Wright State to stand behind embattled coach

[Class of '83]

Updated: March 10, 2006, 6:12 PM ET
Wright State to stand behind embattled coach
By Andy Katz
ESPN.com


Paul Biancardi was yanked off the recruiting road Friday after the NCAA issued a stern penalty against the Wright State coach.

The NCAA infractions committee slapped a recruiting ban on Biancardi until Oct. 1, 2007, which obviously makes recruiting for a mid-to-low major program like Wright State seem impossible.

Still, Wright State is sticking by Biancardi, a former Ohio State assistant coach, and hasn't shown any signs of firing him.

In a statement released by the school, athletic director Mike Cusack said the school will cooperate with the investigation based on the allegations against Biancardi while he was employed at Ohio State. Cusack said, "I support coach Biancardi, who has denied all allegations."

The allegations are pretty severe, with a booster provideing information about payments and academic fraud in the case of former Buckeye Boban Savovic.

Biancardi, in the same release from the school, said the statements that came out of a lawsuit related to the case weren't "supported by facts and are uncorroborated. I look forward to answering the allegations that have been made against me and the charges against the The Ohio State University men's basketball program."

Biancardi's lawyer Jim Zeszutek told ESPN.com that he wasn't sure if Biancardi would appeal the ruling. Either way, Wright State has a few tough decisions.

If Biancardi doesn't appeal then Wright State will have to make a decision on whether to keep him. Remember, he is barred from all recruiting activities, including phone calls and even talking to a recruit on campus. His assistants can still recruit but he can't do a thing. If he appeals and wins then Wright State can keep him; but if he appeals and loses then the school would have to make another decision. It is Biancardi who must appeal, not Wright State, since the violations weren't at Wright State.

Biancardi is 42-44 in three seasons at Wright State. He was 13-15 overall, 8-8 in the Horizon League this season.

Meanwhile, former Ohio State head coach Jim O'Brien was essentially grouped in with other coaches who received multi-year show cause penalties like former Cal coach Todd Bozeman and former Baylor coach Dave Bliss, who were nationally vilified for what were considered major penalties of paying a player and tuition, respectively.

O'Brien, who said he would appeal his five-year show cause, doesn't agree that he should be lumped into a group of coaches who have been issued a Scarlet Letter by the NCAA. The show cause essentially means another school has to go in front of the infractions committee and show how they would monitor the scarred coach if they chose to hire him. O'Brien said he wouldn't put another school through that process.

Still, he's not pleased with being labeled essentially a cheater.

"I think it's excessive," O'Brien said on a conference call Friday. "I don't feel what I did fits what some of the other people did. We've never cheated. We've never paid a nickel for a kid to come to a place we've been. I know what I did [paid $6,000-plus to a recruit that ended up not playing at Ohio State because he turned pro] and why I did it."

O'Brien did win his lawsuit against Ohio State last month to get back money after he was fired in June of 2004 prior to an NCAA investigation. A trial on damages is set for April 12-13 in Columbus.

O'Brien said he was disappointed that other players from his tenure at Ohio State were hurt by the ruling with banners taken down from four NCAA berths, including the 1999 Final Four. But he was quick to say that the ruling Friday shouldn't take away from what has been a banner season for the Buckeyes. He said he would be cheering for them in the Big Ten tournament and NCAAs.

Ohio State gave itself a postseason ban a year ago, another indication that schools continue to benefit from taking their own course of action. The ruling also means the Buckeyes will get its star recruiting class, led by the top player in the class of 2006 in Lawrence North (Ind.) center Greg Oden, for next season, as planned, since there is no more postseason ban. The next decision will be whether or not Biancardi still has a job at Wright State.

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.

sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2363124

[Raider Country]

statmaster said:

Biancardi's lawyer Jim Zeszutek told ESPN.com that he wasn't sure if Biancardi would appeal the ruling. Either way, Wright State has a few tough decisions.

If Biancardi doesn't appeal then Wright State will have to make a decision on whether to keep him. Remember, he is barred from all recruiting activities, including phone calls and even talking to a recruit on campus. His assistants can still recruit but he can't do a thing. If he appeals and wins then Wright State can keep him; but if he appeals and loses then the school would have to make another decision. It is Biancardi who must appeal, not Wright State, since the violations weren't at Wright State.
sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2363124

Does this mean we have to sit and wait for another appeal before we can finally get this mess behind us. Just fire him and move on. I don't think I can stand to wait another 6 months for another ruling.

