Attorneys representing former basketball player Jennifer Harris want Penn State to retract comments made by women's basketball coach Rene Portland, or face new claims in litigation.

NCLR's Karen Doering said "Our original intent was to work with and cooperate with the university and assist them in their investigation. However, now that the university has put out statements making false and defamatory remarks about our client, we can no longer sit back and wait to begin the legal process that will enable us to produce evidence to prove that the allegations Jen Harris made are true."

Penn State spokesman Bill Mahon told the Digital Collegian that it was "ridiculous" to ask the university to retract Portland's statement. "The coach has every constitutional right to respond. I think the center ought to step back if they're interested in finding out what happened here," he said.

Vice President for University Relations Steve MacCarthy told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "There is nothing for us to respond to. That statement was Rene Portland's response, not that of the university."

"There is no First Amendment right to make false and malicious allegations," Doering countered. "It doesn't take a lot of investigation by the university to see that coach Portland's statement contains false information. There is no question about it, the release was from Penn State, not Rene Portland as an individual."

"These are serious allegations," the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review quoted Doering, "and we have mountains of evidence against Portland. If we have to file a lawsuit, we will ask for (money) for pain and suffering. Jen was on track to go to the WNBA and now has to sit out one season, which will be a year of lost wages. We are in the process of beefing up our list of people."