A TEAM IN TURMOIL : Sexual Assualt Charge Against Three of Its Athletes Throws Searing Spotlight on Minnesota Basketball

Life and basketball, barely distinguishable to some in these parts, go on at the University of Minnesota seemingly as if the recent events that prompted the school president to consider canceling the rest of the season had never happened.

Outside Williams Arena, a neon sign announced that tickets were still available for today’s Big Ten game against Iowa, then wished passers-by a nice day. Attendance at the weekly booster meeting was as large as usual, and the big issue raised in the campus newspaper one day concerned complaints about the new-look mascot.

Has normality returned to the Gopher basketball program?

“Things have settled down, for sure, but I wouldn’t call it normal,” said senior center John Shasky, shaking his head. “I mean, we don’t have five of our players. We don’t have our coach, and we’re still thinking about how they almost canceled the season. How could you forget?”

Indeed, no one has forgotten that three talented Minnesota players--Mitch Lee, Kevin Smith and George Williams--were arrested on sexual assault charges in Madison, Wis. An 18-year-old Madison woman alleges that she was repeatedly raped by the men Jan. 24 in the hotel in which the team stayed.

Lee, 20, of Carol City, Fla.; Smith, 21, of Lansing, Mich.; and Williams, 19, of Oakland, were ordered to stand trial at a preliminary hearing Thursday in a Madison circuit court.

In the tumultuous days after the players’ arrests, various problems within the basketball program surfaced, resulting in near chaos on campus.

Kenneth Keller, the university president, ordered the Gophers to forfeit their next game, and contemplated canceling the remaining 11 games of the season. Instead, Keller chose to let the team finish the season and has appointed a task force to look into the problems and propose possible solutions to the Gophers’ troubled program.

Meanwhile, Coach Jim Dutcher, who had a 190-112 record in 11 seasons at Minnesota, resigned, mostly out of frustration but partly because he did not agree with Keller’s decision to forfeit even one game.

Dutcher soon was followed out the door by two more Gopher players, Todd Alexander and Terence Woods, who were suspended indefinitely for violating unspecified team rules.

And if those events didn’t provide enough controversy, a previously confidential Big Ten survey showed that, between 1978 and 1983, only 9% of Minnesota’s scholarship basketball players had graduated within five years. The conference average was 48%, according to the survey, and the next-lowest school had a 30% graduation rate.

The events of the last two weeks have contributed to the widespread belief that Minnesota’s basketball program will never be the same, which comes as good news to those outside the athletic department who believe it has been out of hand for quite a while.

“I feel optimistic because this is a great opportunity to turn this around,” Elayne Donohue, head of academic counseling for Minnesota’s athletic department, said. “We should look at how we’ve been and how we want to be.”

Headlines have not been kind to Minnesota basketball in the last two decades. There was, for instance, the widely reported 1972 fight during a game against Ohio State, in which two Gopher players and a few overzealous fans brutally attacked Luke Witte, a Buckeye player, kicking him as he lay on the floor.

That occurred during the controversial reign of Coach Bill Musselman, who brought winning back to the north country but bailed out in 1975, leaving 128 NCAA violations in his wake.

Last season, Lee was involved in another sexual assault case, but he had been acquitted of the charges a week before his most recent arrest.

Also last season, guard Todd Alexander was charged with misdemeanors in the theft of a stereo and the use of a stolen credit card, but he remained in school and on the team after having been put on special probation for first-offenders.

Now this.

Keller, in his first full year as university president, has vowed to clean up the program and restore the proper balance between academics and athletics. The scales seem to have been weighted on the side of athletics here for years.

Overemphasis on athletics is not unusual in this day and age, but Minnesota’s troubled program could serve as a case study.

In a way, it has. Stories probing the Gophers’ situation were featured on the front page of the main news section of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune nearly every day last week, then were bumped back to the sports section only the day after the explosion of the space shuttle.

The university has the only Division I sports programs in the state, and the Gophers have provided the only big-time basketball for Twin Cities fans since the Lakers moved to Los Angeles in 1960. So, interest and pressure to win is intense.

“When I coached in the NBA (with the Cleveland Cavaliers), I didn’t have the pressure I did at Minnesota,” said Musselman, now coaching in the Continental Basketball Assn. “It is almost insurmountable. The bottom line is to win. I know it has been the same for Jim Dutcher as it was for me. Nothing has changed.”

It will change, if Keller follows up his strong words with actions.

“We are blind to view something like this as an isolated incident,” Keller said. “We have created an environment in which incidents like sexual assault by university athletes can occur. (But) we have awakened to the reality of what is going on.”

Sometimes it takes a shocking and tragic incident to bring about changes. What happened to Minnesota’s basketball team Jan. 24, the morning after the Gophers had beaten Wisconsin on a shot at the buzzer, might have been that kind of incident.