[Wolf]

statmaster said:

In a statement released by the school, athletic director Mike Cusack said the school will cooperate with the investigation based on the allegations against Biancardi while he was employed at Ohio State. Cusack said, "I support coach Biancardi, who has denied all allegations."

Andy Katz is a lazy hack journalist. That quote was from Cusack last summer when the NCAA mess came to light. This wasn't a recent quote from Cusack like he is making it out to be.

[raider fan]

Who in their right mind would keep a coach that can not talk with a recruit or parent AT ALL!

Can ANYONE imagine ANY parent encouraging or approving of their son playing for a coach they have never spoken with? That would be insane!


Is their really even a "tough" decision to be made? It seems pretty simple to me.

This is a real bummer. I thought PB would take us to the top of the HL.

[GBFanJ]

Buckeyes alive for '06, future -- but mess needs to be cleaned up

Dennis Dodd March 10, 2006
By Dennis Dodd
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
Tell Dennis your opinion!



INDIANAPOLIS -- There was something very close to celebration by Ohio State at Conseco Fieldhouse on Friday afternoon. It had little -- very little -- to do with actual basketball.

The Buckeyes left the building with their school on the hook for what could be more than $10 million in restitution to the NCAA and its former basketball coach.

A year after removing itself from the NCAA Tournament, the school was sweating out a second-consecutive NCAA-imposed ban Friday that could have wrecked a recruiting class and perhaps driven its coach to Indiana.

"A blatant violation," said NCAA infractions committee vice chair Josephine Potuto, summarizing the school's long, arduous extra benefits case involving two international recruits.

"Especially troubling," she added.

Celebration? The NCAA announced an hour before game time at the Big Ten Tournament that Ohio State had escaped major sanctions. After the Bucks' quarterfinal victory over Penn State, a savvy broker could have scalped confetti.

Reality was hidden in a corner. The school that is tied for the fifth-most major infractions in NCAA history -- same as Alabama, one more than Notre Dame -- got Big Haircut No. 4.

Except the NCAA stowed the guillotine this time. Oh, there's plenty of dirt -- a massive 64 pages of it in the infractions report -- but Ohio State got to keep its head.

For those of you Bucknuts who didn't have the time or interest in sifting through it all, let's summarize: Your Big Ten champs are free to go to the NCAA Tournament, possibly as a No. 1 seed, while looking forward to perhaps the best recruiting class since Michigan's Fab Five.

You get to keep second-year coach Thad Matta, who made rumblings about bolting for his dream job at Indiana if the NCAA dropped the hammer.

That's all that really matters, right?

Why, though, does this keep happening to Ohio State? This makes two major basketball cases in 12 years. This latest one features $6,000 paid to a foreign recruit by former coach Jim O'Brien.

But the report also includes the $500 quarterback Troy Smith took from a booster. There's almost $14,000 in free or discounted orthodontic care for five women's basketball players. The obvious conclusion: Ohio State had better teeth than institutional control.

We haven't even mentioned the stain left by tailback/robbery suspect Maurice Clarett.

"This is not a systemic problem," athletic director Gene Smith said.

Yeah, Gene, it kind of is. And we're not blaming you one bit. Having been at the school barely a year, you inherited this mess. But it helped drive your predecessor, Andy Geiger, to retirement.

And there is a pattern. Presidents and ADs change, the mentality doesn't.

All you need is good legal counsel, which Ohio State apparently has. To stay ahead of the NCAA police, Ohio State removed a 20-12 team last year from tournament consideration. Then hoped that was good enough.

Smith put the probability of playing on at more than 90 percent, "but you never can be sure. I was a little concerned about that."

"If they weren't going to let these guys go," Matta said after the Penn State game, "there were going to be 66 teams in the NCAA Tournament this year. We were going to play somebody.

"It would have been a devastating blow."

Devastation is relative when you consider how the school got to this point. O'Brien's name is mud right now on the Columbus campus. He put the school through a hell way beyond the burning fires stoked by Clarett. If O'Brien ever works at the NCAA level again, it will be at least five years from now after he got the dreaded show-cause penalty.

