Commentary : Maryland Is Letting Wade Twist in the Wind

It’s not heaven, hell or purgatory. The status is limbo, which is where Maryland basketball coach Bob Wade is right now.

It doesn’t make for a pretty picture. He’s left swinging in the breeze. When is all the torment going to end? The unfortunate thing is it didn’t have to be handled this way. After all, the discussion is about a basketball coach at the University of Maryland and not a common criminal.

Are Wade’s days numbered? If so, Athletic Director Lew Perkins doesn’t want to be the one to fire him because then the university would be obligated to pay the two remaining years on his contract.

Wade may not have been thrown to the wolves, but certainly there’s no evidence of anyone in an official capacity running to his rescue to drive the hungry pack away.

There has yet to be even a mild vote of confidence from those in command. Perkins hasn’t come to Wade’s defense. The current investigation by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, if any wrongdoing is found, will give the university just reason to terminate his services and tell Wade to clean out his desk.

If it happens that way, Maryland gets off the hook for any unfulfilled salary obligation because Wade will have violated the basic rules of his employment. So the NCAA, a responsible organization that does a commendable job under difficult circumstances, would ostensibly be doing the dirty work for Perkins.

Perkins could step aside and say he had nothing to do with firing Wade and be literally correct, but the record also would show he never came to his aid. He just let him dangle.

Meanwhile, the new university president, Dr. William Kirwan, hasn’t done anything to clarify the matter. This is terribly disappointing. Kirwan ought to be exerting more leadership, unless he’s trying to act the part of a wimp. What he is doing, inadvertently, is helping Perkins turn Wade into a martyr.

The day he got the job, Kirwan should have moved to the fore, and as one of his first official acts of business, he should have told Wade and Perkins he wanted to see them. It was urgent, a top priority. He could have informed them in graphic terms that what’s happening isn’t in the best interests of the school.

He could have said that Perkins and Wade should immediately resolve any personal problems, if indeed any existed between them, and either admit, or deny, publicly that rules had been broken in regard to recruiting. But Kirwan has been mute. Is this the way for the chief executive officer of a state’s most important educational institution to operate? He ought to be out front clearing the issues.

There are worse things than firing the basketball coach, even if his name is Bob Wade. Kirwan was in lock step formation with chancellor John Slaughter when Wade was hired from Dunbar High School in Baltimore.

Some members of Maryland’s faculty, the black membership, came out with a statement in support of Wade. That was most unusual. It sounded as if it were becoming a black-white issue. Kirwan is the one who should have asserted himself, but he elected not to get involved.

Around the country, sportswriters are telling each other they hear Wade is going to get the gate. It wouldn’t be surprising if the coach has heard similar conjecture himself. Maryland said two months ago it was initiating its own investigation of reports that assistant coaches, serving under Wade, had transported former player Rudy Archer to classes at a junior college. Because Archer, sitting out the year for failing to meet academic requirements, still has eligibility remaining, he is considered a recruitable athlete by NCAA rules. Therefore, providing free transportation for him violates NCAA rules.

That was on Feb. 20. By now, you would expect Wade to be either indicted or acquitted. But no verdict has been handed down. Then on March 13, another announcement was made that an NCAA investigating team was looking into any possible improprieties. More cloak and dagger.

Steve Hood, who transferred from Maryland to James Madison University, was quoted as saying he had been interviewed by NCAA investigators and said he believed, from his own assessment of how certain questions were asked, that the NCAA may have found more than expected. That leaves open the question of whether the investigation is broadening.