LSU runs under a cloud

Late-morning sunlight slips through the giant oaks on the quad of Louisiana State University. A woman is poring over the pages of a book, undisturbed by the babbling fountain nearby. A handful of students on bicycles lazily crisscross the area, maneuvering through a series of pebble-covered benches as they head toward class.

It is the veritable picture of calm. Across campus at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, home of the Lady Tigers, it is a far different story.

The LSU women’s basketball team, known for an unyielding defense, is in its fourth consecutive Final Four and faces Rutgers today. But the players have been living with turmoil, a remnant of March 7, the day their well-liked head coach abruptly resigned.

Pokey Chatman, 37, a former LSU All-American point guard who went on to coach the Lady Tigers to a jaw-dropping 90-14 record in just under three seasons, is accused of having “improper contact” with a former player.

The stinging allegation also has shock force: her accuser, the one who went to university officials and whose timing has been questioned while triggering ugly whispers, is assistant coach Carla Berry, a longtime close friend.

The cost to Chatman, if not the team, is gut wrenching.

“Her great career has been reduced to one thing people will remember about her,” said Craig Guidry, a 20-year-old student here. “It’s been reduced to a pile of rubble.”

*

Chatman has kept her personal life private. Now, however, there is talk, the usual talk in a case like this -- that she is a lesbian, a sensitive issue not only in this strongly Catholic city but also in sports. That Chatman allegedly had a relationship with a former player has triggered even stronger reactions.

“We still aren’t knowing everything that went on, but if the allegations are true, it is a terrible abuse of power and a bad mark on the women’s game,” said Kara Lawson, a guard for the WNBA’s Sacramento Monarchs who was an All-American at Tennessee and is an ESPN analyst for this Final Four.

Although an LSU official said the resignation is “not a lesbian issue” but rather a “coaching behavior” situation, the case has drawn attention to that very issue.

“It’s a loaded issue; certainly there are a lot of stereotypes out there about women’s basketball -- a pervasive stereotype,” Lawson said.

“Again, to pass judgment on this without knowing the whole story is a dangerous thing, but if it’s like a teacher-student relationship in college or high school, we see cases like that all over the country. It’s not right, but it’s something that happens a lot. I can tell you as a player, that I’ve personally never seen anything remotely close to this: in high school and the collegiate and pro levels.”

LSU officials have refused to give any more details, now that Chatman has resigned, which, of course, has fueled speculation.

Even Lawson said her WNBA peers are “talking about who [the player] could have been.”

The chancellor and athletic director have not identified the former player allegedly involved, and won’t even say if the alleged contact took place while that player was still on the team.

The distress of losing their coach just as the NCAA tournament was about to begin could have devastated the team.

Not these players, who have been true to their motto: No mental clutter.

“Since we found out Coach was stepping down, we put it behind us. We came together like sisters. We duked it out,” said junior Sylvia Fowles, the dominating center often described as the female version of LSU great Shaquille O’Neal.

If anyone could be said to have taken up the gauntlet for Chatman, it is Fowles. On Monday, she had 23 points, 15 rebounds and six blocked shots in the 73-50 dismantling of top-seeded Connecticut. It was a tour de force, not only for Fowles but the whole team.

Guard Erica White said they knew that to get to the Final Four they would have to overcome the off-court drama.

“We weren’t going to be distracted,” she said. “I knew as soon as things started happening in the tournament that this team was focused. It’s how we were built. We’re a resilient group.”

Said guard Allison Hightower, “No mental clutter. We’ve really been taught that” by Chatman.

It was Hightower’s three unanswered three-pointers with 3:46 left in the first half that expanded LSU’s lead over the Huskies to 34-17. Yet she concedes she was hit hard by Chatman’s departure. Chatman had won an intense recruiting battle for the All-SEC freshman from Arlington, Texas.

“We’ve known from the beginning of the season we could do this, so even though this happened, we’ve said, ‘Let’s go ahead,’ ” Hightower said.

Fowles said Chatman’s resignation brought the team closer together.

“We’re going to be all right with what’s going on,” said Fowles. “We have no control over it. You can’t dwell on it, or it’ll bring you down.”

She also said Chatman has maintained telephone contact with her and several other players.

“She’s told me to play good, to keep a steady head,” Fowles said. “Pokey’s Pokey. From what I can tell, she’s doing OK.”

Attempts to reach Chatman were unsuccessful.

In Cleveland, site of today’s Final Four, it is clear the Lady Tigers have the opposition’s attention, even admiration.

“I think that the players and in particular the coaches have done an outstanding job of just focusing because this could have been a real mess,” Rutgers Coach C. Vivian Stringer said Saturday.

“How they’re doing it is beyond me, but they’ve been able to change it into something positive. In fact, they’ve become more dangerous. My sense is that they’re a team on a mission and probably because of this, they’re even more dangerous.”

Tennessee Coach Pat Summitt agrees.

“By the way they have come through this and the focus that they have had, I think it’s made them even stronger,” she said of LSU. “And certainly I know they’re even more determined.”

*

Although Chatman will be paid a $70,000 bonus because the Lady Tigers reached the Final Four -- on top of the $33,000 monthly salary she will continue drawing through April 30 -- Chancellor Sean O’Keefe, the former head of NASA, described her coaching future as “a judgment call that will be made in the fullness of time.”

