Ex-Northwestern Players Indicted
Two former Northwestern basketball players were indicted today on charges of shaving points in three of the school's basketball games during the 1994-1995 season.
An FBI investigation produced charges against Dion Lee and Dewey Williams both starters at the time as well two others accused of illegal gambling and another former athlete charged in a separate indictment.
Lee and Williams were charged with point-shaving, while Kevin Pendergast and Brian Irving were charged with conspiring to fix the outcome of three games in the '94-95 season. The games involved were at home against Penn State and Wisconsin and a road game against Michigan. The Wildcats lost each by at least 14 points.
Lee, a senior guard, was suspended by the school for six games for gambling during the 1994-95 season.
Pendergast and Irving also were charged with conspiring to fix the games to ensure the success of bets.
The third former Northwestern athlete, Brian Ballerini, was charged with accepting bets on sporting events from other Northwestern athletes, including Lee. The charges against Ballerini include an allegation that he threatened Lee would be harmed if he did not pay a gambling debt.
The indictments occurred just two days before the Final Four in San Antonio. Just as college basketball prepared for its most exciting weekend, the sport was hit with yet another point-shaving scandal something that has plagued it for nearly a half-century dating back to the scandal of 1951 involving Kentucky, CCNY, NYU and other schools.
More recently, there were point-shaving scandals at Arizona State and Tulane. In 1996, 13 Boston College football players were suspended for betting on college and pro football and on major league baseball games.
Several college coaches were not surprised at news of the Northwestern indictments.
"It's a bomb ready to explode. It can happen to anybody. You wouldn't even know about it until it happened," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said today in San Antonio.
Kansas coach Roy Williams added "the underworld is always looking for an edge. ... We talk about it a great deal to our team. It's something you have to be aware of every day."
U.S. Attorney Scott Lassar said the Northwestern investigation began when university officials turned over results of their own investigation into campus gambling by student athletes. He said the university had cooperated fully.
Lassar said Ballerini and Lee were cooperating with prosecutors and were expected to plead guilty.
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