As the Gophers rode a bus to Dane County Regional Airport for an early morning flight home that Friday, Dutcher remembers thinking that all was right in his domain.

His team had squared its conference record at 3-3 and figured to improve it by beating last-place Northwestern in two days. A week earlier, starting forward Mitch Lee had been acquitted on a 1985 charge of third-degree sexual assault in a case involving a woman student at Minnesota and that fuss finally was over.

Little did Dutcher know that a much bigger fuss was in store for him and the Gophers.

At about 6:30 a.m., Lee called the Concourse Hotel in downtown Madison from the airport lobby to report that he might have left his wallet in the room he had shared with Smith. A bellhop was sent to look for the wallet but found that room 308 was locked from the inside. He called the room from a house phone.

A woman answered the phone, then eventually opened the door. She said that she had been raped for 2 1/2 hours by three men on Minnesota’s basketball team. Madison police were called, and Sgt. Sylvester Combs later said that the woman was “wrapped in sheets and pretty wiped out.”

Dutcher was paged at the airport, informed of the allegations and told to have his team disembark from from their commercial flight and remain for questioning. Dutcher, in turn, called Jimmy Williams, then an assistant coach and now interim head coach, who had stayed behind at the hotel.

“Jimmy was talking to the girl through the door, trying to calm her down until the police arrived to help her,” Dutcher said. “I was in disbelief. My first thought was that nobody on my team could be that dumb. I just didn’t think the guys would jeopardize their future, my future, the program’s future with something like that.”

The woman was rushed to the airport in an unmarked car so that she could try to identify her alleged assailants. Police officers escorted the entire team outside the terminal to the street, where each player was paraded before the darkened window of the unmarked police car. Each player was asked to make half turns and stand directly facing the window.

Amid numbing silence, the players went through this impromptu police lineup twice. It was not exactly the type of drill they usually run through the day after a game.

The woman, a student at Madison Area Technical College, identified Lee and Smith, who were advised of their rights and whisked away. Four other players also were taken in for questioning. Later that day, Lee, Smith and Williams were jailed.

The three players spent the weekend in jail before posting bail.

On Jan. 27, Lee and Smith were charged with first-degree sexual assault and Williams with second-degree assault. They appeared in court again Thursday for the preliminary hearing.

If convicted, Lee and Smith could be sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in prison, and Williams a maximum 10 years. Minnesota players not implicated were stunned by the developments. Two weeks after the arrest, Shasky still had difficulty discussing his feelings. “It was almost like we were part of a movie,” he recalled. “I thought, ‘This couldn’t be happening.’ It didn’t seem real.

“Probably when it really hit home that it was real was the night the whole team watched Mitch, Kevin and George in the courtroom (at the arraignment). They were in those blue prison uniform and, man, the look on their faces . . . “

The woman’s story of how she allegedly was repeatedly and brutally raped was made public after Thursday’s preliminary hearing before Robert Pekowsky, Dane County circuit judge.

The judge rejected defense arguments that the woman had failed to show that force was used by the alleged attackers, ruling that probable cause had been established for further proceedings.

In her two-hour testimony, closed to the media and the public, the woman said she had felt “like a piece of meat just laying there--degraded.” A court reporter read portions of the woman’s testimony to the media.

The alleged victim said that she and a friend were at a party above a downtown bar when she met men later identified as Smith and Lee. She said she danced with Smith but was hesitant to accept his invitation to “continue the party” at the hotel because she would not know anyone there and might not have a ride home.

She testified that she eventually rode to the hotel with with Smith, Lee and another couple. She said that Lee had made “sexual comments” at the party but that Smith “was acting nice.”

They arrived at the hotel about 2 a.m. and all five people rode an elevator to the third floor, she said. As Lee opened the door to the room, the woman testified, she saw the other couple walking away. The woman said she entered room 308 with Smith and Lee, while the other couple continued down the hall.

She testified that Lee tore off her clothing as they entered the room and forced her to the bed. The woman said she was forced to perform oral sex with Lee while Smith engaged in intercourse. Later, the report contends, Williams entered the room and forcibly had intercourse with the woman.

All three assaulted her at one point, she said.

“It was hard for me to breathe,” she said. “My neck was twisted. . . . They were talking to each other, laughing. I had shooting pains. I felt like I was being pushed and pulled every which way.”

Shortly after the alleged assault began, the woman said she threatened to scream, but Lee “made a response that made me feel it would be smart not to scream.”

She said that a number of people entered and left the room during the four hours, some asking Mitchell who she was.

Dutcher, who was present at the hearing, has been careful not to presume the guilt of his former players. But he was seemingly stating the obvious when he recently said: “They have not been proven guilty of anything, but there’s no question they were in serious violation of team rules.”

A stocky, balding, middle-aged man carrying a briefcase walked into a quiet cafe on the fringe of the Minnesota campus one recent afternoon, drawing both polite smiles and stares.

