Judge Rules Against Drake Players

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) â€” Drake University does not have to reinstate two basketball players declared academically ineligible for the rest of the season, a judge ruled Tuesday. <br><br>Lamont Evans and

Tuesday, January 23rd 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) â€” Drake University does not have to reinstate two basketball players declared academically ineligible for the rest of the season, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Lamont Evans and Dontaie Smith, the team's starting guards, had sought a temporary injunction that would have allowed them to continue playing.

They argued that Drake's rule requiring athletes to maintain a 2.0 grade-point average to stay eligible, a standard that is stricter than NCAA regulations, was discriminatory and hurt their chances of becoming professional basketball players.

Judge Eliza Ovrom, who heard the case in Polk County District Court last Friday, said the two did not prove their case to the extent that a temporary injunction was warranted.

For her to allow the players back on the team temporarily, Ovrom said Evans and Smith had to prove a ``likelihood of success'' in their request for a permanent injunction to keep Drake from enforcing its grade-point rule in their cases. She said that standard had not been met.

Evans and Smith were among four Drake basketball players declared ineligible for the second semester because their cumulative grade-point averages fell below 2.0. The others, Alberto Jempierre and Mike O'Neil, did not go to court.

All four are eligible under NCAA rules, the university said.

Attorneys for the players had argued the grade-point rule had a disproportionate effect on black athletes, which violated civil rights law. They pointed out that three of the four players declared ineligible were black, including Evans and Smith, and that of the seven scholarship players remaining on the team, six are white.

But Ovrom said that was not a large enough statistical group to prove discrimination and noted that no other evidence was offered on that point.

Because Drake requires students to have a 2.0 to graduate, Ovrom ruled, the university had shown a ``substantial legitimate justification for its policy.''