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| Saturday, March 8 Updated: March 9, 8:39 AM ET Lawsuit claims Harrick broke NCAA rules at URI ESPN.com news services |
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Jim Harrick said last week that the truth would come out, but new allegations have surfaced against Georgia's men's basketball coach. According to court records from Christine King's lawsuit against the University of Rhode Island, the Providence Journal reported Saturday that the documents detail sexual harassment charges and allegations that Harrick changed some players' grades and arranged for players' term papers to be written by other students. Harrick coached Rhode Island from 1997-99 before taking the head coaching position at Georgia. Before his stint at Rhode Island, Harrick was fired by UCLA for lying on an expense report. Rhode Island is investigating the allegations that occurred during Harrick's time with the school, and is looking into hiring "a consultant who specializes in NCAA investigations" to help with the probe, university spokeswoman Linda Acciardo told the newspaper. Former Bulldogs player Tony Cole accused Jim Harrick Jr. of paying off bills, doing schoolwork and teaching a sham class on coaching. Harrick Jr., an assistant on his father's staff, was fired Wednesday. A day earlier, the elder Harrick defiantly predicted his son would be cleared and nothing more than minor violations would be uncovered. He also challenged his portrayal as a renegade coach who breaks rules. "I've never had a violation," Harrick told The Associated Press. "Go ask the NCAA." King's lawsuit originally revolved around sexual harassment that King said she was subjected to by Harrick and former assistant coach Mike Wilson while she was an assistant in the school's basketball office. The matter was settled last month with a $45,000 payment to King. The agreement said there was no admission of guilt by URI or athletics director Ron Petro, the two parties named as defendants in the suit. But the Providence Journal's report listed a number of allegations from the King lawsuit that could have a much greater impact on Harrick and URI. According to the documents cited in the newspaper's report, King said she witnessed the following while working at Rhode Island from 1997-98:
But Odom, who now plays for the Los Angeles Clippers, remains an unwavering Harrick supporter. "As far as I know, he's always done everything under the guidelines and the rules of the NCAA," Odom told AP. "It's a tragedy that someone he tried to help so many times has come back to hurt him." While King's lawsuit was filed almost a year ago, Rhode Island said it first became aware of the alleged NCAA violations after King gave her deposition in December of last year and is in the beginning stages of its investigation. If the school finds any truth to the charges, it will then report them to the NCAA, which will then decide if punishment is warranted. But according to the newspaper report, the school is finding it difficult to investigate some of King's allegations. "We have all these issues, but insufficient evidence to follow them up," Acciardo told the newspaper. "In some cases, we are dealing with people who are no longer in Rhode Island. This is four years out." None of the players or coaches named in the suit still reside in Rhode Island. "Our compliance officer is certainly going to do due diligence on the matter and put forth a good-faith effort. We just need additional details to do a thorough investigation," Acciardo told the newspaper. The elder Harrick hopes to survive the latest blow to his troubled coaching career and remain at Georgia. "We've got a nice program going here," he told AP. "I don't want anything to spoil it." |
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