Day Tells Staff Not to Talk About SDSU Athletic Woes

SAN DIEGO —  San Diego State President Thomas Day asked those involved with the admittance of seven basketball recruits and the apparent upheaval in sports administration to refer all questions to him Friday, and then he refused to make himself available for comment.

However, basketball Coach Smokey Gaines confirmed Friday that five freshman basketball recruits have not yet been admitted to SDSU, possibly because of toughened admissions requirements. They are Kevin Brown of Grand Rapids, Mich.; Tracy Dildy of Chicago; Wilbert Frazier of New Haven, Conn.; Josh Lowery of Oakland, and Johnny Scruggs of Silver Springs, Md.

According to SDSU’s student catalogue, a freshman with a grade point average below 2.0 cannot be admitted regardless of SAT or ACT test scores. Students with GPAs above 2.0 are admitted according to a sliding scale of test scores. The lower the GPA, the higher the test score needed.

However, any student can be admitted under special programs if they do not meet the school’s minimum admissions requirements. But it is believed SDSU is cutting back on these special admissions a year before the NCAA institutes Prop. 48, which it passed last year.

Currently, the NCAA requires student-athletes to have at least a 2.0 GPA. Next year, Prop. 48 requires incoming freshmen to have at least a 2.0 GPA as well as a core curriculum of three years of English, two of math, two of social sciences, two of either natural or physical sciences, as well as a minimum combined SAT score of 700 or an ACT score of 15.

All of the five recruits have at least a 2.0 GPA, according to Gaines. They could be enrolled as “special admissions,” as have two other freshmen--Smokey’s son, Darryl Gaines of Patrick Henry High, and Jeff Bobin of Seattle.

Said Dildy: “They never told me anything about not being accepted . . . But Thursday night, my mom talked to the coach and he said he was going to have a meeting (about what was going). I’m a good student at school and never worried about anything academically.”

In addition to the five freshmen, two junior college transfer students are also awaiting admission. They are Steffond Johnson of Mesa College and LSU; and Curtis Gates of Colby Community College in Kansas.

“It’s a touchy situation. I’m getting calls from parents and kids all over the country,” Gaines said. “We try to recruit better students, but it’s a rarity to find a good athlete who is also a really good student. John Thompson has a great situation at Georgetown. Most of his kids live in the area. The kids get summer jobs and go to summer school to pick up some extra units. Many of my kids, from out of state, go home in the summer and don’t pick up those six to eight extra units.”

Gaines said he is scheduled to meet with Dan Nowak, the vice-president of student affairs, Monday morning to further discuss the matter.

The San Diego Tribune reported Thursday that Athletic Director Mary Alice Hill had fired eight members of the athletic staff, but was forced by Day to reinstate them. However, those who would talk Friday said otherwise, then referred all other questions to Day.

“As I understand it at this point,” said Rick Moore, the SDSU news manager, “nobody has been fired and we move on. The university policy on all personnel matters is not to talk about them.”

Steve Cushman, director of the Aztec Foundation, was one who was reportedly fired. He said, “There has hasn’t been a gap in my work in the last month. I have my suit on, and I’m here working. That’s all I can say. All questions have to be referred to the president’s office. I told him that would be very tough for me, but I’ll have to honor it. At least today. I really don’t like to do this, but this is pretty sensitive.”

Said Hill: “You know I’ve always commented, but the president asked me not to comment. He asked me to refer everything to his office.”

But Day was not talking.