Baylor signee also reacts to sanctions handed down to Bears by NCAA

By DAVID FOLSE II

Sports Editor

RESERVE — Let’s just say that it has been a very interesting last couple of weeks for one of the best high school basketball players in America.

Reserve Christian’s Demond “Tweetie” Carter recently returned from Virginia where he took part in the prestigious NBA camp that featured some of the best high school basketball players in America. He also got to go head-to-head with some of the former stars of the NBA.

Carter also received the news that the school he has planned to play following his senior season, the Baylor Bears, was severely hit with NCAA sanctions surrounding the death of a former player and numerous NCAA violations.

The senior guard said he enjoyed his time at the NBA camp.

“This camp was kind of a proving ground to see who could be the tougher basketball player,” Carter said. “We would wake up at 7 a.m. and not get to go back to the hotel until 10-10:15 that night. We would be there all day. You would do hard drills; get your workout in and then you would play.

“The camp in itself was mostly drills and seeing what you were made out of and how well in shape you were and if you could endure it.”

With the new NBA collective bargaining agreement imposing a 19-year old or one year removed from high school age limit, Carter said the camp was not a place to impress the scouts.

“They were not scouting us for the next level,” Carter said. “The camp was just players that had played in the NBA teaching you what they know. They try to tell you what the NBA is like, how the NBA is and what happens in the league. In addition to the on the court stuff, we had classes also. They would tell you what is going on.”

Meanwhile, Carter returned home to Reserve to discover that his future collegiate team was hit with several NCAA sanctions

These sanctions include:

1. The institution will be publicly reprimanded and censured.

2. The university will remain on probation from June 23, 2005, through June 22, 2010. Baylor had self-imposed a three-year probation.

3. During either the 2005-06 or 2006-07 academic years, Baylor must limit its basketball schedule to regular season Big XII games and the Big XII tournament. The institution was given flexibility on the timing of this penalty so that it could comply with existing contractual obligations.

4. The committee adopted Baylor’s self-imposed penalty of a ban on 2003-04 postseason basketball. It lost $212,500 in revenues by not participating in the Big XII tournament.

5. The committee adopted Baylor’s self-imposed financial aid reductions of four men’s basketball scholarships in 2004-05 and one in 2005-06.

6. The committee reduced the number of paid recruiting visits allowed from 12 to nine for the 2006-07 academic year. That is in addition to Baylor’s self-imposed limits of eight in 2004-05 and nine in 2005-06.

7. The number of contact days shall be reduced by five beginning in September 2004 through April 2007, which is one year more than what Baylor had self-imposed. Baylor also had 10 fewer evaluation days during the winter evaluation in 2004 and will have the same in 2005 and 2006.

8. The number of coaches permitted to recruit off-campus was reduced from three to two during the 2004-05 academic year. The same limits will remain in 2005-06 and 2006-07, one year more than what Baylor self-imposed. € Baylor self-imposed a one-game reduction in the number of permissible exhibition games during the 2004-05 season.

A member of the 2006 Baylor recruiting class, Carter had a mixed reaction to the sanctions placed on Baylor by the NCAA.

“Before I talked to Baylor Head Coach Scott Drew I was wondering what I would have to do,” Carter said. “I didn’t know if I would have to re-commit or not. I called him and we talked about it. When I get there, we can play for a National Championship. It is not bothering me anymore.

“I was surprised that they (NCAA) punished them that long. However, I can’t wait to help put Baylor basketball back on the map starting in 2006.