Bonnies to make case to conference

OLEAN, N.Y. -- After cleaning house, St. Bonaventure now must persuade the Atlantic 10 that it should stay in the conference despite its troubled men's basketball program.\nWilliam Swan, chairman of the university's board of trustees, said Tuesday he will make his case to the conference's school presidents before their April 1 meeting.\nWhile acknowledging that he's "far from reassured that we'll be OK," Swan said he thinks the action already taken by St. Bonaventure will be seen by the A-10 and NCAA "as a strong indication that we're not going to stand for this."\nOn March 3, the league stripped the team of six league victories and barred it from postseason play for using an ineligible player. A day later, the team voted to boycott the season's final two games. Sunday, the trustees pressured president Robert Wickenheiser to resign and put athletic director Gothard Lane and coach Jan van Breda Kolff on administrative leave.\nSwan spoke to league commissioner Linda Bruno and said he hasn't received any signs that the school will be booted.\nSwan, however, did note that concerns have been raised by A-10 schools about St. Bonaventure's status. The Bonnies have been a conference member since 1979.\n"There's been saber-rattling out there," Swan said.\nHe blamed a lack of leadership at the university for failing to stop the players' boycott.\n"This is not an indictment of the president, but wherever their leadership strength was, it didn't rise to the occasion," Swan said. "It is not in the Bonaventure way to say to these children, 'You get on that damn bus or your scholarship's going to be taken.'"\nSwan vowed that a new committee will fully investigate the men's basketball program and report to the school by April 15.\n"When all the facts are known, we will better know the specific actions we will take for the future," he said.\nOn Monday, Swan apologized to Jamil Terrell, the ineligible athlete at the center of the turmoil.\n"You have been let down by people who should have known better," Swan said. "You are suffering more than most of us will suffer in a lifetime."\nSwan vowed there would be "no cover-up" of why Terrell was allowed to play.\n"We will not sacrifice our values for anything, not even athletic glory," he said.\n"I will work tirelessly to uphold our Franciscan values -- make sure they're never compromised again."\nWhen Swan asked the crowd of about 800 in the Reilly Center to rise and join in the apology, they gave a thunderous ovation. Terrell was not there.\nTerrell, who transferred last year after two seasons at Coastal Georgia Community College in Brunswick, Ga., was ruled ineligible because he didn't have an associate's degree, but earned a certificate in welding at his former school.