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Conflict avoided Court date continued again for Cota, Newby
Posted: Tuesday March 28, 2000 09:35 PM
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) -- North Carolina guards Ed Cota and Terrence Newby no longer have a court date that conflicts with a possible appearance in Monday's NCAA title game. Cota and Newby had been scheduled to appear in court Monday to face charges in a Halloween night brawl. But the hearing was delayed Tuesday for the fourth time since December. No new date was set. "His attorney did call me and said that it has been postponed. This is the first time the defense has asked for an extension," North Carolina coach Bill Guthridge said. "All the other extensions have been because the court hasn't been ready or having someone available, and the other side not being ready. That has been taken care of." When a court hearing for the two players was rescheduled last month, the new date didn't set off alarms. After all, the Tar Heels were mired in what would become a 13-loss season, a first-round exit from the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament and a mere eighth seed in the NCAA tournament. So a court date of April 3 probably seemed all right. Now, however, the Tar Heels have advanced to the Final Four. If they beat Florida on Saturday, they would play the winner of the Wisconsin-Michigan State game on Monday. Cota and Newby face three charges of assault inflicting serious injury and two charges of simple assault. The players were suspended from the team in November following reports of the brawl, but Guthridge reinstated them 10 days later. Cota said Tuesday he hadn't been thinking about the pending hearing. "I was just concentrating on winning the championship and not worrying about these off-the-court things," he said. "There is always a time and place to deal with that and I've never let it come between basketball."
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