You'll be reading about Paul Biancardi's firing any day now. O'Brien's former assistant, now the coach at Wright State, was dealt a unique penalty Friday. The NCAA said Biancardi can't recruit for the next 19 months after what he did at Ohio State.

How does a school continue to employ a head coach who can't recruit?

Last month, a supposedly sober judge ruled that Ohio State couldn't fire O'Brien for paying the recruit. O'Brien had sued the university for $3.5 million. If a judge with more sense isn't found, the school could be on the hook for a reported $9 million with interest and penalties.

Strike what we said about good legal counsel.

Here's the ultimate irony: Matta is trying to match the accomplishments of one of the most reviled figures in school history.

In the middle of the mess, O'Brien took the Bucks to the 1999 Final Four.

Love the banner, hate the coach? Can't even do that. As part of the penalties, Ohio State must remove the 1999-2002 tournament appearances from a banner in Value City Arena. That, and pay back the NCAA $800,000 earned from those appearances.

"The one thing I've learned through this whole process is how cutthroat some people can be in this business," Matta said.

O'Brien and Biancardi stonewalled. They argued that the NCAA's statute of limitations had run out on the violations. But the misconduct was so heinous that the NCAA revoked the statute, saying it was a "pattern of continuing conduct."

However, the throat cuts both ways. What does it say about a coach who might have been ready to bail -- recruiting class in tow -- if Ohio State got another postseason ban?

Matta sent his recruits letters allowing them out of their letters of intent if that happened.

That is the value of the "Thad Five" that includes local Lawrence North High teammates Greg Oden and Mike Conley.

The preseason perception was that this was a transition year with the monster recruits coming in. The reality was four glossed-over seniors leading the Bucks to an outright conference title.

"Once he signed this mega-class, people kind of overlooked us," said senior Terence Dials, the Big Ten Player of the Year. "We want to go out there and prove a lot of people wrong.

"You have the No. 1 player in the nation coming in (Oden). The class should get its due, but not right now. Wait until the summer before you start talking about the class."

In that way, Ohio State's fans are no different than any other school's. They're always looking ahead, to the horizon for the next big thing, be it Maurice Clarett, Jim O'Brien or a break from the NCAA.

One out of three ain't bad.

[wsu97]

Biancardi, O'Brien take hardest hits
Former OSU coaches penalized while school avoids serious sanctions
By Kyle Nagel
Dayton Daily News
Saturday, March 11, 2006
For months, Ohio State University attempted to distance itself from former men's basketball coach Jim O'Brien and Paul Biancardi, once his assistant, as it went through the process of written responses and hearings regarding allegations of major NCAA rules violations.

That strategy succeeded Friday as OSU was dealt a relatively minor penalty when the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions released its findings and punishments from an investigation that began 21 months ago.

The committee found OSU, O'Brien and Biancardi guilty of seven allegations while painting O'Brien and Biancardi, now the Wright State basketball coach, as deceivers who kept their employers in the dark while knowingly breaking numerous rules.

Among the major violations is that O'Brien — with Biancardi as carrier — provided a cash payment to a recruit, that Biancardi had knowledge and involvement in extra benefits and improper housing for another player and that both acted unethically.

The committee also ruled that OSU failed to monitor its men's basketball program, for which the school will be stripped of NCAA tournament accomplishments from 1999-2002 — including a 1999 Final Four appearance — and forced to give back 90 percent of the money earned from participation in those tournaments. OSU Athletic Director Gene Smith estimated that would cost the school $800,000.

"Of particular concern to the committee was the pattern by both former coaches of failing to provide critical information in a timely fashion to the institution as well as providing such information only when clear that it otherwise would become known," the report says.

Although WSU remained cautiously supportive of Biancardi on Friday, the charming coach was banned from any recruiting until Oct. 1, 2007. Biancardi was OSU's recruiting coordinator for several seasons and is considered skillful at dealing with prospects.

At the Big Ten Conference tournament in Indianapolis, a sense of relief swept over OSU personnel, who expected these penalties but held worries that their self-imposed disciplines — firing O'Brien on June 8, 2004, after he admitted a $6,000 cash payment to 7-foot-3 Serbian Aleksandar Radojevic; holding itself out of the 2005 postseason; and reducing by two its scholarship number for this season — wouldn't be enough to save them from further sanctions.

The Buckeyes do face three years of probation — OSU became the 41st program nationally under NCAA probation, a list that includes Big Ten members Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin — but won't be held out of the NCAA tournament, which was one of the biggest fears.

