Tom Yeager got the OK for Johnny Napp to return to the court, but he wants to
make sure James Madison's students stay off it.
Yeager, the Colonial Athletic Association commissioner, said Friday that NCAA
President Myles Brand has agreed to let JMU's John Naparlo play basketball while
also pursuing his country music career - although it appears unlikely now that
the senior guard will opt to rejoin the team.
"He's just to far down the path," Dukes coach Keener said. "Not
only with his career, but we're two months into practice and conditioning and
the system and all."
Yeager also said Friday that the Colonial has made it clear to JMU and Keener that a repeat of "Student Body Left," will not be tolerated if students continue to run on the court. "We're just going to make sure that it's not going to happen again," Yeager said Friday by phone. "Obviously, everyone recognizes that. Everyone at JMU recognizes that. It can't happen again."
With time running out in the Dukes' game at the Convocation Center against Northeaster on Dec. 3rd, Keener took a timeout and urged fans in the student section to run from the bleachers underneath the basket where JMU was shooting to the opposite side to distract Northeastern's free-throw shooters. When JMU fouled Northeastern with 11 seconds to go, about 150 students spilled out onto the edge of the court and ran to the other bleachers, where they waved their arms and yelled at Huskies' foul shooters. Keener dubbed it "student body left."
Yeager said he didn't have a problem with Keener's ploy - just with the students stepping onto the court. "It just caught everybody by surprise," Yeager said Friday. "I don't think Dean thought they were going to take off over the court. I think everyone recognizes you can't be running on the court. …It was something that surprised everbody. I'm sure it surprised the ushers. We just can't have it happen again."
Keener said he received a call Monday from Ron Bertovich, the CAA's deputy commissioner for basketball.
"He just wanted to know exactly what had happened," said Keener,
who said he was not given any type of reprimand or even told not to do it again.
"I think he had called other people, Northeastern's coach and the officials.
I think he was just on a fact-finding mission at that point. I told him we were
trying to create some kind of environment knowing we would have to foul."
JMU athletic director Jeff Bourne said Friday he has had no contact with with
CAA over the incident.
Keener said he does not plan to run "student body left" again, partially
because he doesn't want students on the court, but also because he hopes the
bleachers under the west basket, where visiting teams shoot in the second half,
will be filled by half-time from now on.
"At this point, you'd think our loyal students, knowing that they need
to try to distract the other team, would fill up the stands on that side of
the court," Keener said.
Keener said he contacted Northeastern coach Ron Everhart, who said he felt his team was unsafe during the incident, to explain himself.
"He called me back [Friday] and we chatted about it," Keener said. "We've been friends for 20 years. I called and left a voice-mail and said, 'Ron, the only reason was to try and create some kind of environment. If you need me for any reason, call, but I hope there's no hard feelings.' He called me back and said, 'You didn't have to call. The only reason I'm calling back is to say, 'Thanks, that's appreciated.' But I never thought anything about it.'" On the other matter, the NCAA in September told Naparlo, whose stage name as a country music singer is Johnny Napp, that he had to remove his image from his album cover, his Web site and other promotional material and cease his recording and concerts during the season in order to maintain his amateurism and eligibility. He declined to do so and was declared ineligible.
Yeager, a former NCAA employee and still a member of its infractions committee, heard about Naparlo's situation and decided for fight for him, speaking to Brand and other NCAA officials. "We looked at the situation again, we determined that there were overly restrictive conditions that would not apply," Yeager said.
Yeager said he found out around Thanksgiving that Naparlo was eligible again,
and Keener said he learned about the decision in an e-mail by the NCAA forwarded
to him from Bourne late last week.
It wasn't a 100% victory for Naparlo, however. He still needed to meet some
stipulations. Among them: not to perform any concerts during the season and
to modify his Web site. He did not have to stop selling his CD's or remove his
face from the album cover, however.
"Both [Naparlo] and I and others were just very appreciative that Tom Yeager
would stick up for a student-athlete in the CAA," Keener said. "I
found that very nice on his part. That was not something anybody here asked
him to do. It was totally unsolicited."
But with the Dukes having gone through all of the preseason and now five games
without him, Naparlo decided against coming back, Keener said.
"There was some disappointment that this ruling didn't come earlier,"
Keener said. "The sense I got is that he's very comfortable with where
he's at and what he's doing. …Basically, he was saying 'Coach, so much
time has passed.'"
Neither Naparlo nor NCAA officials could be reached for comment Friday.