“I’m Coach Dutcher,” he said to the hostess, who seemed to know that. “I may be getting some phone calls . . . “

Actually, this man no longer is Coach Dutcher. He is a former coach of a major college basketball program that is under siege and scrutiny in the wake of what is customarily referred to here as the Madison incident.

Those who know Dutcher well say he has remained remarkably composed, under the circumstances. At the press conference announcing Dutcher’s resignation, Athletic Director Paul Giel cried. Comparatively speaking, Dutcher was a rock.

But when rehashing recent events and past problems during his tenure, which he has openly done for the local and national media, beads of sweat appear on Dutcher’s forehead and his hands nervously stroke a coffee cup.

“What happens is that (people) look back to see if there’s a pattern of incident and distractions,” Dutcher said. “There may have only been three or four in my 10 years. But when you list them, you think . . . this program has been in chaos forever.

“You start looking at the academic thing and our other problems. A guy (Mark Hall in 1982) charges ($1,000) of long-distance calls to the school, and Alexander uses a credit card he said he found to draw money that wasn’t his, and Mitch Lee’s first (sexual assault) charge, which he was acquitted of--it adds up.

“You and I could probably name a dozen guys at other programs playing on probation or with a charge pending. This is not to excuse what happened here, but to say that it can happen anyplace. I talk to other coaches and we’re all on the bubble.”

At Minnesota, the bubble has burst. Dutcher talks as if he was waiting for it to happen.

At his farewell press conference, he made a comment that drew strong reaction from many, Keller among them. He said: “When you’re dealing with young people, you’re always one day away from disaster or an incident.”

Keller said later: “When (Dutcher) said that, I thought, ‘Wait a minute. That may be a fact, but that’s not something we should live with.’ That’s not a fact of nature. That’s a fact of our basketball program. Why, I’m not one day away from disaster in the English department.”

Dutcher stands by his comments, adding that coaches who have read it in the newspapers have called and said they could relate.

Still, the biggest criticism of Dutcher has been that he lacked strong leadership and gave his players too much freedom. Critics said that Dutcher should have dealt more harshly with Alexander after his problems last season, and that Lee should not have been allowed back on the team after his first arrest on sexual assault charges.

“I never heard these people say I wasn’t disciplined enough when the team was winning,” Dutcher said. “With Mitch Lee, do I say ‘You’re off the team!’ even after a jury of 12 white people found him not guilty? I’ve been questioning myself about that. Maybe I’ve made some bad judgments in recruiting and maybe I should have cut loose some guys earlier.

“When something bad happens, people scramble to get out of the line of fire. I’ve taken a lot of (the blame). I’ve tried to. But I didn’t do this alone. It’s been a terrible week. I’ve had to defend myself on every count.”

Dutcher’s resignation came as no surprise to many close to Minnesota athletics. Earlier this season, he had contemplated resigning because of the pressure buildup resulting from Lee’s first trial. The Madison incident clinched it.

“After Lee’s original case, it became difficult to concentrate on coaching because this thing pended for so long,” Dutcher said.

“The No. 1 thing I was asked all the time--at clinics, fund raisers and camps--was, ‘How’s the Mitch Lee situation?’ Not, ‘What does the team look like?’ I was tired of explaining internal problems. Unless I resigned, I was looking at another year of explaining.”

Dutcher said he has not soured on college basketball or its athletes, and that he wants to coach again somewhere. But he isn’t certain how much the latest incident has tarnished his reputation.

“You can’t judge a coach by one night,” said Dutcher, who owns two sporting goods stores in the Twin Cities. “I have a good record in 28 years of coaching and I’d like to be judged on that. I eventually would like to get back into coaching.”

As if on cue, the waitress interrupted Dutcher, telling him he had a phone call. It was his wife, Marilyn, with the news that Eldon Miller, the coach at Ohio State, would not be back with the Buckeyes next season.

“He didn’t win enough,” said Dutcher, shaking his head.

Although he was a rower at Columbia University and attends many sporting events at Minnesota, Kenneth Keller says he is not one of those doting college presidents who places considerable emphasis on having successful football and basketball teams.

“I think an intercollegiate athletic program is important,” he said. “It’s a question of where it fits.”

That was the question Keller pondered in the wake of the recent scandal. Keller said that his first thought was to cancel the rest of the season “to make sure something else would not happen.” While contemplating that, he forfeited the Gophers’ next game, costing the school a probable victory, television and gate revenues and, indirectly, its basketball coach. Dutcher did not agree with the plan to forfeit even one game, but Keller would not budge.

Ultimately, Keller decided to have the team finish the season. He said that the prospect of losing money from television, possible pressure from the Big Ten and objections from those in his own athletic department had no influence on his decision.

