TM

SoCal College News Report

McCoy: Lavin Denies Rumors--(November 4, 1997)

Last bit on McCoy for today. This evening, Channel 9 News, a local LA station, showed an interview with Steven Lavin, shot this morning at Pauley. The interview was preceded by a superimposed picture of Frank Burlison's article, with his photo (the same one you'd see if you viewed the paper:

WANTED

Have you seen this man?
What's Up With Him and the Bruins?

Channel 9 news anchor Tom Murray clearly drew the same conclusion we did earlier: That Burlison is the genesis of the thus-far unfounded and officially denied rumor that McCoy "failed a drug test" and allegedly "will not return to the Bruins".

In the interview, Steve Lavin emphatically denied the rumors. He told Murray that "no decision on McCoy has been reached; the situation is still the same as it was last week.

"The school hasn't made any official decision" said Lavin. "There's still a possibility that they'll be reinstated if they meet certain conditions. If the conditions are not met, they won't be back. I know that makes a boring statement, but that's the way it is, " Lavin told Murray.

Toby Bailey was also interviewed, and he said that he'd heard nothing either. He said that even if the two suspended players are not returned to the team, that UCLA would still do fine. "We've got plenty of good players," said Bailey.

Todd Donoho of KABC-TV cited Burlison as the source of the rumor, and thought better of simply repeating it, so he went directly to the source also and interviewed Lavin today. In answer to the question of "Can McCoy still come back?" Lavin responded:

"Yes. Oh yes. It's still guarded optimism, but yes. If he meets the criteria that have been set, then yes. I don't know if he will, but he can."

Fred Roggin of KNBC avoided the story completely, steering clear of "unnamed sources" and "failed drug tests" that can't be verified, which are being officially denied by the school and by McCoy's father who was contacted by USA Today.

KCBS' Jim Hill slid through by referring to allegations of "failed drug tests" (without attribution to Burlison or the P-T). Hill simply reported that "University officials will not confirm the latest [drug] test results."

Our question for the evening is, "Will Frank Burlison and the P-T accept service of process from McCoy?"

For Burlison's sake, he better hope his source was right.

For the sake of Jelani and UCLA basketball, we hope he's wrong.

©This site copyright SoCalHoops 1997
All rights reserved
Questions? Comments? Need Information?
Contact: jegesq@SoCalHoops.com