Laettner Gets No Stamp of Approval

Christian Laettner will be playing basketball Saturday when Duke continues its goal of becoming the first back-to-back national champions since UCLA’s.

But why?

He shouldn’t be.

Laettner should be on the Duke bench, wearing street clothes.

Laettner should be suspended.

Laettner should have to wait to see if Duke could defeat Indiana without him. He should be sweating out whether he has any college eligibility left.

Saturday’s game will be far more entertaining because he is playing, because Laettner is an excellent athlete who last Saturday gave us one of the classic performances in the history of college hoops.

But it isn’t fair.

There is a double standard in this tournament, in this sport and in this society, and once again you are witnessing it.

Otherwise, why would a Connecticut player be suspended for an entire NCAA tournament game for deliberately attempting to injure Christian Laettner, whereas all the punishment Laettner receives is a technical foul for deliberately attempting to injure a player from Kentucky?

I already have heard all the arguments:

--That what the Connecticut guy did was worse.

--That the referees never saw what the Connecticut guy did, but did call a technical on Laettner.

--That Laettner is a senior and he can’t sit out a game next season the way the Connecticut guy did.

Bull, man.

I’m not buying any of this.

Christian Laettner is playing basketball Saturday because everybody wants to see him play. Period.

Nobody wants Duke to do without him. Nobody wants to spoil a potentially sensational game with Indiana. Nobody wants Duke to feel robbed of its shot at defending the crown.

This is the “Who Framed Roger Clemens?” thing all over again--don’t penalize all the players when they do stuff, only the ones nobody would miss.

Look, I saw what Rod Sellers did to Laettner in last year’s tournament. I was there in Pontiac, Mich., when the Connecticut player squeezed Laettner’s head like a cantaloupe and tried to thump it against the Silverdome floor.

It hurt to watch it. It was nasty.

I was sorry that the officials missed it, and I was pleased when NCAA officials used the TV replay as grounds to suspend Sellers for one game of the 1992 tournament.

A couple of weeks ago, Connecticut had every bit as much chance to take the national championship as any of the 63 other teams. OK, so Duke is superior. The best team doesn’t always win.

But the Huskies had to do without Sellers in their opening game. They won, but they could have lost. It wasn’t as easy as it could have been, but that’s the price teammates paid for the stunt that Sellers pulled.

Well, no way Duke could have won last week’s monster game with Kentucky without Laettner. He made the last-gasp shot. He got the points, the rebounds, the glory. And he deserved everything he got.

But he also could have blown the game, the season and immortality for Duke with a technical foul he drew. Remember, this game was settled by one point.

For whatever reason, when Laettner took his foot and stepped down hard on the chest of Kentucky’s Aminu Timberlake, it was no less nasty than what Sellers did to him.

Unless maybe you believe that it’s OK to stomp a guy on the chest, just so long as you don’t thump his head.

Are we to believe that the penalty for committing a flagrant foul without being caught is to be suspended for an entire tournament game, whereas the penalty for being caught is to award the opponent a couple of free throws and the ball?

That’s what an NCAA committee ruled Monday.

Laettner stays. Laettner plays.

“Some people have said the penalty would have been more severe if he had been a black player,” CBS-TV’s Billy Packer commented. “That borders on the ludicrous.”

Tell that to a black player. Tell that to Sellers, who is one.

Quickly, on the USC-UCLA-UNLV coaching fronts:

First, the good news.

George Raveling is sticking around as coach at USC. He’s got a new contract and deserves every penny. Raveling is the best thing to happen to Trojan basketball and he will continue to be--with or without Harold Miner (probably without).

Next, more good news.

Rollie Massimino is the new coach at Nevada Las Vegas, which hardly could have done better. Rollie is good with players, good with the public and has, like Jerry Tarkanian, a personality that will play well on the Strip. (I can see those T-shirts now: “Rollie’s Runnin’ Rebels.”)

Finally, the non-news.

Jim Harrick had to deny Thursday that he might leave UCLA to be Massimino’s replacement at Villanova. A run-amok radio talk-show rumor resulted in Harrick’s saying:

“I am not a candidate for the Villanova head-coaching position and I have not spoken with anyone regarding it. We just completed a successful 28-5 year and I’m looking forward to the 1992-93 season.”

With these three coaches?

Me, too.