UCLA loses incoming freshman for 11 games

[Russ Smith]

Nikola Dragovic, sharpshooting 6'8" freshman forward will serve an 11 game NCAA imposed suspension to start there year. Dragovic played on a team in Europe that it turns out had several players being paid. While the NCAA concedes that Dragovic was NOT one of the players being paid, they're still suspending him for the first 11 games. UCLA faces no penalties over this apparently they self reported it when they found out.

The rumor is this is why Dragovic was added to the roster late and forced to go to summerschool before being officially added to the team, UCLA wanted to be sure he wasn't going to just bolt if the NCAA declared he had to sit out games because of this. They figured if he was willing to do the extra schoolwork to prove himself, he'd be willing to sit out games if the NCAA said he had to.

 

[Russ Smith]

Actually first 10 games not 11, I wondered why 11 didn't seem to make sense.

His dad is apparently ticked off said they went out of their way to maintain his amateur status and he's really mad that players on the team were being paid without their knowledge. I have to say I'm skeptical that he didn't know, he probably just didn't realize that it was a violation even if HE wasn't getting paid himself.