Gloger denied eligibility

Senior Spencer Gloger's college basketball career is officially over after the NCAA denied his request for a sixth year of eligibility this summer.

The ruling did not come as much of a surprise to those familiar with the circumstances. Erin McDermott, Princeton's NCAA compliance officer, admitted last February that the odds were against Gloger's request being granted.

Student-athletes usually have a "five-year clock" to complete four years of athletic eligibility. Gloger played just a season and a half of basketball, but his clock ran out at the end of the 2004 spring semester.

A sixth year is generally granted if an athlete misses two years due to an "uncontrollable hardship," like a severe injury. While Gloger severed a tendon in his hand in an August 2003 car accident, it cost him half a season at most. Still, McDermott said the athletic department felt it "owed it to Spencer" to apply.

"You never know till you do it," she said. "We felt Spencer's situation was different. It was more compelling on the academic merits than the athletic merits."

The request was made a few weeks after Joe Scott '87 replaced John Thompson '88 as head coach last April. According to McDermott, Thompson declined to file the request during the season to avoid distraction, but Scott was "interested in seeing if this could work."

The 6-foot-7 swingman starred for the Tigers as a freshman in 1999-2000, before transferring to, and back from, UCLA. He also played 20 games during the 2002-2003 season, before he was ruled academically ineligible and left school for a year.

Gloger has yet to give up on the sport, telling the Associated Press that, "my ultimate goal has always been to make some significant money playing basketball and I still think I'm capable of doing that."