ESPN Men's Basketball

Updated: July 7, 2005, 10:33 AM ET

NABC also wants more respect for commitments

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By Andy Katz
ESPN.com
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The ethics of preseason scheduling and tape exchange were two issues high on the agenda for college coaches who attended an National Association of Basketball Coaches meeting Wednesday in Indianapolis.

Speaking to ESPN.com prior to the meeting, NABC associate director Reggie Minton said he has been receiving more complaints from coaches about scheduling than recruiting.

He said he wants to propose an honor commitment that if a coach takes over a job, he has to respect an existing contract for a game.

One such case this season involves Ohio and Western Carolina. Western Carolina hired as its new head coach NC State assistant Larry Hunter, a former Ohio head coach. Once Hunter saw Western Carolina was playing at Ohio next season, he wanted to get out of the game. Ohio has tried to take legal action to make Western Carolina honor the contract because the Bobcats are having trouble finding a replacement.

"We're getting a lot of cases where someone is saying, 'I'm not going to play these guys, because they're too good,'" Minton said of quick scheduling changes. "We want to put it down that you have to honor commitments. If you commit to play a team then you should play [the game]."

Minton said the only exceptions should be when a coach gets a chance to play in an event like the Preseason NIT and has to move a game.

"The two head coaches should then work it out," Minton said.

The other issue facing the ethics committee is tape exchange. Minton said too many coaches are making side deals not to exchange tapes with other teams for nonconference games. He said he would like to see the NABC adopt a policy that states teams have to exchange tapes for nonleague games.

Minton gave an example where a team could play in the four-game Guardians Classic, giving its next opponent four tapes to watch. If that next opponent hasn't played a game yet, it wouldn't have a tape to offer in return. So Minton proposed teams that haven't played yet offer up exhibition or scrimmage tapes to make sure it's a fair swap.

Minton would also like to see coaches back off when a high school player makes a commitment. But he said the definition of the commitment has to be clear.

"Who is making the commitment? The kid, the AAU coach, the high school coach, does he make it public? These are all things we have to decide on before we proceed," Minton said. "But we should honor the commitments once they are made."

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.