Sloan Out at Florida; Interim Coach Is DeVoe

Norm Sloan resigned as coach of Florida’s basketball team Tuesday, leaving a program that has been under NCAA investigation and was recently linked to a federal drug case.

Don DeVoe, former Tennessee basketball coach, was hired as interim coach. DeVoe was at Tennessee for 11 months before being fired last March.

“I think if I do a good enough job, I can stay,” DeVoe said.

Just two weeks after maintaining that Florida’s program was clean and he didn’t intend to quit, Sloan resigned at the request of the University Athletic Assn., a private governing body that runs the athletic department.

“Its officials have presented evidence that certain student athletes (not now enrolled) during my tenure have received benefits above those allowed by the NCAA,” Sloan said in a letter to school officials.

Sloan, who had a contract through 1991, will be paid a lump sum of $139,000. Sloan, 63, left with a record of 627-395 for 37 years of collegiate coaching, including a 235-194 mark in 15 years at Florida. But his final year was troubled.

An internal investigation of Florida’s basketball and football programs began after the Drug Enforcement Administration opened an inquiry into alleged drug trafficking at the university.

“It doesn’t seem fair. If you could have seen him in the locker room, he about broke down,” center Dwayne Schintzius told the St. Petersburg Times. “I’ve never seen him like that. For him to have to tell me and the rest of the guys that, it was really something.”

Vernon Maxwell, a former Gator star now with the San Antonio Spurs, reportedly told a federal grand jury that Florida coaches made secret payments to him dating to high school and that he used some of the money to buy drugs.

Major league baseball players who filed for free agency, along with relief pitcher Mark Davis and outfielder Carmelo Martinez include, infielder Dave Anderson and pitcher John Tudor of the Dodgers, New York Met first baseman Keith Hernandez and pitchers Dennis (Oil Can) Boyd, Dennis Lamp and Greg Harris of the Boston Red Sox.

Others filing were Tony Phillips of the Oakland Athletics, Craig Lefferts and Pat Sheridan of the San Francisco Giants, Keith Moreland and Mark Thurmond of the Baltimore Orioles, Garry Pettis of the Detroit Tigers, Ed Romero of the Milwaukee Brewers, Bryn Smith of the Montreal Expos, Steve Lake of the Philadelphia Phillies, and Jim Gott and Neal Heaton of the Pittsburgh Pirates.