Shock, Sadness Expressed at Tulane Decision

Coach Stan Morrison of USC said Thursday that the basketball situation at Tulane indicates that universities and athletic organizations need to set stronger standards.

Expressions of shock and sadness came from other coaches and administrators following the announcement by Tulane President Eamon Kelly that the school planned to drop its basketball program in the wake of the alleged gambling scheme and newly discovered NCAA violations.

“I don’t know to what degree drugs were involved in the Tulane situation, if at all,” said Morrison, a member of the Pac-10 committee on drugs, “but I think the tragedy of the Tulane basketball situation, both from an individual perspective and from an institutional perspective, is a further indication that incredibly strong standards need to be established in our country’s university and athletic administrations.

“No one is immune from that segment of society that would utilize drugs as the vehicle to realize gambling ambitions. To think otherwise is to be sticking your head in the sand.”

Coach Jim Killingsworth of TCU said: “I think they should deal with the problem, not do away with it. If they had something like that happen in the English department, would they do away with that? I feel like they should have tried to solve their problems.”

Steve Hatchell, commissioner of the Metro Conference, of which Tulane is a member, said: “Frankly, we are really saddened by it, I guess in a couple of ways. One, that it’s someone within our conference family, and second, for our sport and our profession.”

The last NCAA Division I school to drop its basketball program in the wake of an investigation into NCAA violations was the University of San Francisco, in 1982. USF announced last year that it was resuming its basketball program beginning with the 1985-86 season.

“We see men’s basketball as an important part of the heritage and vitality of this fine university,” the Rev. Robert Sunderland, USF’s athletic director, said. “Basketball is an important part, but it is a part that must be kept in proper perspective.”