COMMENTARY : Wolfpack Sentence Too Light

North Carolina State should get rid of its current mascots, a guy and a gal running around in wolf suits, and go for something more appropriate--like maybe a four-leaf clover cavorting with a rabbit’s foot.

Talk about luck.

The ‘Pack was packed in it Tuesday when the NCAA announced a relatively light sentence of two years’ probation for the basketball program’s latest series of indiscretions.

“Latest” is used here because North Carolina State has a history of operating very close to and over the line when it comes to rules. Do the names Everett Case, Norm Sloan and David Thompson ring a bell?

Charlie Eckman tells the story of when he was coaching in the NBA at Fort Wayne, Ind., in the mid-’50s: Case, the father of college hoops in the South, saw a list of the money some of Eckman’s pros were making and said, “Some of my players are right there with them.”

Recall, there was a huge brouhaha over the recruitment of Thompson out of Shelby, N.C., which led to an earlier censure of the Wolfpack program. Folks around Raleigh, N.C., are nearly unanimous in their feelings that all penalties received were worth it since Thompson led his team to the national championship.

The no-no’s State was found guilty of and is being penalized for cover the sale of tickets and sneakers by its players. Get that, it’s the hirelings who caused all the problems, not the coach, the athletic department and the school itself.

Bet some of those ingrates slipped off the dean’s list from time to time, too.

It was just a few months ago when an investigation, ordered up by the Board of Governors of the 16-school University of North Carolina system, uncovered widespread academic abuse in the basketball program, stating, “The rules have been manipulated in order to serve one overriding purpose: keep the players eligible.”

Yet, NCAA director of infractions Charles Smrt said, “This is not a typical major infractions case that we usually deal with. This is not a case where there’s academic irregularities . . .”

Some of the academic abuses uncovered included the changing of three failing grades to passing for former Wolfpack pivotman Chris Washburn, who breezed into school on the wings of a smashing 470 (out of 1600) performance on the Scholastic Aptitude Test . . . seven years’ worth of memos written by faculty members and sent to administrators complaining about poor academic performances by athletes that went unheeded . . . tutors doing course work for athletes . . . athletes caught cheating but still receiving passing grades . . . and the piece de resistance, one of the lads on the 1983 team carrying a grade point average of 0.23 while on the way to the national championship.

Meanwhile, all this and lots more was apparently OK with N.C. State Chancellor Bruce Poulton, who, in defense of the man in the midst of all this skulduggery, said, “Jim Valvano was hired to coach basketball. His record as a coach is a tremendously successful one. The faculty at N.C. State is charged with the academic oversight of students. The athletic department does not have the responsibility of students being students.”

Ponder that last statement for a moment. As a result of this internal investigation, Poulton was sent packing, Valvano was forced to give up his dual role of athletic director and yet the NCAA states, “this is not a case where there’s academic irregularities.” Right.

Valvano conceded that being barred from “March Madness” was “as serious a hurt and blow as I have had personally in my life.” But, graciously, he added, “we accept the NCAA findings and its punishment.”

Considering the emasculated list of charges brought against State and the ensuing tap on the wrist, it bodes well for Maryland when it rises in the docket at its sentencing hearing, probably in February.

The sale of Atlantic Coast Conference tournament tickets and the dealing in sporting goods equipment and clothing by Terp players is one thing the school has admitted to. Other indiscretions in College Park, Md., included use of cars, players working frequent flier miles for personal use and other little misdemeanors far removed from the felonious academic irregularities.

There is one nagging charge hanging over the situation, however; namely, that of former basketball Coach Bob Wade and his assistants failing to cooperate during the NCAA’s preliminary inquiry, then slipping a little white lie or two into the investigation concerning their involvement in the case.

A couple of months ago, the NCAA brought eight charges against N.C. State, but, during a closed-door session, the school was able to get two of them dropped. It then got to work on instituting its own reforms and controls and otherwise proved what good little boys they had become. They curtailed recruiting and cut a basketball scholarship or two.

Similar to State, Maryland sensed the error in its ways and, for the last few months, piled up brownie points by inflicting penalties and sanctions on transgressors while cooperating to a fault. Such actions impress the NCAA as well they should.

There is a chance the ‘Pack will have to return some of the TV money it has accrued over the years and this could be the toughest penalty of all. See, N.C. State is presently in the process of collecting $50 million to build a spiffy new 25,000-seat arena, which can’t help but keep sports in proper perspective at this fountain of learning.