Tulane Scandal Hasn’t Hit Bottom Yet : A Cocaine Purchase Apparently Led to Point-Shaving Scheme

District Atty. Harry Connick said Friday that he still hasn’t reached the bottom of a Tulane University point-shaving scandal that began with a pinch of cocaine and now includes eight indictments.

“There are others out there who need to be scrutinized,” Connick said, adding that his information may also help federal investigators.

Tulane President Eamon Kelly announced Thursday that he planned to abolish men’s basketball after making an unrelated discovery that Coach Ned Fowler made payments to several players. Fowler and two assistants resigned the same day.

Hours later, a grand jury indicted three players and five other people on a total of 20 counts of sports bribery and conspiracy. A second indictment charged one of the eight, a student, with selling cocaine to team members.

On Friday, Howie Farrell, a Tulane booster club official, said his group, the Greenbacks, will march to Kelly’s campus residence today to “give him a position paper supporting the continuation of basketball at Tulane.”

Meanwhile, at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, N.J., basketball Coach Tom Green said he was “appalled” by a report that he gave high school star John (Hot Rod) Williams $10,000 to attend Tulane while Green was an assistant there in 1981.

“It is simply untrue,” Green said in a statement issued by FDU. “I have always worked within the framework of our strict NCAA guidelines, and at no time have I ever wavered from those rules. This is all I have to say regarding that unfortunate situation.”

According to the National Basketball Assn.’s legal department, Williams, who is Tulane’s No. 2 all-time scorer, is still eligible for the league’s draft June 18 despite the indictments returned Thursday.

The entire gambling case apparently started as a small cocaine buy.

Clyde Eads, a senior forward on Tulane’s basketball team, went to business major Gary Kranz to buy some cocaine, according to a newspaper, the Times-Picayune, the States-Item, quoting sources familiar with grand jury testimony.

Within two weeks, their conversations turned to point-shaving. Eventually, five Tulane players joined the scheme to manipulate the point spread in three Metro Conference games, splitting at least $19,500 for their efforts, the indictment against them said.

Eads and teammate Jon Johnson were given immunity for testimony incriminating themselves and others.

The newspaper’s sources gave this scenario in the point-shaving scam:

Sometime in January, Eads contacted Kranz about the cocaine. He made a small buy, the two became friends and Johnson was drawn into the circle.

One day, Kranz approached Eads and Johnson about fixing the Southern Mississippi game on Feb. 2. Eads reportedly told Kranz, “We can’t do it alone. You’d need Hot Rod.”

Williams agreed to cooperate and brought in his roommate, David Dominique, a sophomore starting guard. Both face 17 1/2 years in prison if convicted on sports bribery and conspiracy charges.

Senior reserve Bobby Thompson, charged with conspiracy, knew nothing until after the game. But he joined in splitting $3,500 after Tulane won, 64-63, in a game it entered as a 10-point favorite.

Another student, Mark Olensky, joined the scheme before the Memphis State game on Feb. 20, and Thompson made arrangements with convicted gambler Roland Ruiz for additional bets.

To lose by more than seven points, the five players were paid $13,500 by the students and $2,500 by Ruiz, the indictment said. The final score was 60-49, Memphis State.

The indictment added a third game as having been fixed, at Virginia Tech, but gave few details.

The money bet on the games is estimated at $20,000 to $60,000, most from Kranz and Olensky, the newspaper said.

Ruiz and Olensky were also indicted on sports bribery and conspiracy charges. Kranz faces nine counts of distributing cocaine, which, along with the bribery charges, could result in a 332-year prison sentence.