Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 2, 1990 TAG: 9003023552
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: BILL BRILL EXECUTIVE SPORTS EDITOR
DATELINE: RALEIGH, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
Monteith, interim athletic director Harold Hopfenberg and university counsel Becky French answered questions at a news conference regarding allegations that former State players were involved in point shaving during the 1987-88 season.
Monteith, who inherited the chancellor's job when the incumbent, Bruce Poulton, was forced out because of an ongoing investigation into problems with the embattled basketball program, said he had not talked to Valvano since allegations of a fix surfaced in an ABC News report telecast Wednesday.
"I am evaluating the basketball program," Monteith said. "I have not talked to Coach Valvano. I will meet with him [today]."
State lost at Maryland 96-95 Wednesday. Valvano did not accompany the team back to campus.
Hopfenberg said he questioned Valvano after the Maryland game. "I was concerned with his involvement [in the allegations]," he said. "I asked the same questions you [media] are asking. He answered in the negative."
Hopfenberg said he had no reason to doubt Valvano, who was relieved of the athletic director's duties earlier this school year when State was placed on a two-year NCAA probation that involved selling shoes and complimentary tickets.
It was an old story for State, twice a national champion. The Wolfpack was sentenced 30 years ago when three players were accused of fixing games.
This time, former Wolfpack star Charles Shackleford, now of the NBA's New Jersey Nets, confessed to receiving $65,000 in "loans" while still a student.
Bob Kramer, a New Jersey businessman, North Carolina native and reputed gambler, admitted to loaning Shackleford money.
French, the school's lawyer, said Thursday that Shackleford had received payments in his sophomore and junior years, and the freshman year was in question.
French, who met with Shackleford's agent, Salvatore DiFazio, in New Jersey on Wednesday, said if the school had to repay NCAA revenue because of the violation, it would consider suing the player to recover the funds.
Pressed on whether Valvano would be fired after 10 successful years as the Pack's head coach, Monteith said, "I don't want to jump ahead. I have been evaluating the basketball program. This [allegation] has added more to the agenda."
Hopfenberg, a faculty member who took over as AD when Valvano was forced to relinquish that post, said he had talked with the coach "once or twice a day" since the problems surfaced.
Monteith refused to say if he would consider a voluntary "death penalty," a suspension of the State basketball program. But he said he would be the one to make that decision.
"I'm the one to be held accountable," Monteith said. "I have a lot of emotional strength."
While DiFazio admitted to French that Shackleford received money during his college days, as the player told a Raleigh newspaper reporter, the highlight of Armen Keteyian's ABC story was an interview with a disguised player.
The player, whose voice was altered and face distorted, told how Wolfpack performers deliberately made mistakes that impacted the result of games.
The player said points were shaved because the participants in the scandal needed money, and that the basketball program brought in huge amounts, none of which went to them. He would fix games again, he said to Keteyian, a former Sports Illustrated reporter.
Sources at State identified the admitted fixer as Kelsey Weems, a guard who played for the 'Pack from 1986-89 and once was Shackleford's roommate.
Weems, who now plays in the Continental Basketball Association, denied he was involved.
State already is ineligible for the NCAA Tournament. Further sanctions are unlikely, although the school may have to return up to $1 million in tournament revenue, according to Dave Didion, an NCAA enforcement representative.
Didion said the school could be made to return money from the 1986, 1987 and 1988 tournaments. In 1986, N.C. State reached the regional semifinal round and earned $535,780. First-round losses in '87 and '88 brought in about $450,000, raising the three-year total to almost $1 million.
Some of that money already has been divided among other schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference, but Didion said it would be up to N.C. State alone to repay it.
Point shaving is a criminal offense. In Shackleford's case, admitting he received money while in college merely means he was ineligible to play.
French said she would meet with the NCAA enforcement people next week in Shawnee Mission, Kan., and also with the NCAA's executive committee.
Beyond that, Monteith wasn't saying. Not about Valvano, or about the program in general. "I'm really pressing as hard as I can," he said.
Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press.
by CNB