With a highly regarded recruiting class incoming and a current No. 7 national ranking, the Buckeyes lost some of their past but held on to strong hopes for the future.

"This is exactly what we told the kids would happen," OSU men's basketball coach Thad Matta said. "We knew that kids who were in third grade when this happened probably weren't going to be punished. It would have been a devastating blow if it had gone the other way."

For some, it was a devastating blow. O'Brien's penalty is a five-year "show cause" order, which means if any NCAA school wants to hire him before March 2011, it must appear before the Committee on Infractions to discuss it.

"Needless to say, I'm extremely disappointed by this NCAA decision," O'Brien said from Boston during a teleconference. "Really, in no way does it reflect at all what occurred or how I ran my program. If they think that what I did personally was so bad, well, I got fired. And it seems like the NCAA is intent on keeping me out of it."

One of the most highly contested violations was the payment to Radojevic. O'Brien and Biancardi claimed it didn't violate NCAA rules because they already knew he was ineligible due to professional experience in Europe and the payment fell outside the four-year statute of limitations on punishment.

They had received support from David Swank, a former chair of the Committee on Infractions.

"The easy answer is the committee felt the former chair is wrong — dead wrong — on the application of the statute of limitations," said committee vice chair Josephine Potuto, who is a professor of law and faculty athletics representative at the University of Nebraska.

Potuto said the pattern of violations and their blatant nature forced the committee to consider them outside the statute of limitations.

"In this case, the violations went well beyond making phone calls, the typical kinds of recruiting violations," she said.

Contact Kyle Nagel at [phone].

www.daytondailynews.com/shared/content/shared/oh/sports/obrien/stories/0311ncaa.html

[wsu97]

Biancardi, O'Brien take hardest hits
WSU stands by its coach, for now
By Kyle Nagel
Dayton Daily News
Saturday, March 11, 2006
When word first came, Paul Biancardi was on the road recruiting.

That trip might be his last visit with a prospect for some time.

Biancardi, the Wright State University men's basketball coach, was slapped with a ban on any contact with recruits until Oct. 1, 2007, by the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions in its announcement of nine major violations by the Ohio State University athletics program on Friday.

It ruled that, among other things, former OSU basketball coach Jim O'Brien and Biancardi, a former Buckeyes assistant, broke rules while providing a cash payment to a recruit. The NCAA also ruled that Biancardi had knowledge and involvement in extra benefits and an improper living arrangement for an OSU player, and that both coaches violated ethics rules.

As part of its punishment, OSU will give up any records and monies from its NCAA tournament appearances during the 1999-2002 seasons. That includes erasing the 1999 Final Four appearance and giving back about $800,000, OSU Athletic Director Gene Smith said.

Also on Friday:

• WSU Athletic Director Mike Cusack said the school will retain its third-year coach, pending a possible appeal.

• O'Brien, whose penalty likely will keep him from taking another NCAA job until 2011, said he was disappointed by the decision and will appeal.

• Players for the OSU men's basketball team cheered in the locker room before their Big Ten tournament game when coach Thad Matta informed them there would be no postseason ban. They then defeated Penn State, 63-56.

www.daytondailynews.com/shared/content/shared/oh/sports/obrien/stories/0311osua1.html

[wsu97]

The violations, the penalties
By Cox News Service
Saturday, March 11, 2006
THE VIOLATIONS

Friday, the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions issued its ruling of nine major violations committed by the Ohio State University men's and women's basketball and football programs.

The most serious violations occurred under former men's basketball coach Jim O'Brien and Wright State University men's basketball coach Paul Biancardi, who, at the time, was an OSU assistant. They include:

• O'Brien, through Biancardi, provided between $6,000 and $6,700 to former OSU recruit Aleksandar Radojevic.

• Kathleen Salyers, whom the committee labeled a booster, gave recruiting inducements to two players, some with the knowledge and involvement of Biancardi.

• Salyers gave improper academic help to ex-Buckeye Slobodan "Boban" Savovic, including writing some of his papers.

• O'Brien gave Salyers two men's basketball season-ticket packages each season from 1998-99 to 2001-02, the span of Savovic's career.

• O'Brien "acted contrary to the principles of ethical conduct" of the NCAA.

