North Carolina St., Valvano Start Out Amid Controversy

The exhibition game was over, and as the members of the North Carolina State basketball team filed back into their dressing room at Reynolds Coliseum, they seemed to know what was coming. Another round of questions, the kind of full-court press they are tired of seeing -- and reading about the next day.

For the last 10 months, head coach Jim Valvano and his program have been under suspicion, and under siege. The Wolfpack, once the object of unabashed affection, now is being bashed along Tobacco Road.

“Everyone is not going to like what you represent,” center Avie Lester said. “You get to know who your friends are real quick.”

The controversy has swirled here since Jan. 7, the day a Raleigh newspaper printed the contents of the dust jacket on Peter Golenbock’s book, “Personal Fouls: Broken Promises and Shattered Dreams of Big Money Basketball at Jim Valvano’s North Carolina State.” In essence, it charged Valvano with running a dirty program.

It still is swirling, as the 1989-90 college basketball season begins Wednesday night.

There is a great deal of uncertainty, both on and off the court, as the Wolfpack opens with a first-round home game against Richmond in the preseason National Invitation Tournament. Some of the questions will be answered possibly this week when N.C. State learns whether it will be sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

Many of the allegations contained in the book -- including grade-fixing, altering the results of drug tests and payoffs by boosters in cash and cars -- have proved unfounded after investigations by the National Collegiate Athletic Association and a commission appointed by the North Carolina University System.

The NCAA charged the program with eight potential violations (one of which was dropped), including players scalping their tickets to the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament and selling their sneakers for inflated prices.

The state-appointed Poole Commission, in its 32-page report, concluded that Valvano and his coaching staff circumvented rules so they could keep players eligible. It recommended that Valvano, who also had been the school’s athletic director for the past three years, keep just one of the jobs. To show it was serious about correcting the problem, N.C. State sanctioned itself by prohibiting any off-campus basketball recruiting this year.

Yet the controversy remains. Whether it can be a rallying point, as it was last season when the Wolfpack won the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title, remains to be seen.

“Last season the team pulled together during the adversity,” Valvano said recently. “It could be the same this year, or it could tear things apart.”

A few questions are left to be answered, some pertaining to basketball:

How will the 19th-ranked Wolfpack recover from the loss of starting center Chucky Brown, now with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and last year’s one-man bench, Kelsey Weems?

How will junior guards Chris Corchiani and Rodney Monroe handle defenses designed to stop them?

How will Valvano deal with the first real significant, and widespread, criticism during his colorful and successful career?

Another matter for debate is Lester’s status. A senior whose eligibility this season hinged on his performance in summer school, Lester finds himself in limbo. He is eligible, according to the academic standards of the NCAA, ACC and N.C. State. But a recommendation made to the Poole commission by Valvano to toughen academic guidelines for his players has left Lester sidelined temporarily. As of Tuesday, it still was not clear whether he would be in the lineup Wednesday.

What no one seems to dispute is that the start of a new season is a welcome relief for Valvano and his players. “We’re really glad to get out and play,” said Monroe, a former St. Maria Goretti star who is considered the preseason favorite for ACC Player of the Year. “I don’t know what’s going to happen with the NCAA. If we do get some sort of probation, we’ll deal with it, and just go on like we’ve done in the past.”

Valvano said, “Let the games begin.”

Much of N.C. State’s success this year will hinge on Valvano’s resiliency. After nine years at N.C. State, and nearly two decades as a college head coach, Valvano’s horizons have continued to broaden. Last spring he did a nationally syndicated television show called “The Lighter Side of Sports.” He was a candidate for a couple of professional coaching jobs, most seriously with the Los Angeles Clippers, and he turned down an offer from UCLA.

Many of Valvano’s coaching peers say they believe this 10th season will be his last in Raleigh.

“He wants to be in the NBA, or doing television,” said a college coach who has known Valvano for 15 years. “This whole thing has worn him out.”

Harold Hopfenberg, a career academician at N.C. State who took over as the university’s interim athletic director Oct. 16, said: “I have no idea if that’s true. Our conversations have gone in the opposite direction. He has talked about what kind of team we’ll have in a couple of years. I don’t know Jim well enough to know what he’s thinking about privately, but obviously this isn’t unreasonable speculation. It would not shock me. It would not surprise me.”

There are some who think that Valvano might not have a choice, that the bright-red welcome mat Valvano turned into his own magic carpet by winning the national championship in 1983 is tattered. The recent episode, certainly the most devastating in terms of his reputation, has taken its toll.

Valvano is trying not only to rebuild his team, but his image as well. He still quotes Mark Twain and Rudyard Kipling, as well as Princeton Coach Pete Carril, but Valvano has toned down his act considerably. The faucet of one-liners has been shut off, at least for public consumption. “I’m a more private person,” said Valvano, 43. “I don’t think I’ve lost my sense of humor, but I do share it more sparingly.”