NCAA TOURNAMENT DAILY REPORT

A former University of Minnesota employee will cooperate with an investigation of her allegations of academic cheating by basketball players, her lawyer said.

“Ultimately she’d like to cooperate in every respect, because she has nothing to hide,� said Miles Lord, attorney for Jan Gangelhoff. “And she doesn’t feel that she did anything wrong. All she did is try to help where help was needed.�

University President Mark Yudof is expected to announce today which law firm will handle the probe.

Bill Donohue, university associate general counsel, left a message on Gangelhoff’s home answering machine Tuesday, telling her directly for the first time that university officials wanted to meet with her. He said the university would like to review an estimated 400 research and test papers she said she wrote for basketball players.

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Jerry Tarkanian, whose four-year contract with Fresno State ended with the team’s season, signed a one-year extension. . . . New Mexico Athletic Director Rudy Davalos said he’d like to know soon if Dave Bliss will be coaching the Lobos next year. Bliss interviewed at Baylor and also met with Saint Louis Athletic Director Doug Woolard this week. Meanwhile, reports surfaced that Bliss was also in Nashville talking with Vanderbilt Athletic Director Todd Turner about a coaching vacancy there. Davalos said Bliss never signed a six-year contract extension agreed on last August, so he does not have a signed contract with the Lobos for 1999-2000. . . . The Nevada Las Vegas program is under investigation again, this time reportedly for allegations that an assistant coach gave money to make car payments on behalf of former player Tyrone Nesby. . . . Colorado State Coach Ritchie McKay, who was contacted about filling Washington State’s coaching vacancy, has agreed to a contract extension, Colorado State Athletic Director Tim Weiser said. . . . Mark Price, who retired last month after a 12-year NBA career, returned to Georgia Tech as an assistant coach. . . . Dayton forward Nate Green was sentenced to two years’ probation for hitting another student in the head during a fight last fall.