Acting on a tip from Berry, senior associate athletic director Judy Southard accompanied the team on a February trip to Vanderbilt and then to the SEC tournament in March. According to the campus newspaper, the Daily Reveille, LSU officials since then have said they are convinced there was no inappropriate contact between Chatman and current players.

After the SEC tournament, Berry told Chatman why Southard was traveling with the team.

Chatman finally understood. She met with her team and struck a resignation agreement with LSU: Chatman could not be alone with any current player, and she would offer her resignation effective April 30.

Then it got worse.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune, citing sources who were briefed on the matter, reported that sexual improprieties motivated the resignation.

Chatman resigned immediately, ending an LSU connection that dated to her 1988-91 playing career with the Lady Tigers. She has not spoken publicly since this prepared statement: “My resignation ... has prompted speculation and rumors that far exceeded my expectations and it is clear that my presence would be a great distraction during the NCAA tournament.”

Chatman originally crafted the statement with the word “false” before rumors. LSU officials, armed with Chatman’s contract that included a “high morals” clause, made her take the word out. O’Keefe, the chancellor, said the university was prepared to launch a full investigation.

“You could see in Pokey’s eyes when she was here that she loved doing what she was doing,” said LSU student Amy Brittain, who has covered the story for the Daily Reveille. “The tragic aspect of this is that Pokey at 37 was thought of as the Pat Summitt of her generation. For it to maybe be all over in her 30s ...”

Funmi Soetan, an accounting major from Nigeria, is upset over the way the case has been handled.

“I’m shocked that she left with such a vague explanation,” Soetan said. “The students deserve better. People are throwing out names now” of who the former player might be. “We’re not kids, the administration should explain what happened.”

University officials have not clarified the extent of Chatman’s relationship with the former player, when it occurred, or whether it was an isolated incident.

“There’s absolutely no way or desire to explain how the remarkable career of the amazing and talented Pokey Chatman came to an end,” O’Keefe told The Times. “The most accurate thing to say is that she did the right thing.”

O’Keefe hinted that the alleged contact was an isolated incident.

“No one is claiming she was injured or wronged,” O’Keefe said of Chatman. “Any further review of the matter ended when Pokey decided to resign. This never got far enough in the discussion to ascertain a pattern. Once [Chatman] realized the scope of what she had done, she did right by the kids. She was driven solely to make that courageous decision under trying, amazing circumstances.”

Assistant athletic director Herb Vincent says he knows how difficult this is for Chatman, and for LSU.

“It’s an unfortunate situation. I don’t know if there’s ever going to be a happy ending to those who want the whole story,” he said. “They’re not privy to all the information, and we can only say so much about a personnel matter. We don’t like all the rumors and innuendo, but the team has been involved in the NCAA tournament. After Cleveland, I don’t know what will happen, and I can’t predict what coach Chatman’s next move is professionally. We wish her the best.”

At the campus quad, student reaction to the resignation varied, with most praising Chatman’s coaching skills and some questioning her personal life.

“I know if I was on the team, my parents wouldn’t want me involved any longer after this had come out,” said Brittany Gradwohl, 21, a psychology major.

Said football player and business major Jai Eugene, “Pokey is a grown woman and everyone in [the locker room] was a grown woman. It’s their own business.”

Sophomore biology science major Charles Belue disagreed.

“You can’t do what she did,” he said. “Most people around here don’t condone same-sex relationships, especially when it’s a coach in the relationship. It’s unacceptable, to the community and to the whole region and state. It’s embarrassing to us.”

Now, interim Coach Bob Starkey finds himself two victories from leading LSU (30-7) to its first basketball championship.

Starkey, a veteran assistant at LSU known for his sharp Xs and O’s insight, insists he doesn’t want the job, even if the Lady Tigers win the title. A search for a new coach will begin as soon as the NCAA tournament ends.

Berry’s interest in the job is unknown. She isn’t speaking publicly, but there was a March 7 e-mail to Starkey that was reported by newspapers. “Just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate your friendship in all this and now your leadership,” Berry wrote. “I had a rough night last night, but that’s the last time I’m going to take one for myself. I know I can’t dwell on what has happen(ed), what I had to do or Pokey.”

*

Inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center late last week, the tension was palpable. Berry was there, of course, as the team practiced. But so was a former player, one of Chatman’s best -- Temeka Johnson, the WNBA’s 2005 rookie of the year who now plays for the Sparks.

Johnson was there to support the team, but while she chatted easily with the other assistant coaches and a trainer, she walked past the stone-faced Berry twice, in silence, eyes downward. And while the players were willing to talk, Johnson was not.

“I have nothing to say,” she barked, and jogged off toward a hallway off limits to reporters.

O’Keefe addressed the team Wednesday. “I told them that what they’ve learned and experienced in this season are lessons no one will likely experience in a lifetime,” he said.

Even Starkey admitted, “Maybe [the resignation] did help their focus. Adversity, if a team is close, will make a team closer. Think about any time you’ve had to deal with something major as a family; the family comes together.”

It is a long road to the Final Four, but not as long as what LSU players have traveled in these last four weeks. If a title is won, Fowles know what she’ll be thinking.

“I’ll think of my coaches, all their hard work,” Fowles said. “That would go all back to them.”

Chatman too?

“Yeah, her too,” Fowles said.

*

Times staff writer Jerry Crowe contributed to this report from Cleveland.

lance.pugmire@latimes.com