Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 1, 1995 TAG: 9504030067
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SEATTLE LENGTH: Long
The subject was ``Sports Betting and the Media'' in a forum Friday on the ethics of publishing betting odds on college sports. The Freedom Forum presented the session in cooperation with the NCAA and the Associated Press Sports Editors.
The forum was rooted in the NCAA's recent consideration to revoke tournament media credentials from those publications that print betting lines on college games. When the APSE cited first Amendment concerns, the NCAA backed off.
Michael ``Roxy'' Roxborough, a Las Vegas oddsmaker, told the forum audience that in addition to $50 million wagered legally on the NCAA tourney in his home state, another $2.5 billion will have been bet illegally.
Only the Super Bowl attracts more illegal gambling dollars, Roxborough said. It seems those office pools add up, too.
The panelists included Kansas athletic director Bob Frederick, chairman of the NCAA Basketball Committee. He cited NCAA concerns that another point-shaving scandal could evolve in college hoops. The last of those was a decade ago at Tulane.
``The public doesn't realize the significance of the [gambling] problem on college campuses,'' Frederick said.
Paul Anger, sports editor of the Miami Herald and president of APSE said his organization understands the NCAA's concern, ``but we're not buying into the idea that censoring newspaper content is the way to solve the problem.''
As for those pools, it seems that if all pool money is paid out to winners, those popular office pools are legal. If the person running the pool takes a cut, it could be considered illegal bookmaking.
According to a Freedom Forum survey, 48 of the nation's 50 largest circulation newspapers print betting lines. The exceptions are the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
Mike Jarvis, George Washington's coach, said that if gamblers wanted to fix games, dealing with student-athletes might not be the obvious route.
Why not just go to the game officials with a bribe, Jarvis wondered.
``It's naive to say we're not ripe for a scandal,'' said NCAA basketball committee member C.M. Newton, Kentucky's athletic director.
WHISTLES: Officiating is always a debated subject, and even more so during the NCAA Tournament. Coaches will tell you the officials allow more physical play in the tournament than during the regular season.
Some question whether the national clearing house standardization through NCAA officiating guru Hank Nichols really has brought more consistency to the whistling.
``It seems things are called closer in league games than in the tournament,'' said Nolan Richardson, the Arkansas coach. ``I sometimes am kind of confused just like some kids are.
``To me, it's not always a consistent mode of having a game called. I guess it depends on the working crew, whether that crew is going to let the kids play.''
That's why Virginia coach Jeff Jones, asked to assess today's Arkansas-North Carolina semifinal after the Cavaliers' loss to the Razorbacks last weekend, is sage material.
``Arkansas is a heavier, stronger team with more depth,'' Jones said. ``The key to the game is how it's officiated. North Carolina could shoot 40 or 50 free throws if the officials don't get bored. If it's physical, Carolina is going to have a tough time.''
The nine officials selected to work the Final Four won't be revealed until today, but they do include the ACC's Dick Paparo.
A Final Four official is paid $500 per game.
LARGE COUNTRY: This season, Oklahoma State's team has traveled 29,215 miles. The Cowboys have been in Rhode Island, Alaska, Arizona and Maryland. They've survived the Big Eight and the Big Apple. They've played in five time zones.
Turns out there's another ``Big Country'' besides the human one known in Stillwater.
ANOTHER COUNTRY: The least-known man in the middle among the Final Four clubs plays for the top-ranked team - 7-foot George Zidek.
``I didn't know anything about the [basketball] history of UCLA,'' said Zidek, whose given first name is Jiri and didn't get ``George'' as a nickname until he arrived on the UCLA campus. ``I liked the school, the facility, so I decided to sign.''
Zidek, from Prague, Czech Republic, had planned to go to Boston College or Seton Hall. Then a teammate on the Czech junior national team sent tapes of him to the Bruins' coaches when he was 16.
``It was a great adjustment to Los Angeles, because I was coming from a communist country,'' Zidek said. ``I had traveled some in the United States, but it was still different.''
Jiri Zidek Sr. still is known as the best player in the history of Czechoslovakia. In November 1989, that nation was split into Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
Jiri Jr. decided to leave the day the troops began battling the students in St. Wencelas Square in Prague.
``A soldier let me out,'' Zidek said. ``I still don't know why.''
CLOSE CALLS: Arkansas has won four NCAA games by a combined 15 points. No NCAA champion has won all of its games in a tournament by less than double figures since Texas Western in 1966.
by CNB