NCAA decision gives Kruger scholarships

Steve Guiremand

Friday, April 30, 2004 | 9:48 a.m.

New UNLV head basketball coach Lon Kruger got a big assist in his rebuilding efforts on Thursday afternoon courtesy of the NCAA Board of Directors in Indianapolis.

That group voted to rescind the controversial 5-and-8 scholarship rule which means Krurger and his new staff suddenly have three extra scholarships to work with.

"I think it's great," Kruger said late Thursday night after returning from a recruiting trip. "It provides that many more opportunities for players around the country to get scholarships."

The 5-and-8 rule had limited schools to signing no more than five players in a year and eight over a two-year span. For schools hit hard by graduation, NBA defections, transfers or -- like UNLV -- by NCAA scholarships sanctions, that often meant having to field a team well below the NCAA maximum limit of 13 scholarships.

UNLV, still feeling the effects of NCAA scholarship limitations from the Bill Bayno Era, would have been limited to just 10 scholarship players this upcoming season and 11 the following year under the old rule. Now the Rebels, who were originally limited to just three scholarships this year, suddenly have three extra ones to play with.

"I'm not sure we'll use all three this year," Kruger said. "There's a possibility that we may add another player to what we had originally planned to sign or maybe take a transfer. But there's also the possibility that we could carry all three over (to next year) depending on how things work out."

UNLV has already committed two of its three original scholarships to mid-year junior college transfer Wilbur Williams, a 6-foot-5 swingman from Los Angeles City College, and to 6-foot-9 postman Dustin Villepigue of Dixie State College.

If Kruger elects to carry over the three scholarships, the Rebels could sign as many as seven players next year. Guards Jerel Blassingame and Romel Beck and forwards Odartey Blankson and Andy Hannan are all seniors next season which frees up four more scholarships.

"I think this rule change not only helps UNLV but also about 80 or 90 other colleges," Kruger said. "And 200 to 300 kids who wouldn't have gotten scholarships before will get them now."

The repeal of the 5-and-8 rule was one of the several reforms the NCAA Board of Directors acted on during their meeting on Thursday.

Perhaps the biggest rule change was one which will penalize schools starting in 2006 if athletes perform too poorly in the classroom. Athletes will have to stay above a still to be determined graduation rate for schools to avoid punishment.

NCAA president Myles Brand said graduation targets for each school are being calculated and that each school will be notified in the fall "how much at risk it would have been" had the new standards already been in place. The graduation rate "cut line" will be the same in all sports and schools that fall below that line will receive warning letters beginning in 2006-2007 with consistently poor performing teams losing scholarships as soon as 2007-08 and postseason eligibility and money from NCAA tournaments starting in 2008-09.