His punishment ain't gonna stick.

Morris, the coach at St. Joseph's Prep, last season made critical comments to the Daily News about Archbishop Wood's Joe Sette, the moderator of CL basketball, relating to a failed playoff proposal. The league's athletic directors, in concert with Steve Pawloski, overseer of CL sports for the archdiocese, moved to suspend Morris for the first three league games of the coming season.

Now, according to sources, that suspension has been lifted by Bishop Joseph McFadden, who has the final word on all things CL.

In a statement released by the archdiocese's communications office, McFadden said only: "It's being discussed. We're hopeful of working things out. Our focus is on fall sports right now."

Morris declined to comment. As did Sette.

Morris and McFadden are longtime friends, going back to their days as the head coaches at Roman Catholic and West Catholic, respectively, in the early 1970s; McFadden had not yet become a priest.

McFadden is well aware that Morris, in his time away from the Catholic League as head coach at La Salle University, generously gave of his time to make banquet speeches and run clinics for CL and CYO programs.

The events leading to the suspension began in March, when the CL's athletic directors instituted a playoff plan not favored by the coaches.

At the time, Sette said the coaches' plan was never voted upon "because there was vehement opposition to it right away" when the matter was opened for discussion.

Sette acknowledged he had been one of three coaches to vote against his group's own plan.

Many coaches, livid about what happened and sensing Sette had sold out his peers, implored the Daily News to speak with Morris, figuring he'd be able to comment without fear of reprisal. No. 1, because he's such a league institution. No. 2, because SJ Prep does not answer specifically to the archdiocese (although it must, of course, on CL matters).

One coach who did speak on the record at that time, West's Bill Ludlow, received a reprimand, but no suspension.

Morris said Sette "stabbed his fellow coaches in the back." He made no derogatory comments about other league personnel, or the league itself.

Two men who were said to have pushed the hardest for the suspension, Pawloski and Dave Falcione, are gone from the CL sports scene. Pawloski is no longer employed by the archdiocese. Falcione, at that time Roman's athletic director and the chairman of that group, has since resigned his AD position.

Sette is taking a 1-year sabbatical from coaching. He is still Wood's athletic director and the CL basketball moderator.

The coaches are scheduled to meet next week. *