With One Game Canceled, Minnesota Ponders Future of Its Basketball Program

The fate of the University of Minnesota basketball program remained uncertain Sunday as the Gophers forfeited their scheduled Big Ten game with Northwestern in the wake of the arrests of three players on allegations of sexual assault and the resignation of Coach Jim Dutcher.

Dutcher resigned Saturday, the day after Minnesota forwards Mitchell Lee, Kevin Andre Smith and George Williams were arrested in Madison, Wis., following an alleged sexual assault on a woman at a motel where the team was staying.

“I think the program needs new direction,” Dutcher, 52, the Gophers’ head coach since 1975, told a news conference.

“You can always look at where you are and where you want to be, and where you’re heading and I’m not pleased with the direction we’re heading,” said Dutcher, who guided the Gophers to the Big Ten championship in 1982.

“I was convinced for my own mental health at this point, this was the thing that had to be done,” said Dutcher, who will be retained in another capacity in the university athletic department at least until the end of the school year.

However, Dutcher told the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch that he will not abandon the three players who are to be arraigned Monday in Dane County Circuit Court in Madison.

“Those are my players, men I brought to Minnesota from hundreds of miles away. They are away from their families. Maybe I can’t monitor their every move but I can still be there when they need me,” Dutcher said.

He said he planned to be in Madison for the arraignment and will stay as long as he is needed.

“There is a tendency to leave them twisting in the wind. I won’t do that,” Dutcher added.

The coach said he was submitting his resignation “with a lot of regret. “We’ve got some fine young men in our program. And I felt badly leaving,” he said. “It’s been a real great 10 1/2 years for the Dutcher family.”

University President Kenneth Keller said he accepted the resignation “with regret.” No decision has been made about Dutcher’s replacement, Keller said.

University officials will be gathering information to determine what further action should be taken, Keller said.

“We have to be sure that it (the season) continues with our full support and our full confidence and that is the purpose of the investigation that we will conduct in the next couple of days,” Keller said.

It was the second time in a year that Lee had been arrested as a rape suspect. He was acquitted earlier this month in the previous case, which involved a University of Minnesota student.

“Several of the players in our men’s basketball team have been accused of, have been charged with second-degree assault and one of them for the second time,” Keller said.

“Sexual assault--rape--is not only a crime, but in fact it’s an offense against all of us as human beings,” he said. “It’s not to be excused. It’s not to be explained away.”

Dutcher, a former head coach at Eastern Michigan, became the Gophers’ coach before the 1975-76 season. He succeeded Bill Musselman, who was forced out after the university admitted in 1975 that it had violated 111 NCAA rules, mostly for recruiting.

Dutcher’s best season at Minnesota was in 1976-77, when the Gophers compiled a 24-3 record. But since the team had been placed on probation for three seasons, from 1975 to 1977, the NCAA declared all games forfeit and said the record should read 0-27. Dutcher holds a 190-112 record at Minnesota, and is 312-162 overall in 16 1/2 years as a head coach.

The Gophers have 11 games left on their schedule.

Lee, 20; Smith, 21, and Williams, 19, were arrested Friday after police stopped the team from leaving the Dane County Regional Airport. Other team members also were questioned but later freed.

The three were booked into the Dane County Jail on a count of second-degree sexual assault and were held without bond, said Madison Police Officer Joe Durkin. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.