North Carolina State basketball Coach Jim Valvano...

North Carolina State basketball Coach Jim Valvano and two former players denied allegations of point-shaving in a basketball game against Tampa in 1986.

Chief investigator William Dowdy of the State Bureau of Investigation told the Greensboro (N.C.) News and Record that the bureau is probing the Dec. 27, 1986, game between then 12th-ranked North Carolina State and the Division II school. The Wolfpack lost, 67-62.

The investigation began after an admission by former Wolfpack player Charles Shackleford that he had accepted $65,000 as a gift while at the school.

ABC News reported that “inside sources” said Shackleford and three teammates conspired to fix the season finale against Wake Forest, plus as many as three games, in return for money from New Jersey contractor Robert Kramer.

Howard Shaw, the Denville, N.J., police chief, said Valvano has not been implicated.

Valvano said he was “angry, bitterly disappointed and discouraged” by the allegations.

“I feel helpless,” he said. “I’m a spectator right along with everyone else. I had no knowledge, no idea about what transpired. I’m learning about it with everybody else.”