Saturday, January 16, 1999
Refs confident
gambling not
their problem
They don't mind that the
By Pat Bigold
NCAA will start doing
background checks
Star-BulletinNCAA basketball officials were irate when Indiana coach Bobby Knight suggested last month on ESPN that referees would be the most vulnerable parties in attempts to fix games.
''I mean, if we only knew the truth about games that were controlled by officials having gambling interests, I think it would be amazing,'' Knight said to ESPN analyst Digger Phelps.
Hank Nichols, head of NCAA referees, was also upset and implied Knight could face some sort of sanction. But the NCAA decided to take no action against Knight for his comment.
Now, according to executive director Cedric Dempsey, the NCAA is moving toward conducting formal criminal background checks on both men's and women's officials who work the NCAA tournament.
Concern about the dangerous influence of betting on college sports has been fueled by point-shaving scandals at Arizona State and Northwestern in recent years, as well as a University of Michigan study released this week that says nearly 35 percent of student-athletes have gambled on sports.
Bill Saum, who oversees NCAA gambling enforcement, endorses the plan to check up on officials and said he has invited Knight to turn over any specific information about referees to him.
But with no evidence of wrongdoing by referees, do the striped jerseys feel they're being singled out unfairly?
Longtime NCAA referee Larry Stubing, a former Anaheim Angels coach who now works as full-time a scout for the franchise, said Dempsey's and Saum's remarks do not bother him.
''Doesn't bother me at all -- water off my back," said Stubing, who works the WAC tournament before heading off to spring training. ''If you have any guilty conscience, you shouldn't be in this game at all. I do this as a hobby and I've been it 28 years. If they want to check my background, they can go ahead and do it."
The NCAA has already been taking measures to oversee security for officials working the Final Four, including meetings with FBI agents and changing of lodging and transportation plans.
Saum has denied Knight's remarks had anything to do with the NCAA's plans to check officials.
''They can do what they want -- I don't have a thought on it one way or the other," said Randy McCall, another official who checked into a Waikiki hotel last night. McCall is athletic director at Cherry Creek High School in Englewood, Colorado.
Mark Reischling, the third NCAA official working at the Stan Sheriff Center on Hawaii's games tonight against Brigham Young and Monday against Utah, could not be reached. Coaches contacted expressed surprise and annoyance at the NCAA's stance on officials.
Utah coach Rick Majerus, whose team lost in the NCAA championship last year, said he doesn't think the NCAA's concerns about referees are well-founded.
''Of all my worries that night, the reputation and the integrity of the officials was not one of them," said Majerus. ''In these times of bureaucratic abyss, something like that doesn't surprise me. I'm more concerned that my heart surgeon is board worthy than I am that an official has made a $10 bet on a Rose Bowl some time in his life."
Hawaii coach Riley Wallace said he thinks the move by NCAA officials to probe officials' backgrounds is more designed to reinforce the notion nationwide that they are deadly serious about gambling.
''I think they're just carrying it out to put the scare into people that they are checking and that you'd better be clean," said Wallace. ''I don't think they have any evidence against officials. I certainly haven't heard anything like that."
Brigham Young coach Steve Cleveland expressed shock that officials were being singled out for the criminal checks.
p''I can't imagine them coming out publicly with this indictment, because that's basically what it is, and not have it warranted,'' said Cleveland. p''I haven't always agreed with every official who's called my games but I've never ever questioned their integrity."