“We’re finishing the season because we’re not looking for a gesture or a symbol, as if to say that we’ve done our penance by not playing and that’s all we need to do,” Keller said. “Part of me wanted to stop it. You know, those who said the game must go on struck me are perpetuating an idea that was wrong. The game must not always go on.”

Gopher players and supporters spent three anxious days before Keller announced his plan, to continue the season and seek a solution to the troubles by creating a task force to investigate the issues of intercollegiate athletics in general, and Minnesota’s problems in particular.

Keller was criticized by many for even considering not continuing the season.

A local columnist pointed out that Keller knew of the academic deficiencies of the basketball team, as well as the discipline problems but had taken no action until after the publicized sexual assault. Others said that the other players would be unfairly punished by such an action.

“I thought it was an incredibly ridiculous thing to consider calling off the season,” Indiana’s Coach Bob Knight told a Minneapolis writer. “You don’t put everybody in the same category just because a couple of kids fouled up.”

Still, most agree there is much to investigate in this program, that there are many recommendations to be made.

The poor academic record among basketball players is one of Keller’s major concerns. In fact, Donohue said that the president’s office had instructed her to release the damning Big Ten report showing the low graduation rate of Minnesota athletes.

Donohue, hired in 1983 specifically to work as academic adviser for the athletic department, said she had told Dutcher several times that the basketball program “was ready to explode” but that no strong action was taken.

“(Some players) were out of control, didn’t go to class,” Donohue said. “This is a tragic thing that happened and I share the responsibility. I didn’t scream loud enough. . . . I can tell these athletes to go to class, but I can’t take any other action.”

Said Dutcher: “Our lady in academic counseling did kick me in the groin about this. She said that the guys weren’t going to class. But I did all I could. We check on that all the time and try to get them to go.

“(The survey) paints a very drab picture of how it was here. I’m doing my own survey. There are other players who transferred and received degrees at other schools or took longer than five years to do it. This is somebody trying to cover themselves.”

Donohue blames “the system” of college athletics more than Dutcher, saying that academics and athletics are diametrically opposed.

“My focus is academics, theirs is athletics,” Donohue said. “The coaches are told to win, so they go about it the best way they know. Even the most extraordinary people running (athletic) programs come up against a time where the pressure of winning gets the best of them. I never heard of a coach getting fired because he didn’t develop good students.”

That attitude has prevailed at Minnesota for many years, according to Musselman. “They hired me to win and get people in the stands,” Musselman said. “They needed the revenue. I had heard they weren’t too happy with Dutcher, and look at his record (190-112). It was good. Everywhere you go in the state, they talk about Minnesota basketball.

“Now that I think about it, there was 10 times more pressure on me at Minnesota than the NBA.”

Keller said he wants his basketball program to resemble the ones developed by John Thompson at Georgetown and Dean Smith at North Carolina, among others.

“I want a competitive, entertaining program that has its priorities straight,” he said. “We should recruit people to the university who want to be students. We should recruit people who have expectations that they will get degrees from the university. We want people we can be proud of. And then, also, I want to win.

“I don’t think we’ve taken the view that we’ve abandoned the program or that we’re going to make it totally noncompetitive in the league in which it functions. But we want to make changes and improvements without losing competitiveness.”

That would be easier, Keller admitted, if the Big Ten and other conferences made uniform changes concerning issues such as freshman eligibility and importance of producing revenue.

“In the last few years, there has been more talk (among university presidents) of change because people are getting nervous about whether they have control of their programs,” he said. “Our hope at Minnesota is to not let this incident pass without using it to help improve conditions here.”

In hindsight, Keller says he now feels more comfortable with his decision.

“I’ve already seen some positive signs,” he said.

When Minnesota plays Iowa today in a regionally televised game, the Gophers will dress 11 players who have practiced a week together without many distractions. Actually, the Gophers will have six players and five other bodies.

Three football players and two walk-ons who were above average local high school players have been added to the team. The most recent addition is 6-2 freshman Jon Retzlaff, whose 3.7 grade-point average will at least help the team in that category.

Despite the makeshift arrangements, an unexpected thing happened to the greatly depleted Gophers in their first game after the Madison incident. Before a surprisingly supportive crowd of 13,443 at Williams Arena--known here as the barn--Minnesota went with its starters virtually the entire game and beat Ohio State, 70-65.

The players and coaching staff said that he win was more satisfying than the Gophers’ upset over then-No. 2 Michigan two weeks earlier when they had a complete roster.

“It was a show of family, of togetherness,” Shasky said.

Two nights later, the Gophers had a 11-point lead over Indiana with 13 minutes left, but the starters tired and the Hoosiers won by eight.

So, life and basketball have gone on at Minnesota, but the program that was described as being one day away from disaster may still be months or years away from respectability.

“We’ve already bottomed out,” Keller said. “You have to start somewhere to make it better.”