Driesell Still Under the Spotlight at Maryland

John B. Slaughter, chancellor of the University of Maryland, said Wednesday that the refusal of a Prince George’s County grand jury to indict basketball Coach Lefty Driesell for obstruction of justice “doesn’t change any of the issues before me, at all.”

Slaughter said his key concern is “making certain that our (basketball) program is operated in a way consistent with our desires--to have a program of integrity and quality.” He said no decision on Driesell’s future would be made until the grand jury investigating the cocaine-induced death of star player Len Bias makes its report at the end of September.

“I don’t think anything’s behind us,” Slaughter said.

“I certainly think the public needs to know exactly what happened. All of us hope the grand jury investigation will provide that. Whether it (the explanation) comes from the coach or not, all of us want to know the facts of the matter.”

Slaughter and Athletic Director Dick Dull said they did not know until recently that Driesell and his agent, Lee Fentress, exchanged several telephone calls on the morning of June 19, when Bias collapsed in his dormitory suite and died two hours later. Fentress allegedly advised Driesell to have the suite cleaned up.

Wednesday, a day after State’s Attorney Arthur A. Marshall Jr. of Prince George’s County, Md., said the university should explore “very carefully” the idea of firing Driesell, the coach continued to refuse comment.

“I’m not interested in what he (Marshall) thinks,” Driesell told the Associated Press from his beach house in South Bethany Beach, Del. “I don’t have any comment.”

Driesell did receive a vote of support from Dull: “He’s still our coach, and rightly so. I haven’t wavered in my support of him throughout this experience. I never thought Lefty engaged in criminal conduct, and I think that was evident to the grand jury.”