WACO, Texas -- As Baylor head basketball coach Dave Bliss and his staff continue to deny any wrongdoing in the ongoing investigation of the program, Chris Turk, Patrick Dennehy's non-basketball-playing roommate, decided he could no longer stay quiet.

In a conversation with ESPN's Ed Werder Tuesday, Turk ripped the program, lending additional credibility to stories about players receiving cash payments and team drug use that originally surfaced last week.

"It has recently come to my attention that the Baylor coaching staff amid NCAA violation accusations has denied all wrongdoing," Turk said. "Since the very beginning of my roommate's disappearance, it seems to me that Baylor and the coaching staff have done the best they could to simply wash their hands of the negative publicity. Because of this, I am unable to sit quietly as the university lies and denies all wrongdoing concerning the possible NCAA violations.

Services For Dennehy

WACO, Texas -- A funeral service for Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy has been tentatively scheduled for mid-August in San Jose, Calif., near where he grew up. The service had been expected to be held next week, but Pastor Dick Bernal of the Jubilee Christian Center said Tuesday he had been told that forensic work on Dennehy's body would continue through Thursday or Friday. A campus memorial service for Dennehy is being planned for September at Baylor, the world's largest Baptist university with 14,000 students. The remains of Dennehy, a 6-foot-10 center who had been missing about six weeks, were found just a few miles away from campus in a grassy field off a road leading to a rock quarry. Last week, police said they were searching sites given to them by Carlton Dotson, Dennehy's roommate and former teammate. Dotson, 21, was charged with Dennehy's death last week after police said he confessed to shooting Dennehy in the head. He remains jailed without bond in his home state of Maryland and awaits extradition to Texas sometime next month. -- Associated Press

"In the time I spent with Patrick, it was very clear to me that not everything in Baylor sports was as it should be. Patrick hinted to me that one or more of his coaches helped him buy his Chevy Tahoe and he also plainly stated that a coach gave him money to get his truck out of the auto shop after it had sat there for several weeks. Jessica (De La Rosa), Patrick's girlfriend, was also aware of the coach's contribution to help Patrick pay for his vehicle.

"I'm also aware of at least one specific time when a basketball player failed a drug test and was protected from the judicial affairs office.

"I find it very difficult to believe that the coaches who seem to be such a huge part of their players' everyday lives knew nothing of these things. In my opinion, Baylor's active denial of all wrongdoing strays far from the Christian principles that the university is supposed to uphold."

A Big 12 Conference school, Baylor isn't known as an athletic powerhouse, but it touts its Christian heritage. Prompted by claims made by friends and relatives of Dennehy, the university opened a new inquiry last week into possible NCAA violations.

Bliss said Monday that the team does not have a drug problem and that drug tests are given regularly. He said he never suspected drug use by any player but if so, he would have given a random test.

Bliss also said he knew of no wrongdoing on the part of coaches.

"There's a lot of conjecture out there (that) people think that we're violating rules," Bliss said. He said there are instances of people misunderstanding the rules.

It's not the first time Baylor's program has come under scrutiny. The accusations made in the wake of Dennehy's murder have reopened wounds for a basketball program twice placed on NCAA probation since the mid-1980s.

The program was put on five-year probation in 1994 after an investigation found that coaches were illegally doing correspondence work for players. An FBI inquiry resulted in mail and wire fraud convictions against three assistant coaches. Former head coach Darrel Johnson was fired.

In 1986, the Baylor basketball team was slapped with a two-year probation after the NCAA said it provided cash, transportation and other illegal benefits to players. A player secretly recorded a conversation in which former head coach Jim Haller agreed to give him $172 for a car payment.

"One would hope that a university with a religious heritage would not have these ethical problems," said Chuck Weaver, president of Baylor's Faculty Senate. "That's not always the case. Coaches at Baylor face the same kinds of pressures to win as coaches at any other university."

Weaver added: "In general, Bliss has been one of the most respected basketball coaches Baylor has ever had. His hiring was considered to be a response to previous difficulties."

Baylor finished last season 14-14 but won only five of 16 conference games.

Three Baylor Law School professors will investigate allegations that a coach told Dennehy his education and living expenses would be paid if he gave up his scholarship for a year. The committee also will examine whether Dennehy received $1,200 to $1,800 from an assistant coach toward a car loan for his sport-utility vehicle, and if players passed urine tests despite smoking marijuana.

"We're going to be looking into every allegation that has been reported ... and other issues that we may encounter on our own," committee member Bill Underwood said.

Adriana Gallegos, a former girlfriend of Dennehy's, told The Associated Press that Dennehy was excited when he returned to New Mexico in spring of 2002 from a recruiting trip to Baylor.

"He was just like, 'They're going to hook me up and they're probably going to get me a nice SUV,' " said Gallegos, 22, who now lives in Midland, Texas.

"I didn't really think much of it because I've heard so many stories of really good athletes getting so many benefits from their coaches. ... I thought they were just bribing him to come out to Baylor."

Gallegos said Dennehy occasionally smoked marijuana, but "it wasn't an everyday thing."

Jerrel Bolton, a Chevrolet dealer in West, north of Waco, said Bliss called him last fall and told him Dennehy was looking for an SUV. NCAA spokeswoman Kay Hawes said she couldn't say whether such a call would be a rules violation because "it would depend on too many specific factors."

Bolton said Dennehy told him the down payment for the Tahoe he bought came from "one of his girlfriends."

"I find it very difficult to believe that anybody, in a time like this, would be wanting to hold Baylor and the Baylor coaching staff on trial," Bolton said. "I would think you would want to be more worried about your loved one."

But in a high-profile case, it's not surprising that such allegations have surfaced, said Peter Roby, director of Northeastern University's Center for the Study of Sport in Society.

Given the level of media interest, "there's going to be someone looking for the other big story because they can't keep regurgitating the same story," Roby said.

"I would hope the public-at-large is going to want to wait and be fair and see what happens," he said. "If there are any violations involved, those will come out in due time."

But for now, the focus should remain on the murder case, he said.

"It's life-or-death versus allegations of wrongdoing with recruiting," Roby said. "As much as sports is important to our society, it needs to be kept in its proper perspective."