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SoCalHoops College Recruiting News

More On Cotton--Denied Eligibility--(June 5, 1998)

The AP ran the following at 7:57 p.m. tonight:

Schea Cotton, one of the nation's top basketball recruits, has been denied NCAA eligibility to attend North Carolina State this fall, the university said Friday.

Cotton had appealed an earlier NCAA decision invalidating a Scholastic Aptitude Test score that would have qualified him to play at the Atlantic Coast Conference school.

N.C. State athletics director Les Robinson said he would consult with coach Herb Sendek and a faculty representative about what action the school should take in response to the NCAA decision.

``Until such time that we are able to meet, I can only say I feel sorry for Schea and his family, and we fully support him in his efforts to attend N.C. State University,'' Robinson said in a statement.

An NCAA spokeswoman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Cotton, of Long Beach, Calif., initially agreed to attend UCLA, but the NCAA invalidated his SAT qualifying score less than a week before he was to enroll last fall.

Cotton had twice fallen short of a qualifying score on the SAT. The NCAA invalidated the score of 900 on his third test because it said he wrongly received special circumstances from the testing service. He allegedly was given more time to finish the exam and had his questionnaires printed in larger type for easier reading.

Cotton and his family contend he has a learning disability. The NCAA said it did not receive proper information regarding his learning disability. The player's family has hired an attorney to challenge the NCAA's ruling.

Cotton, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard, averaged 23 points and 11 rebounds this season for St. Thomas More, a college prep school in Oakdale, Conn.

He was among the top high school juniors in the nation three years ago, but sat out his senior season at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, Calif., with a shoulder injury.

More on this situation as it develops.