• Biancardi "acted contrary to the principles of ethical conduct" of the NCAA.

• OSU and O'Brien failed to sufficiently monitor the men's basketball program in allowing the violations involving Savovic — in particular his improper living arrangement with Salyers — to occur.


THE PENALTIES

The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions' ruling Friday contains 15 entries under the "Penalties" sections. They include:

• Three years of probation for OSU, during which it must file an annual report detailing its efforts on rules compliance.

• Paul Biancardi faces a total ban on recruiting until Oct. 1, 2007.

• Jim O'Brien faces a five-year "show cause" penalty. If a school hires him, it must appear before the Committee on Infractions to explain how it will operate and ensure his rules compliance.

• Three paid visits by basketball recruits during the next academic year instead of four.

• OSU must pay back 90 percent of the money it earned for participation in the NCAA tournament from 1999-2002. Athletic Director Gene Smith estimated that would cost the school $800,000.

• Ohio State must erase records and accomplishments from those same NCAA tournaments, including a trip to the 1999 Final Four.

www.daytondailynews.com/shared/content/shared/oh/sports/obrien/stories/0311violations.html

[wsu97]

OSU timeline
By Cox News Service
Saturday, March 11, 2006
April 7, 1997 — Ohio State hires Jim O'Brien as men's basketball coach to replace Randy Ayers. Paul Biancardi, who was an assistant coach under O'Brien at Boston College, joins him in Columbus.

May 3, 1998 — Slobodan "Boban" Savovic begins his official visit to OSU. Later, a litany of accusations arose involving Savovic and Biancardi, including improper financial and academic help. Savovic played four years at Ohio State, from 1998-2002.

Nov. 11, 1998 — Aleksandar Radojevic signs his National Letter of Intent to play at Ohio State. The 7-foot-3 Serbian was later ruled ineligible and never played for the Buckeyes.

April 1, 2003 — Wright State hires Biancardi as its head men's basketball coach.

Aug. 6, 2003 — Kathleen Salyers, a Columbus nanny and housekeeper, files a lawsuit against two Ohio State boosters claiming they reneged on a deal to pay her $1,000 a month plus expenses to house and care for Savovic during his OSU career. Most allegations against OSU, O'Brien and Biancardi come out of depositions for that lawsuit, which was settled late last year.

April 24, 2004 — O'Brien tells then-OSU Athletic Director Andy Geiger that he gave Radojevic a cash payment as a loan to help his family.

June 8, 2004 — Ohio State fires O'Brien, and the NCAA begins its investigation of OSU, O'Brien and Biancardi.

July 7, 2004 — OSU hires Thad Matta of Xavier as its 13th head coach.

Nov. 10, 2004 — O'Brien sues Ohio State for millions of dollars, claiming the firing violated his contract. OSU denies the claim.

Dec. 9, 2004 — Ohio State announces it will not play in the postseason NCAA or National Invitation tournaments as a self-imposed sanction. O'Brien calls the step unnecessary.

May 16, 2005 — Ohio State releases the NCAA's Notice of Allegations against the school, which includes seven charges against the men's basketball program, including the improper cash payment, ethics violations by Biancardi and O'Brien and that Biancardi had "knowledge and involvement" in thousands of dollars in extra benefits and academic help for Savovic.

Aug. 24, 2005 — New Athletic Director Gene Smith bans Salyers and other boosters from further involvement with the school.

Aug. 25, 2005 — In its response to the NCAA's allegations, OSU agrees with most of the charges and attempts to paint itself as an innocent bystander deceived by its basketball coaches. In his own response, Biancardi says Salyers is not a credible source.

Dec. 9, 2005 — OSU, O'Brien and Biancardi appear at a hearing before the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions. It is adjourned early and rescheduled.

Feb. 3-4, 2006 — The hearing takes place in Chicago.

Feb. 15, 2006 — An Ohio Court of Claims judge rules that O'Brien was improperly terminated without pay — but says he did violate his contract by giving money to Radojevic.

