Tuesday, March 11, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
SUN WIRE REPORTS
Fresno State basketball guard Dominick Young says he doesn't remember an alleged gambler the Fresno Bee claims talked with Young at a nightclub.
"I don't recollect coming across the individual they are talking about," Young said at a press conference on Monday.
One of his three attorneys, Mike Karago zian, said Young "doesn't even know who they're talking about. It could be one of hundreds of people who have approached him at nightspots."
The newspaper reported Thursday that university officials, and possibly law enforcement, are investigating rumors that Fresno State players shaved points.
The article said the investigation focuses on Young. The Bee added that he was seen at a nightclub after one game with a Fresno businessman the Bee identified as a "sizable sports bettor with ties to organized bookmaking."
Attorney Ernest Kinney demanded Monday that The Bee print "a full and complete retraction of any wrongdoing, of betting, betting probe whatsoever."
Co-counsel Michael Idiart said he wants The Bee to publish a statement that "they have no evidence of point-shaving, and they have no evidence of gambling."
The Bee's executive editor, J. Keith Moyer, later issued a statement defending the newspaper's coverage of this issue.
"The Fresno Bee stands squarely behind its reporting that law enforcement agencies are investigating the possibility of point-shaving during Fresno State basketball games," Moyer said.
He said suggestions by Young's attorneys "that The Bee was the initial source of the rumors are patently false as are claims by Fresno State basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian that The Bee prevailed upon the Federal Bureau of Investigation to initiate an inquiry."
Moyer's statement concluded that The Bee "will continue to report this story in the same fair and balanced manner in which we have done up to this point."
* OHIO STATE FIRES COACHES: The Ohio State basketball programs led by men's coach Randy Ayers and women's coach Nancy Darsch had a lot in common. On Monday, they were fired together. The coaches were let go by athletic director Andy Geiger, who cited programs that "were not progressing." Both Ayers and Darsch and their programs enjoyed success earlier in the decade, Ayers winning two Big Ten titles and being selected national coach of the year and Darsch taking her 1993 team to the national championship game. But for the last four years, the women's program failed to finish in the first division of the Big Ten, and the men's team had four straight losing seasons -- something that never happened before in the 98 years the school played the sport.
* BLANEY OUT AT SETON HALL: George Blaney was fired as Seton Hall's basketball coach and athletic director Larry Keating resigned Monday, less than a week after the team finished its second straight losing season. Keating's resignation was submitted only after he refused a directive from the university president to fire Blaney, who was hired three years ago after P.J. Carlesimo left to coach the Portland Trail Blazers. Blaney had two years left on a contract that pays him about $300,000 annually. The dismissal came just four days after Rutgers, New Jersey's other Big East school, fired coach Bob Wenzel after nine seasons.
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