Kansas’ Branch ruled ineligible

By Chuck Woodling     Jan 13, 1988

AMES, Iowa – When it rains it pours on the Kansas basketball team, and Larry Brown is a coach looking for an umbrella.

With Marvin Branch officially declared ineligible this morning and Chris Piper hurting, who’ll start up front for the Jayhawks against Iowa State tonight?

“If we have to go to a four-guard offense, we’d be in trouble,” Brown said Tuesday. “But that’s what we might have to do.”

Tipoff is 7:10 p.m. at Hilton Coliseum. A live telecast is available in the Lawrence area on channels 13 and 41.

Branch, KU’s second-leading rebounder, is out for the rest of the season, ostensibly because he failed to pass the minimum eight hours he needed during the first semester to retain his eligibility.

According to a statement released by the KU sports information office this morning, Branch is ineligible for the remainder of the season because he “failed to satisfy NCAA certification standards.” Today is the first day of KU’s spring semester.

At his weekly press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Brown hedged about Branch’s status, saying he didn’t want to comment because he didn’t want to put pressure on the faculty.

Later, the KU coach said: “If I commented about the way I really feel about the faculty, there’d be a lot more microphones in front of me.”

Brown did take an unveiled shot at KU’s stringent academic standards, however.

“I think we’ve made a real effort in tutoring and monitoring,” he said. “What I’m saying is I don’t think we’ve hit the problem. We don’t have a curriculum set up for our students who don’t have a normal background, a curriculum that gives them a chance to be successful. We don’t have that.”

Piper, a 6-8 senior, would be the likely candidate to replace Branch, who had started all 14 games, but Piper has a groin injury. It’s a mucle that’s pulled away from a bone and can be cured only by surgery.

“If everything went perfect,” Brown said about an operation on Piper, “it’d be more than a month before he’d be ready.”

Piper was unable to practice on Monday, but worked some on Tuesday.

Thus the leading candidates to replace Branch are sophomore Keith Harris and freshmen Mike Masucci and Mike Maddox. Brown said he didn’t anticipate taking 6-10 Sean Alvarado off the red-shirt list, but left that possibility open.

Harris has played in only four of the Jayhawks’ 14 games but the 6-6 forward, said Brown, “…is making tremendous progress. I don’t think he’s ready physically, but he’s improved mentally a lot.”

The 6-9 Masucci, who has also seen limited action, “…has great days and some days when he plays like a freshman,” Brown said.

Kansas has already lost one starter, forward Archie Marshall, to knee surgery. Nevertheless, the Jayhawks have won three straight – including Saturday’s 78-74 victory over Missouri – with Milt Newton filling in.

“Like I said before the Missouri game, this is the team we’ve got and we have to be thankful for what we have,” Brown remarked. “I may have to give that speech again.”

After tonight, the Jayhawks won’t play another Big Eight foe for two weeks. In the interim, they’ll meet Hampton here Saturday, then go to Notre Dame the following Saturday.

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