ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 30, 1997 TAG: 9703310159
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: COLLEGE BASKETBALL NOTES
SOURCE: FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTS
George Mason hired Bowling Green's Jim Larranaga as its basketball coach Saturday.
Larranaga, a former assistant at Virginia, replaces Paul Westhead, who was fired March 3 after leading the Patriots to a 38-70 record and two last-place finishes and one eighth-place finish in four seasons in the Colonial Athletic Association.
Larranaga received a five-year contract for an estimated $600,000, according to sources at the university.
He will be formally introduced at a Tuesday news conference.
``Jim comes from a tremendous basketball pedigree,'' said Tom O'Connor, George Mason's athletic director. ``Having played and worked with such great people as Jack Curran, Joe Mullaney, Dave Gavitt and Terry Holland has rubbed off on him, and then osmosis took over.''
Larranaga led Bowling Green to a 22-10 record this season and a first-place tie with Miami, Ohio, in the Mid-American Conference and was chosen the conference's coach of the year.
In 11 years at Bowling Green, Larranaga was 170-144 with four straight winning seasons
Purdue: A prosecutor is weighing criminal charges against Purdue freshman guard Michael Robinson after he was cited by police for using a stolen parking permit.
Coach Gene Keady said Robinson was scheduled to meet with police Monday. Keady said he wants to meet with Robinson, athletic director Morgan Burke and campus police before taking any team disciplinary action.
Keady said Robinson told him a friend had given him the permit.
Robinson faces penalties ranging from an A misdemeanor, with up to a year in prison and a $5,000 fine, to a D felony, which carries a sentence of up to three years.
LENGTH: Short : 44 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Larranagaby CNB