Colorado State plans to finish season with 7 players

As difficult as it might be, the CSU men’s basketball team will try to finish out its season with just seven players.

Five on the floor and two on the bench.

Athletic director Joe Parker told the Coloradoan on Wednesday that he’s not aware of any plans to bring in additional players, either athletes from other sports or campus walk-ons, to add depth come Jan. 17, when three current players become academically ineligible.

“It obviously presents some challenges,” Parker said. “We’re fortunate that there are only five players allowed on the court at any one time, so we still have two that get a chance to be on the bench. … It’s going to put some strain on the team to be able to finish the conference schedule, but we have seven eligible players and that’s what we’re going to focus on.”

Colorado State University acknowledged Tuesday night that juniors Che Bob, Davocio Butler and Kimani Jackson have been ruled ineligible for the spring semester for failing to meet the NCAA’s minimum grade-point average for their fall classes. The minimum GPA is 1.9 on a 4.0-scale for athletes beginning their third year of school, as all three were this past fall.

Three CSU men's basketball players ruled ineligible

Bob, Butler and Jackson were with the Rams (9-6, 1-1 Mountain West) for a game Wednesday night at San Jose State (7-6, 0-1) and will also be eligible for home games Saturday against Air Force and Jan. 14 vs. New Mexico. With them, CSU has 10 players available. Five others are on the 15-man roster but sitting out this season under NCAA rules as transfers from other Division I programs.

The Rams will have 13 regular-season games and the conference tournament remaining when Bob, Butler and Jackson become ineligible Jan. 17, the first day of classes for the spring semester.

The CSU women’s basketball program was in a similar situation in 2006-07 after four athletes were suspended for their involvement in planting an explosive device outside a teammate’s off-campus apartment. They brought in two volleyball players to provide added depth.

A number of men’s basketball programs have added football players to their rosters to get through similar stretches. Those athletes have already been cleared by the NCAA to participate in college athletics.

CSU football coach Mike Bobo was not available Wednesday for comment about whether he would make any of his players available to the men’s basketball program.

Adding students who have not previously participated in college athletics requires extensive scrutiny of their high school and college transcripts by the school’s compliance office and the NCAA Clearinghouse to determine their athletic eligibility. That makes it a less-attractive option and an unlikely short-term fix.

The Rams, Parker noted, still have 15 players available for practices. The ineligible players won’t be allowed to participate in games or travel with the team.

Jackson, a 6-foot-8 forward, is in his second year with the Rams after spending his freshman year playing for New Mexico Junior College. Bob, a 6-6 forward, and Butler, a 6-5 guard, transferred to CSU over the summer from JUCO programs in Texas — Bob from South Plains and Butler from Hill.

Athletic scholarships are awarded for an academic year, not by semester, so even if the Rams wanted to replace the ineligible players with other scholarship athletes, they wouldn’t be able to do so until the end of the spring semester.

Eustachy made it clear in a statement released Tuesday night that he intends to keep all three on scholarship and expects them to play for the Rams next season as seniors.

“We will continue to support these young men and provide access to the resources needed to excel in the classroom and graduate,” Eustachy said. “… We look forward (to) all three getting on track in their academic pursuits towards graduation and joining us on the court next season.”

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Parker said he had Christine Susemihl, a senior associate AD at CSU, look at what impact the three ineligible players would have on the basketball program’s Academic Progress Rate. The one-year score will take a hit, he said, but the four-year score that the NCAA uses to assess APR penalties has enough other “data points” to offset it.

Parker said the ineligibility of the three players has been known since Dec. 20, when grades for fall classes came out. All three have continued to play and are likely to continue doing so for the next three games, as permitted by NCAA rules.

“I don’t know what Larry’s choices will be through tonight’s game and the next two as it relates to playing time or how they will be utilized,” Parker said. “I thought a lot about this. There are seven players on our team that are eligible, and you think about providing them the greatest experience possible and the greatest advantage to continue to win games up until the point where those other three players can’t be utilized and play.

“At this moment, I feel comfortable with where we’re at. We’ve done a lot of assessment and evaluation of the situation, and I feel like we’re right where we need to be.”

Follow reporter Kelly Lyell at twitter.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news

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