Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 7, 1990 TAG: 9003071450
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: dave anderson
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
But as this March begins, it's the worst. Especially for those who understand what, idealistically, college basketball and college sports are supposed to be: Serious students taking serious courses pursuing serious degrees while representing their colleges in athletics.
Idealistically, of course, is a forgotten word at too many institutions of lesser learning. At those colleges, educational values is an airball.
Shoot the jumper. Hail the coach despite the stench that surrounds him. Blame the National Collegiate Athletic Association sleuths for having the audacity to look under rocks. Above all, don't ask questions.
But what happened with Hank Gathers, North Carolina State and the University of Maryland demands questions.
Hank Gathers, a rugged 6-foot-7 center at Loyola Marymount projected as a first-round National Basketball Association choice, is dead after collapsing Sunday while running upcourt.
After he fainted during a Dec. 9 game, a cardiac arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeat, was "noted, treated and monitored on a regular basis," said Dr. Vernon Hitori, his personal physician.
When medication reduced Gathers's effectiveness, he reportedly requested a reduction in his medication. Pending an autopsy, the cause of his death was called "uncertain" by Hitori.
Why was Gathers's medication reduced? So that Loyola Marymount would win games, especially in the NCAA Tournament? So that Gathers would be chosen earlier in the NBA draft?
North Carolina State, meanwhile, is on the hook for a buyout of at least $500,000 in negotiating a settlement of coach Jim Valvano's contract amid allegations of player point-shaving in other seasons.
Charles Shackleford, now with the New Jersey Nets, denies shaving points, but he has acknowledged having borrowed and repaid $65,000 from two benefactors, one of whom is reported to be a sports gambler.
Why doesn't N.C. State accuse Valvano of breaching his contract because of various violations that put the Wolfpack on probation long before the point-shaving allegations? Why is N.C. State groveling to settle when Valvano should be glad to settle?
And now the University of Maryland, supposedly cleansed after Len Bias' cocaine-related death nearly four years ago, has been put on probation for three years for 18 rules violations during coach Bob Wade's tenure.
What translates to a loss of $3 million in tournament and television money has been termed "too severe" by the university's president, William Kerwin.
But why didn't Maryland learn from the mistakes that provoked Lefty Driesell's dismissal as coach after Bias' death? Why did it tolerate the new violations?
Why indeed? Because at too many institutions of lesser learning, it's not college basketball. It's pickup basketball in clean uniforms and clean arenas with high-priced tickets and television cameras.
It should be known as campus pro basketball. Calling it college basketball is a contradiction in terms, a violation of truth in advertising.
Just as Bias' death stirred promises of reform, Gathers's death will stir promises. Mostly promises made to be broken.
When a rash of scandals occurs, college presidents vow to clean up the mess within their athletic departments. Scapegoats suddenly disappear. But sooner or later, new scandals surface. New vows are taken. New scapegoats are identified. But nothing really changes.
"If we had it to do over again," Valvano said, "we should have raised our standards more quickly." How could Valvano have raised what didn't exist? Judging by N.C. State's various basketball scandals, his only standards were a player's vertical leap and shooting range. Yet at Sunday's game he was hailed by N.C. State rooters wearing V-shaped yellow ribbons.
One of those beribboned rooters was James G. Martin, the governor of North Carolina. If the governor condones the behavior of the coach who created the mess, no wonder the governor's state university is on the hook in negotiating the buyout of the coach's contract.
Say a prayer, meanwhile, for Hank Gathers, who was 23 years old. Out of the north Philadelphia slums, he thrived on rebounding.
"Anybody can score 30 points a night if that's what he's concentrating on," he said a year ago in joining Xavier McDaniel, once with Wichita State and now with the Seattle SuperSonics, as the only college player to lead the nation in both scoring and rebounding. "But rebounding is special because it comes from the heart."
The heart that suddenly stopped beating.
by CNB