NCAA enforcement hits new lows

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Sonny Vaccaro waved to a friendly face in the crowd and shouted, "I'd come say hello to you but I don't want to put you on probation." He was exaggerating -- slightly. As director of the 2002 adidas ABCD Camp, Vaccaro, unlike anyone else working for him at the event, was permitted under newly established NCAA rules to speak with college coaches in attendance, but only to discuss "administrative aspects" of the camp. Never one to resist needling the nameless, faceless (but hardly defenseless) NCAA, Vaccaro said he wouldn't do even that. "I'm like Jimmy Hoffa," he quipped. "If the workers in my union can't talk to the coaches, then I won't either."

The ABCD camp, which unlike its Nike-run counterpart in Indianapolis is open to the public, has always been a three-ring circus, where casual fans, Internet geeks and agent-sent sleazeballs can rub elbows with the most recognizable college coaches in the country. This year, however, the show was truly wacky. That's because a half-dozen members of the NCAA's enforcement staff were in attendance to make sure that everyone was adhering to the new rules (that would have been easier if people actually understood them). Assuming a typically boneheaded, self-defeating posture, the NCAA did not allow any of its gumshoes to talk to the press, but the rampant confusion led to at least one coach -- Michigan's Tommy Amaker -- being nabbed for a petty violation on Wednesday.

Under the new policy, college coaches are not permitted to speak with anyone who coaches a "recruitable" -- meaning high-school-aged -- athlete. One of the men working the ABCD camp was 65-year-old Red Jenkins, Amaker's former coach at W.T. Woodson High School in Fairfax, Va. Jenkins says he was told during a staff meeting at the start of the week that because he was no longer coaching high school (he retired last year), he was permitted to talk to the college coaches. So he spent about 45 minutes Wednesday afternoon in the bleachers shooting the breeze with Amaker.

Jenkins thought nothing of the little visit until he was summoned a little while later by Hussain Naqi of the NCAA, who was already standing with Amaker and who informed both of them they were in violation of the new rules. Amaker told Naqi it was a simple misunderstanding and asked if he could get off with a warning, but Naqi said either Amaker could self-report the incident to the NCAA or Naqi would do it for him. Amaker opted to turn himself in. There is no chance the incident will lead to any real penalties, but it did serve as a fitting backdrop to this newly renovated theater of the absurd. "Whoever gave me the interpretation of the rule was wrong," Jenkins said. "I feel terrible about what happened because Tommy and I both thought it was OK for us to be talking."

Besides being prohibited from speaking to high school and AAU coaches during these NCAA-certified events, college coaches also are not allowed to call players' families while the kids are competing. Meanwhile, more than a dozen NBA coaches and scouts worked the ABCD camp as coaches this week, spending more quality time with the high school players than most college coaches ever will. Doesn't that seem a little counterproductive at a time when the NCAA is supposedly trying to stanch the flow of schoolboy talent to the pros?

Just one of the many Hoop Thoughts to make their way into your intrepid reporter's head and notebook this week. Here are some others from the first week of July Madness ...