Columnist Dean Juipe: New NCAA rule adds to policing

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, July 23, 2002 | 9:29 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

It's a no man's land, protected by signs and security guards as if it were a mine field.

Located just off the baseline at both ends of the court, this is a buffer zone, an area where you do not walk through or linger. There are no secret codes, no special passwords. You simply do not get by no matter who you are or what your credentials.

No College Coaches Beyond This Point reads a sign at one end, and No AAU Coaches Beyond This Point reads a sign at the other. The net result: Basketball coaches, players and fans have never been so isolated.

Devised during an overly legislative flurry by those who call the shots at the NCAA and evident at this week's Big Time Tournament at 13 high schools in Las Vegas, the separation of college coaches from their summer counterparts is laughably absurd. As you'll see if you take in a game or two at this illustrious event, the only people on one side of the gym are guys in shirts emblazoned with logos from the likes of Michigan, Kentucky, Syracuse and Texas.

Everyone else -- players, summer coaches, spectators -- sit on the other side. Anyone affiliated with a university or on a scouting mission will have to make his contacts, if he's so inclined, in a parking lot, hotel or airport terminal.

There's no intermingling in the gym.

"It's crazy, isn't it?" said Durango High coach, and, this week, gym director, Al LaRocque, who was policing one of the off-limits baseline areas Monday. He wasn't happy about having to do it, or having to relinquish his position as head coach of one of the teams in the massive tournament, the Las Vegas Stars, which he had done the night before as a concession to these new NCAA rules.

Because he knew that his role as gym director would require him to have informal contact with college coaches, LaRocque stepped aside as coach of the Stars "just in case there's something in the fine print." He did not find it amusing.

"The NCAA is trying to reduce the influence of summer tournaments, plain and simple," LaRocque said. "But where does it stop? A coach can still bump into a player or a summer-league coach, as long as he doesn't do it in the gym."

Just then an assistant coach from Brown University wandered by, oblivious to the signage and the new rules as he attempted to make his way to the scorer's table to check on uniform numbers and rosters of the teams about to play. "Whoa," LaRocque insisted, before explaining the situation to the would-be violator.

"He was jeopardizing not only Brown, but the entire tournament," LaRocque said after dutifully sending the man back to his seat without the information he so innocently sought.

"It's a Gestapo tactic," LaRocque said of the NCAA's interference. "It doesn't do anything but hurt the kids."

The kids are also being forced to watch a 15-minute film that outlines proper and improper contact with college coaches, which would be harmless enough if not for the scheduling nightmare it thrusts upon the tournament's organizers and the 344 teams involved.

Beyond adding a few dozen pages to the NCAA rule book, little seems to have been gained. The unscrupulous will still find a way to undermine the rules and their intent, even with the NCAA committed to playing Big Brother.