Dybas: NCAA cites Chillious for secondary violation

The NCAA determined that Washington assistant men’s basketball coach Raphael Chillious committed a secondary recruiting violation stemming from his comments in a May 16, 2011, Sports Illustrated story, Sportspress Northwest has learned.

Washington self-reported the violation to the Pac-12 Wednesday morning. A conference spokesperson said the Pac-12 does not comment on potential or on-going investigation of any violations.

The university and Chillious declined to comment when contacted by Sportspress Northwest.

The investigation, which took almost two months and multiple NCAA levels to complete, was termed “unusual” by those familiar with it.

Chillious will receive a letter of admonishment from Washington athletic director Scott Woodward and have a compliance education session with a member of the school’s compliance staff as internal reprimand for the violation.

Chillious committed a violation by commenting on prospective recruits Justin Jackson, a home-schooled 15-year-old, and 6-foot-5 junior Jordan Tebbutt in the Sports Illustrated story.

By commenting by name prior to the recruit signing with the school, Chillious broke NCAA rule 13.10.2.1 of the NCAA manual:

13.10.2.1 Evaluations for Media, Recruiting Services. Athletics department staff members shall not evaluate or rate a prospective student-athlete for news media, scouting services or recruiting services prior to the prospective student-athlete’s signed acceptance of the institution’s written offer of admission as a student and/or written tender of financial assistance to be provided upon the prospective student-athlete’s enrollment.

Chillious commented to Bruce Schoenfeld, a freelance writer for Sports Illustrated and Travel + Leisure, directly about Jackson.

“This is a Polaroid you shake off, stick on the refrigerator and date,” Chillious was quoted as saying during a visit to a high school tournament in Nederland, Texas. “Because later on, when Justin’s a senior, I can talk about it. ‘Man, how long ago was it, I saw you play that game in Nederland? Remember? You were in the ninth grade. Man, you got so much stronger since then.’ And other coaches won’t have that memory with him.”

Chillious also commented on wanting to see how Jackson “handles adversity” and that “I was the first person Tebbutt saw this morning.” Chillious also mentioned Las Vegas wing Shabazz Muhammad in the story.

Typically, reporters — well aware of the NCAA rules — do not ask coaches to comment directly on recruits prior to them signing. If they do, coaches know the rules and decline to comment.

It was a rarity and surprising to see Chillious and two other assistants, former UCLA assistant Scott Duncan, who now works at Wyoming, and West Virginia assistant Larry Harrison, comment on specific players by name.

This is the second time Washington has been cited for recruiting violations since head coach Lorenzo Romar took over prior to the 2002-03 season. Former assistant coach Cameron Dollar was suspended for a month and cited for committing at least 28 recruiting violations in 2002.

At the time, reprimands of varying degrees also were issued to Romar, assistant coach Ken Bone and director of basketball operations Lance LaVetter, mostly for inadvertent violations. The entire staff was directed to attend a NCAA compliance seminar and skip an AAU tournament next summer.

Chillious replaced Dollar as an assistant coach on the Washington staff in April 2009.

Calls to Schoenfeld were not immediately returned.