Richard A. Lauffer, who retired last year as chairman of the physical education department, said in a telephone interview that assistant basketball coaches pressured faculty members to give players incompletes rather than failing marks and then later to change the grades to passing ones. Lauffer would not provide names of staff members other than that of former N.C. State assistant Ed McLean, who supervised the classroom performance and conduct of star Chris Washburn in 1986 while the player was on police probation.

Lauffer stood by his statements reported in yesterday's Raleigh News and Observer that in 1985 three "no credit" grades on Washburn's transcript were two weeks later changed to Ds. He said he reported the changes and what he felt were other problems to university chancellor Bruce Poulton. Poulton declined comment on the allegation, but said in a speech to the faculty council that he has asked the registrar to examine the grades of all players.

Lauffer, who retired last year after seven years as head of the department, acknowledged that he had no documentation to support his assertions or specifics to offer, other than his memory of the Washburn transcript. But he described McLean as a "baby sitter" for Washburn, driving him to class and interfering with professors. "He applied pressure to our professors about {Washburn's} grades and attendance," Lauffer said.