CBS Sports.com, citing an unidentified source, reported Wednesday that the school has received a letter of preliminary inquiry from the NCAA.
The Post-Standard newspaper of Syracuse, N.Y., reported NCAA investigators have been conducting interviews with school employees and former employees. The report said the investigation includes the handling of former player Fab Melo’s academic eligibility.
In 2012, the star center was declared ineligible for the NCAA tournament days before it started.
“Same story they had last year at this time,” coach Jim Boeheim said in San Jose, Calif., before the Orange played Montana in its opening game of the NCAA tournament. “I guess that’s annual. I guess next year we’ll get it again.”
Boeheim would not answer any specific questions about the report but said he wasn’t bothered by the timing of it on the eve of the tournament.
The school also acknowledged last year that the college sports governing body had inquired into old allegations that players were allowed to practice and play despite being in violation of the school’s drug policy.
RULES CHANGE STOPPED
The NCAA’s plan to update the recruiting process has hit another snag.
Three more rules that were passed by the board of directors in January will get a second look from the board in May after at least 75 schools, the minimum needed, signed a petition to override the legislation before Wednesday’s deadline.
That means the legislation intended to eliminate rules about how coaches communicate with recruits and how often they can contact recruits outside the traditional non-contact periods has been put on hold.
The board has three options: Stick with the legislation it originally passed and submit it for an online vote of Division I members, rescind the legislation or modify it and subject it to another 60-day override effort.
OBAMA PICKS INDIANA
President Barack Obama is picking Indiana to go all the way in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
ESPN said Obama picked the Hoosiers to win the title in his 2013 bracket. He predicted Louisville, Ohio State and Florida will reach the Final Four.
FRIENDS FACE OFF
Akron coach Keith Dambrot says he loves VCU’s Shaka Smart like a brother. He still wants to beat his former assistant.
Dambrot thinks an upset is possible if the 12th-seeded Zips can slow down the fifth-seeded Rams today.
The Rams have their highest seeding since being a No. 2 in 1985. Back then, Smart was 7 and Dambrot was a 26-year-old coach at Tiffin University.
FAST BREAKS
Chattanooga has fired men’s basketball coach John Shulman after nine seasons. His last winning season was 2009, when he last led the Mocs to the NCAA tournament. … According to cbsports.com college basketball expert Jeff Goodman, the Wolverines have more future NBA players than anyone else in the Big Dance. Goodman ranked Michigan just ahead of N.C. State, UNLV, Indiana and Kansas. … The number of claims that can be verified for investors defrauded by the Texas financial adviser who committed suicide while under investigation in 2011 has reached nearly $31 million. A filing in the lawsuit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission against David Salinas says the court-appointed receiver can verify 175 claims and $30.6 million lost in the alleged Ponzi scheme that included several high-profile college basketball coaches among its victims.