Friday — The committee issues its report, ruling that O'Brien and Biancardi committed numerous violations and OSU failed to properly monitor its men's basketball program.

www.daytondailynews.com/shared/content/shared/oh/sports/obrien/stories/0311osutimeline.html

[Big D]

WSU is just waiting for Coach B to decide to appeal the NCAA decision or not. If we fire him now before he has a chance to appeal, he might have a valid lawsuit against WSU (like the one O'Brien just won against OSU) for breach of contract. WSU is still in a crappy position. We can't fire him too fast because of a potential lawsuit, but the longer we wait, it will be harder to find a new coach for next season or find any decent recruits for next year. If Coach B has any honor he would just step down as head coach. He knows he can't beat the NCAA and all he is going to do is prolong the inevitable and hurt WSU even more than he already has.

The smartest thing for both him and WSU to do is have him agree to step down and WSU to give him some small buyout to his contract. I don't think we should give him much, but it would be worth it to be able to move forward without worrying about a lawsuit.

[raider fan]

Nice post Big D. I hope PB doesn't cause WSU anymore harm and does the honest thing and steps down. We are already going to be in a hole after he is let go ( yes, I'm assuming Cusak actually does the logical thing ) and the new coach will be scrambling to hit the recruiting trail.

The longer the process of firing & hiring drags on the more harm to the program.

[Tom Archdeacon]

www.daytondailynews.com/shared/content/shared/oh/sports/obrien/stories/0311arch2.html

Tom Archdeacon: Biancardi can't talk his way out
By Tom Archdeacon
Dayton Daily News
Saturday, March 11, 2006

It seemed inconceivable that by mid-afternoon Friday — a day that put his future at Wright State in extreme jeopardy — basketball coach Paul Biancardi still had not talked to his bosses at the school.

"We haven't talked to Paul," athletics director Mike Cusack said as he sat next to Dan Abrahamowicz, WSU's vice president of student affairs, at a hastily called press conference. "I understand he's out of town recruiting somewhere, but I haven't heard a word."

It was already four hours since the NCAA had dropped the hammer on former Ohio State head coach Jim O'Brien and Biancardi — who had been O'Brien's top assistant — for what it decided were major violations involving recruiting, extra benefits for athletes, academic fraud and ethical conduct while the pair was at OSU.

Biancardi — who the NCAA said admitted delivering money from O'Brien to an intermediary for an OSU prospect and was caught in discrepancies on tape — was banned from all facets of recruiting for the next 19 months. That means no visiting schools or players' homes, bringing prospects to the WSU campus, talking to them or their coaches by phone — anything until October 2007.

That's not only an untenable situation for doing his job, it could be a public relations nightmare for the school. And yet that's not why I think Biancardi — unless he should successfully appeal, which is unlikely since the NCAA handles that, too — will end up losing his job.

Although the coach finally did contact Cusack late Friday afternoon, his tardiness didn't matter as much as a conversation he did have two years ago. That's the one I think will do him in at Wright State.

Biancardi's contract states that he can be terminated if he committed NCAA violations. Cusack said he asked the coach about his culpability in the OSU matter and was told there was no problem.

"I forget his exact words but essentially he told me he wasn't involved," Cusack said Friday. "I said I'd take the same approach I'd take with my own children if they were accused of something and I asked, 'Did you do it or did you not do it?' I'd believe them until I was proved wrong. I did the same with (Paul)."

Abrahamowicz shook his head and said in a half-whisper: "He's insisted all along he committed no violations."

And violations are a sticking point with WSU, which prides itself, Cusack said, in never having faced such NCAA scrutiny: "It's the worst thing I think can happen to any program or institution — to break the rules and be cheating in any fashion."

Time and again, Cusack — who insisted he and the school will wait until the appeals process plays out — brought up integrity. And Abrahamowicz — who has said the school would not have an NCAA rules violator on staff — took it farther: "One of the prides of this program is that we follow the rules. Mike's values are such that he will not tolerate violations of NCAA regulations."

Although Biancardi's lawyer, Jim Zeszutek, advised his client not to speak to the press, he spoke for the coach: "Paul is very frustrated, very disappointed. We feel the committee failed to consider evidence that would have exonerated him."

In the meantime, Zeszutek said he told Biancardi to abandon the recruiting trip and return home:

"I told him, 'You don't want to give them anything more. It's better to be safe, than sorry.' "

Good advice.

Too bad it didn't come two years ago.

[Kyle Nagel]

www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/sports/entries/2006/03/10/how_was_wright.html#jump

How was Wright State to know?
By Kyle Nagel | Friday, March 10, 2006, 09:39 PM

In some ways, you have to feel sorry for Wright State.

