Minnesota athletes now rest at the bottom of Big Ten graduation rates

Basketball fraud linked to small number of basketball diplomas

One in four freshmen recruited from 1983 to 1991 eventually graduated from the university, the Saint Paul Pioneer Press reported today.

The average for Big Ten basketball programs over the same period was about one in two, the newspaper reported in an examination of NCAA data.

In a separate analysis, the Pioneer Press found that only two of 21 students linked to alleged academic fraud in the basketball program have received degrees.

The university has hired two law firms to investigate claims by Jan Gangelhoff, a former office worker and tutor, that she did about 400 pieces of course work for players from 1993 to1998.

Gangelhoff was scheduled to go over some of that work today with investigators.

The Pioneer Press also reported that new computer files it received from her bore the name of Charles Thomas, a member of the 1997 Final Four team; his name had not been connected to the allegations previously. Thomas declined comment when reached by the newspaper.

Gangelhoff's allegations in March resulted in the suspension of four members of this season's basketball team, including two starters, right before the Golden Gophers' first-round NCAA game, a loss to Gonzaga.

The Star Tribune of Minneapolis reported earlier that the grade-point average of Minnesota's men's basketball teams has trailed the average of other men's teams at the university over the past 15 years.

The newspaper also reported the basketball team's average six-year graduation rate of about 25 percent was well below the Division I basketball average of about 44 percent.

The Pioneer Press' report today explored graduation rates in more detail.

Under coach Clem Haskins, who was hired in 1986, the Gophers' graduation rate declined slightly in comparison to three previous years.

The grad rate for freshmen entering from 1986 to 1991 was 23 percent.

Penn State and Northwestern graduated 80 percent or more of their freshmen basketball players during the same period. The average at other Big Ten schools ranged from 31 percent to 74 percent.

WCCO-TV examined graduation rates for freshmen basketball players who entered Minnesota from 1988 to 1991, and reported Wednesday night that they graduated at a rate of 27 percent compared with 41 percent of all Division I men's basketball players.

"This is disturbing," university President Mark Yudof told the Pioneer Press. "We are going to have to look at this intensively."

Yudof said the university has raised admission standards that might affect the graduation rate in the future, but results wouldn't be expected to show up until after the year 2000, he said.

The Pioneer Press examined nine years of data collected by the NCAA.

Athletes who transferred to other schools were counted as not graduating from their original university.

04-09-99