Crawford situation still up in the air

With his point guard position in a state of turmoil following an exhibition game against Findlay on Friday that featured 28 turnovers, 10 of which coming from the backcourt, Xavier head coach Sean Miller was hoping for some good news this week in regard to sophomore transfer guard Jordan Crawford.
What Miller has received, however, has not exactly been to his liking: I whole lot of silence.
Miller, along with the Xavier program, is still awaiting word from the NCAA with regards to Crawford’s eligibility.
“We are hopeful that sometime in the next couple of weeks that we can find out either way because I am more concerned about Jordan Crawford than I am about Xavier. If you were him, you would probably want to know if you could play this season,” Miller said on Thursday.
Crawford, a 6’4” guard out of Detroit who spent the past season at Indiana University, decided to transfer to Xavier in August amid the threat of NCAA sanctions being levied against the Hoosier basketball program as a result of recruiting violations by former coach Kelvin Sampson.
Indiana self-imposed a sanction against themselves in October of 2007, forfeiting one scholarship following allegations from the NCAA that Indiana assistant coaches conducted impermissible phone calls to recruits (including current Xavier freshman Kenny Frease) and handed out improper benefits to recruits.
The situation worsened in February of 2008 when the NCAA revealed that Sampson himself had been involved in the violations, and had attempted to deceive the NCAA when questioned about the incident.
Indiana did not take any further action, however, arguing that the monetary loss of having to buy out Sampson’s contract in February, coupled with the hit to the men’s basketball program’s academic progress rate – a score determined by the NCAA to gauge each program’s academic proficiency, and determine if that program should receive any merit or penalty – that the exodus of players from the IU basketball program has caused (the school is withholding two scholarships in 2008-09 in anticipation of APR violations) will be enough penalty for the program.
The Indiana program only retains two players from a season ago and saw six players – Crawford (Xavier), Brandon McGee (Auburn), Armon Bassett (UAB), Eli Holman (Detroit), DeAndre Thomas (Robert Morris) and Jamarcus Ellis (Oklahoma City) – transfer as a result of the allegations.
Each of the four eligibility cases – Thomas and Ellis did not transfer to division one schools, so they receive immediate eligibility – have been filed separately, and Crawford is believed to have the strongest case of the four as a result of his late exit from the program in August, and the bleak outlook of the program at the time of his transfer, that arguably necessitated the transfer.
“Jordan Crawford is that he is very unique in his situation. Anyone who left Indiana University is separate from the next one. We have taken Jordan and his family’s word along with a lot of different facts that allow us to appeal,” Miller said before the season. “We are confident in our appeal.”
The final verdict on Crawford eligibility, however, will likely be closely tied to the severity of the sanctions that the NCAA imposes on the Indiana basketball program.
If IU is barred from NCAA play for three years then Crawford would receive immediate eligibility under the rules stating that a student-athlete will not have to sit out a season if his former school is suspended from postseason play for the duration of his academic career, three years in Crawford’s case.
The ambiguity in the case comes in if the NCAA levies a softer sanction, such as the expected one year ban on postseason play. In such an instance, it becomes a judgment call by NCAA President Myles Brand and his staff based on Crawford’s individual situation.
In Crawford Xavier would gain a player with the ability to play either guard position, help out on the glass, score off of the dribble adeptly and, perhaps most importantly, run an offense. Crawford averaged 9.7 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists as a freshman at Indiana, starting alongside NBA talents Eric Gordon and D.J. White.
Miller has been seeing some of those skills in practice, yet has tried to reign in his talented sophomore as a result of the uncertainty surrounding the situation.
“It’s tricky because on one hand Jordan and our team deserves to think about him being a part of things. On the other hand, Jordan and our team deserves to prepare as if he is not a part of things,” Miller said. “He competes everyday in the parts of practice that have nothing to do with the plays that you are running or [game planning]. He competes like any transfer student would, knowing that he can’t play.”
As it currently stands Crawford is not eligible for the 2008-09 season, and will be forced to watch the first few games of the season from the sidelines, including being left behind on Xavier’s trip to Puerto Rico for the Puerto Rico Season Tip-off.