Topeka ? Darryl Winston, a former basketball player and assistant coach at Kansas State University, has been placed on probation for attempted possession of cocaine.

Winston, 47, Topeka, pleaded no contest in September. Shawnee County District Judge Charles Andrews sentenced Winston on Friday to five months in prison, but then placed him on one year of supervised probation.

Winston said he had been in rehabilitation at a local treatment center for a year and had taken classes to become a drug rehabilitation counselor. He asked Andrews to exercise mercy, saying there were stumbles and falls in any person’s life.

“A man is really counted for the times he can get up from those,” Winston said.

Winston was a four-year letterman at Kansas State from 1974 to 1977, and he later rejoined the Wildcats as an assistant coach for Jack Hartman from 1982 to 1986. From 1999 until 2001, Winston was director of the Hillcrest Community Center in Topeka.

Topeka police said that in October 2001 Winston was stopped while he was driving his 1998 Ford Explorer, which had a brake light out. After Winston was taken into custody to determine his identity, police said, he was searched, and officers found crack cocaine valued at an estimated $80.

As part of the no-contest plea, the charge of possession of cocaine was reduced to attempted possession, and drug paraphernalia and brake light charges were dismissed.