Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 1, 1990 TAG: 9004010052
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL BRILL EXECUTIVE SPORTS EDITOR
DATELINE: DENVER LENGTH: Medium
But officials of the Atlantic Coast Conference are unhappily aware this may be the league's zenith.
The road ahead is strewn with potential problems.
Maryland's basketball program is in tatters. First-year coach Gary Williams is devastated. There is a chance the Terps will be so bad next season they could be mistaken for a Division III squad.
Things aren't much better at North Carolina State. Perhaps no better.
What we're talking here is likely catastrophe, the sort of thing where damage control projects to be as long as five years.
Maryland's three-year probation, with two years of sanctions, has proven to be brutal. It may be tougher than the death penalty. The team will continue to play, and almost surely lose.
"That additional year was a killer," ACC Commissioner Gene Corrigan said.
All because of former chancellor John Slaughter, former coach Bob Wade and a weak defense by the school's attorneys.
Corrigan said he hoped Maryland's appeal to the NCAA would be heard in April, "but we're having a hard time getting it on the agenda."
Unless the appeal is immediate, and the Terps become the first school to have a penalty lightened, Maryland's two star sophomores, 6-foot-10 Jerrod Mustaf and 6-8 Walt Williams, likely will be leaving College Park. Because of the penalties, they can transfer and play somewhere else immediately.
That somewhere else might turn out to be another league school, Georgia Tech. Virginia has been mentioned. So has Georgetown.
So chances are excellent that Gary Williams not only may lose his meal tickets, but that he either will have to play against them for two seasons or watch as one or both help Georgetown dominate the D.C. scene.
Corrigan said the ACC has no rule against transferring from one league school to another.
"There used to be a rule that said you had to sit out two years," Corrigan said. "But they took that off the books years ago. I don't know why."
Corrigan said he doesn't think it would be good if such a transfer occurs, "but there's nothing to legally prevent it from happening."
Duke athletic director Tom Butters said he would oppose in-league transfers, especially in a conference with such good relations among the member schools.
But if Mustaf or Walt Williams calls Bobby Cremins, what will the Georgia Tech coach say? Especially if Dennis Scott, as expected, leaves early for the NBA.
With no quality players and recruiting problems because of the probation, Maryland would take years to recover.
The messy situation at N.C. State won't improve until there is a decision on coach Jim Valvano's status, but every day the situation lingers, things go from awful to horrible.
Self-imposed recruiting restrictions are going to make it extremely difficult for the Wolfpack to get new players. And it's a cinch those who do come in will be better students, if perhaps not blue-chip athletes, than many Valvano recruited.
Gabe Corchiani, coaching father of Chris Corchiani, is attending the National Association of Basketball Coaches convention and effectively shopping his son around. It appears certain that the player, who said at the ACC Tournament he wouldn't be back if Valvano is axed, will leave.
The latest word is that the Corchianis are anxiously awaiting a decision on Florida's new coach. Chris Corchiani has one year of eligibility left, but he can't play next year if he transfers because N.C. State technically is eligible for the NCAA Tournament.
With Corchiani almost a certain defector, Wolfpack backers are concerned the other star guard, Rodney Monroe, will reverse his decision to stay and leave for the pro game.
Should the Wolfpack lose both its guards, it would be not much better off than Maryland.
There are other uncertainties for Corrigan and crew. Will Florida up the ante for Clemson's Cliff Ellis, and what if Dale Davis goes NBA hardship? Will the new Virginia coach be close to as capable as Terry Holland? Who will be back at Georgia Tech?
After a year in which the ACC supposedly was mediocre, the league rebounded in postseason play and did better than anybody else.
North Carolina has had a phenomenal recruiting year and Duke may add prep superstar Antonio Lang to a catch that already includes Virginian Grant Hill.
However, the balance the ACC has enjoyed recently almost surely will be gone. A league can stand one Northwestern, but not two.
by CNB