Three years ago, when athletics director Mike Cusack started looking for a new basketball coach, there were few people in the business more respected than Jim O’Brien.

So, it seemed pretty clear that O’Brien’s No. 1 assistant — Paul Biancardi — would have the same high values and moral character.

Or so we thought.

Today, the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions slammed Ohio State, O’Brien and Biancardi when it, in effect, found them guilty on seven alleged violations committed while O’Brien was Ohio State’s head basketball coach and Biancardi was his assistant.

Biancardi is now the head coach at Wright State. The committee determined that he broke rules by handling money meant for a recruit and knowing (and, in some ways, helping) another player getting cash, free housing and meals, papers written for him and other benefits.

Throughout the process, since Ohio State fired O’Brien on June 8, 2004, Wright State and Cusack have taken a wait-and-see approach. And now, what they’re seeing doesn’t look so good.

No one could have known when Biancardi was hired that these allegations would be made and he would be under a cloud of suspicion for the better part of two years. His references were impeccable. Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney apparently even said he would hire Biancardi.

O’Brien was so far above suspicion that he might as well have been the poster boy for rules compliance.

Biancardi looked like the golden boy.

He can still appeal, and maybe another arm of the NCAA will find that he didn’t do these things.

But, if that doesn’t work, Wright State will likely be looking for another new basketball coach.

No one could’ve seen this coming.

[Dayton Daily News]

www.daytondailynews.com/sports/content/sports/wsu/daily/0312wsubb.html

Ruling hasn't made WSU recruits reconsider
NCAA decision pulls Biancardi off road, pending appeal
By Marc Katz

Dayton Daily News

DAYTON | The coaches of two Wright State recruits said Friday's NCAA ruling against WSU basketball coach Paul Biancardi likely won't preclude their players' commitment to the school.

"He really liked Wright State," Canton McKinley coach Dave Hoover said of 6-foot-5 Todd Brown, a senior who signed early last fall. "He liked Paul Biancardi, he liked the staff and he liked the facilities. When I talked to him, he talked more about the facilities and the school.

"I don't think he made the decision to go there because of the coach."

Canton McKinley had a game Saturday night in the Division I tournament it won last season.

At Ludlow, Ky., Cory Highfield said his player, 6-foot-9 Dan Penick, was "not comfortable" at this time talking to media, but that his decision to attend Wright State "hasn't changed." Penick recently gave an oral commitment and is expected to sign next month.

On Friday, the NCAA's Committee on Infractions issued its report from a Feb. 3-4 hearing. The hearing was held concerning nine recruiting and benefits allegations — most of them dealing with basketball — at Ohio State when Jim O'Brien was head coach and Biancardi was his top assistant.

Concluding Ohio State and the coaches involved did commit violations, the report penalized the school mostly with already served penalties and said O'Brien (fired by OSU in June 2004) should not be employed by an NCAA institution for five years. Biancardi was told he would not be able to recruit until Oct. 1, 2007.

The coaches have 15 days from the release of the report to file appeals with the NCAA. O'Brien has indicated he would appeal, while a call to Biancardi's attorney was not immediately returned.

Biancardi was hired by WSU well before any allegations became public. His contract stipulates he can be fired for breaking NCAA regulations, but he has not been found to have broken any while at WSU. He has two years remaining on an original five-year contract.

Biancardi was recruiting in Pennsylvania when the ruling was announced and advised by his attorney to return home. Biancardi apparently was informed of the ruling by the NCAA, which informed Ohio State but not WSU.

"To the NCAA world, Ohio State is in jeopardy and two individuals are in jeopardy, and not one individual who happens to have an effect on Wright State," said WSU Athletic Director Mike Cusack, who had asked the Horizon League office to ask the NCAA for Friday's report.

The NCAA admitted to not giving WSU advance notice.

"The Committee on Infractions staff concedes that, due to the unusual circumstances of this case, an institutional employee aside from the head coach was not contacted when those parties being investigated were contacted," an e-mail from the NCAA said. "It was an oversight that will not be repeated should similar circumstances arise in the future."

Contact Marc Katz at 225-2157.

[observer]

Kyle said:

www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/sports/entries/2006/03/10/how_was_wright.html#jump

How was Wright State to know?
By Kyle Nagel | Friday, March 10, 2006, 09:39 PM

In some ways, you have to feel sorry for Wright State.

condescending