Wednesday, March 19, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
SUN WIRE REPORTS
Unwilling to jeopardize Derek Anderson's professional career, Kentucky coach Rick Pitino said the senior star will not play in the Wildcats' remaining NCAA Tournament games.
"Derek has proven his point," Pitino said Tuesday night in a statement from San Jose, Calif., where the defending national champion Wildcats will play St. Joseph's Thursday night in a West Regional semifinal.
"He's practiced three times with us and it is obvious that he's ready to play. We'll continue to get him ready for the NBA camp in Phoenix April 4, but we will not risk his pro career by playing him in the NCAA tournament."
Anderson, who tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee less than two months ago, was examined Tuesday by Dr. Art Ting, a sports medicine specialist at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation who serves as the team physician for the San Francisco Giants, San Jose Sharks and Oakland Raiders.
While Ting supported Kentucky team physician David Caborn's opinion that Anderson was ready to return, Pitino is not taking any chances.
Caborn, who performed the surgery Jan. 22, said Tuesday that Anderson has made a remarkable recovery, that all medical assessments of his knee are positive, and that he's been practicing this week without problems.
"If I felt ... he had a greater potential to re-injure the knee now than he would in six or eight months, I wouldn't be letting him play," Caborn said. "There is no scientific evidence to say this ligament in his knee will be any stronger at four or five months (after surgery) than it is today."
When he was injured, Anderson was leading the Southeastern Conference in scoring (18.6), was third in steals (2.0) and was fourth in both field-goal percentage (49.1) and 3-point percentage (40.4).
* KNIGHT ACCUSED: Neil Reed is accusing Indiana coach Bob Knight of verbally and physically abusing the junior guard and pressuring him to leave the basketball program. "If the choice were mine, I would have returned to Indiana University," Reed said in a statement Tuesday. "But the choice was not mine. Coach Knight has made it clear that in making those decisions about my future, he is accountable to no one." Reed's statement also included vague references to Knight verbally and physically abusing coaches and players, though he did not elaborate. Reed said he was singled out by Knight for criticism and made the focal point of the coach's abuse.
* MICHIGAN INVESTIGATION: The law firm hired to investigate the University of Michigan basketball program will examine claims that drugs and alcohol were present at a 1996 party attended by players and a recruit. "I can assure you, we'll look into this," Keith Molin, a spokesman for the university's athletic department, said Tuesday. Molin was responding to a Lansing State Journal report in which a woman who was present at the Feb. 17, 1996, party said the players' Detroit hotel room smelled of marijuana, and she saw at least one player drinking alcohol.
* FOGLER STAYS PUT: Eddie Fogler plans to stay on as basketball coach at the University of South Carolina. And he's getting a hefty pay raise in the process. Fogler, pursued by Ohio State and Rutgers after guiding the Gamecocks to their best season in a quarter-century, accepted a contract extension Tuesday that will pay him an extra $100,000 annually. The school exercised its annual rollover of Fogler's five-year contract, taking it through the 2001-2002 season.
* SHORT SEARCH: The search that led to the hiring of Tommy Amaker as Seton Hall's basketball coach didn't last long. Just hours after firing George Blaney last week, university president Monsignor Robert Sheeran had already targeted Amaker, 31, as the man to restore Seton Hall to basketball prominence. "You are the only person we've talked to and there are no other candidates right now," Sheeran told Amaker last Wednesday at a meeting in Durham, N.C.
* WRIGHT COACH: Ed Schilling, who has coaching experience from high school to the pros, says his most exciting challenge is his new job as coach of Wright State. "Wright State has entrusted me with not only the direction of their basketball program, but also the direction of their young men," Schilling said. He's an assistant coach for the New Jersey Nets of the NBA.
* TENNESSEE EYES McCARTHY: Chattanooga Mocs coach Mack McCar thy says the only job he's interested in right now is leading his team to a NCAA Southeast Regional victory over Providence. Published reports Tuesday said McCarthy, whose underdog team is the surprise of the tournament after upset wins over Georgia and Illinois, is a prospect for the vacant head coaching job at Tennessee.
* MURDER-SUICIDE: Police are treating the shooting deaths of Baskerville Holmes, a member of Memphis' 1985 Final Four basketball team, and his girlfriend as a murder-suicide. Holmes told police he accidentally shot his girlfriend Tuesday. He then shot himself a few minutes later, a television station reported, but police would not confirm that report. Both Tanya C. Franklin, 28, and Holmes, 32, were dead when police arrived at their home. Lt. Richard True of the Memphis police department said they were investigating the deaths as a murder-suicide.
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