Three hundred Division I men's basketball coaches, including UW-Madison Head Coach Bo Ryan, initiated a plan to improve college basketball's moral and ethical image Wednesday.
The coaches, along with the National Association of Basketball Coaches and the NCAA, agreed to customize a code of ethics for their specific programs and accept full responsibility for the game's integrity.
\We are raising the standard and starting the season over in which coaches will come together and collectively move forward in raising the standard of morals and ethics in this profession,"" NABC spokesperson Dan Pierce said.
Kelvin Sampson, NABC president and head coach at the University of Oklahoma, said the summit was a forum to motivate basketball coaches to continue improving the game's integrity.
Coaches, along with the NCAA and NABC, agreed to take a sample code of ethics back to their universities and develop their own specific codes of ethics. The coaches will submit these signed, customized codes to the NABC in three months.
The NABC also agreed to work with the NCAA to create a ""lack of coach control"" violation that would penalize coaches who fail to adhere to their customized ethics codes.
""We have found that some coaches are negligent of some of the rules,"" Pierce said. ""Now, these coaches will be reprimanded by the NABC by suspension of member rights or Final Four tickets.""
The NABC also announced its plans to create a five-session professional development program for Division I assistant coaches. The program, which will be timed around the Final Four, will focus on diversity, recruitment and ethical standards. A panel of university presidents and athletic directors will also tell the assistants what characteristics they look for when hiring a head basketball coach.
""I think we've decided we need to be more pro-active,"" Pierce said. ""Ninety-eight percent of [college basketball] programs don't have these issues. We just need to enhance the positive things that coaches are doing.""
Steve Malchow, Assistant Athletic Director at UW-Madison, said he feels the summit was a very positive experience for Ryan and other Division I coaches.
""[The coaches] weren't thrilled to meet because of some of the things that have been going on,"" Pierce said, referring to recent incidents of academic fraud and crime at Iowa State University and Baylor University, ""but they were tired of getting scrutinized by the media. Not every coach is a bad guy.""
The NABC, NCAA and Division I head coaches will have a follow-up meeting in June 2004 to assess the effectiveness of the new policies.
