Jim Valvano, the colorful former North Carolina State basketball coach and television analyst, has cancer, Valvano's agent and a television network say.

ESPN, the sports network Valvano went to work for after leaving the Wolfpack in 1990, said Thursday night that Valvano had been diagnosed with the disease. In a brief report, sportscaster Bob Ley said Valvano, 46, is at his Cary, N.C., home "in excellent spirits" but did not elaborate on the type of cancer nor the extent of Valvano's illness.Valvano's phone number is unlisted and he could not be reached.

But his agent, Art Kaminsky of New York, told the News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C.: "There are malignancies."

Kaminsky said it is not known what type of cancer Valvano has, or what the prognosis is.

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"We're going for more tests in the next couple of days," Kaminsky said.

Valvano will undergo tests at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital in New York City, he said. Sloan-Kettering specializes in caring for cancer victims.

"He still looks great," Kaminsky said. "Now his focus is just to get better."

A report in Friday's New York Daily News, citing unidentified sources, said that the cancer was detected in Valvano's back. He had not been feeling well for a couple of days and had to undergo several tests, including an MRI. The report said Valvano was told of the prognosis following Monday's tests.

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