Point-Shaving Allegations Bring Probe at Fresno State

Rumors of Fresno State basketball players shaving points this season have prompted college and law enforcement authorities to investigate, the Fresno Bee reported Thursday.

But Fresno State Coach Jerry Tarkanian denied the report, saying the newspaper had requested the investigation.

“There’s no basis to the article,” Tarkanian said. “The newspaper asked the FBI to look into it.”

Tarkanian said the rumors have focused on point guard Dominick Young but added that he was sure Young and other players had not shaved points.

“He’s so upset,” Tarkanian said. “I want someone to investigate this because it’s the worst thing you can say about someone--that they shaved points.”

Young said he never has been asked to keep a winning score under the point spread. Point-shaving by a college athlete is a federal crime.

“I’ve never even heard anything about it until coach came up to me,” Young said. “That’s ridiculous. I don’t even understand how a rumor like that gets started.”

Later in the day, Texas Christian drubbed Fresno State in a Western Athletic Conference tournament quarterfinal game at Reno, 106-81. Young had nine points, making three of 15 shots.

Fresno State president Jon Welty told the newspaper the university is investigating and is in contact with the WAC and NCAA.

Tennis

Goran Ivanisevic and Richard Krajicek, the top two seeded players, struggled but survived their second-round matches at the ABN AMRO indoor tournament at Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Ivanisevic, fifth in the world in the ATP Tour rankings, outlasted 89th-ranked Guillaume Raoux of France, 7-5, 6-7 (7-5), 6-3.

Krajicek, the reigning Wimbledon champion, was extended to tiebreakers before edging 59th-ranked David Prinosil of Germany, 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (7-5).

College Football

Iowa Coach Hayden Fry has agreed to a contract extension that will take him into the next century with the Hawkeyes. The one-year extension goes through the 2000 season and will keep Fry under contract until June 30, 2001. Fry has a 133-76-6 record in 18 seasons at Iowa and is 222-165-10 in his career.

Auto Racing

Tim Bender, best known for winning 11 world snowmobile championships, earned the pole position for Saturday’s NASCAR Busch Grand National race at Atlanta Motorspeedway.

Bender, who will start Saturday’s race from the inside of the front row, set an Atlanta Motor Speedway qualifying record with a lap of 179.835 mph on the 1 1/2-mile track.

Winter Sports

The coronation of Sweden’s Pernilla Wiberg as overall World Cup women’s Alpine champion was delayed when the super-giant slalom at Mammoth Mountain was postponed because of high winds.

The super-G will be held at 9 a.m., followed by the slalom, which was scheduled for today. Wiberg is favored to win the overall women’s title and possibly the Super G and slalom titles.

At Craftsbury, Vt., Frode Lillefjell and Doris Hausleitner won the men’s and women’s cross-country races for the University of Alaska Anchorage in the NCAA ski championships.

Olympic gold medalist Mark Kirchner of Germany, shooting all 20 targets, won his first gold medal of the season in a 20-kilometer race in the Biathlon World Cup series at Nozawa Onsen, Japan. Slovenia’s Andraja Grasic won the women’s 15-kilometer event.

Names in the News

Mississippi State quarterback Derrick Taite and wide receiver James Jones will appear in court March 27 on drug charges. They were arrested when a small amount of marijuana was discovered in their car by Starkville (Miss.) police at a roadblock. Both were suspended by Coach Jackie Sherrill. Taite, the driver, also was arrested for driving on a suspended license.

Free-agent punter John Jett, who has spent his career with the Dallas Cowboys, has signed a three-year, $1.5-million contract with the Detroit Lions, according to a radio report in Dallas. . . . George Pasero, an award-winning sports editor and columnist for the Oregon Journal and the Portland Oregonian, died Thursday of a stroke. He was 79. . . . Former champions Jeff King, Doug Swingley, and Martin Buser held the top three positions as the Iditarod Trail sled dog race neared the halfway point in Alaska. Race officials also announced that a third dog had died.