.
The Rainbow Warriors will be on national TV a bunch of times: ESPN2 against Florida Atlantic, Nov. 14; FoxSports1 against Seton Hall and Princeton, Dec. 6-7; ESPN2 against Illinois State, Dec. 22; ESPN3 against Cal State Fullerton, Jan. 5; Prime Ticket against UC Irvine, Jan. 7; and ESPN3 against UC Riverside, Feb. 2.
But there’s really nothing like the Maui Invitational, considered the premier early season tournament because so many eyeballs are glued to ESPN during that Thanksgiving week.
Maybe Dave Matlin can work a bit of magic and score the ’Bows an invite.
But coach Eran Ganot’s program needs to keep building that momentum, no matter what the NCAA eventually rules in the near future or two years from now, and, as Matlin noted, come out stronger.