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Show p I!, poor copy s issalke Controls Jazz with Tight Fist I lit- NiwspaptT Thursday, December 11, 1080 Page 19 Jami's I lardy was lr onh one left from the old Sew Orleans .Ja., hul when push fame to shove, it was Hank or new center Wayne Cooper that general manager Frank' Layden picked up last I. ill in exchange lor Bernard Kiiy. Wayne Cooper or James ' Hardy. Hardy is Irom the University of San Francisco, class of '7H. and it was no secret that he 'didn't think much ol the way ,)a. Coach Tom N'issalke tonlrojled the team with his light list. "Tom is such a dominating person.'' Hardy said "Kvery time I talkjo him. I come aw ay depressed. Hardy was making more than Sino.ooo a year and it came down to the IU rule s dictating that either the Jazz dump Hardy now and pay-only pay-only a portion ol' his.-annual salary, or dump him later and pay the entire amount. They decided to dump him now They dumped him in favor ol Jell' Wilkens. a 7-lool 7-lool center who had been playing in Montana for a Continental League team Wilkens is out ol northern Illinois University and Nissalkc and Layden figured il Ihey didn't pick him up in a hurry, someone like the Chicago Bulls, which is looking look-ing for a good backup center, will snap him up. Karlier this year, .N'issalkc elected to dump Tom Boswell in favor of Hardy and Brett Vroman was cut with Hardy. Boswell had drilled into the Jazz camp after he was cut by Denver last year It's not that Boswell couldn't play the game, he averaged more than II points lor the Jazz with 3 4 rebounds a game. It's just that what Ihey were after is something more, an Knforcer. Wayne Cooper may develop into that type ol player. Against Milwaukee lie pulled down a bushel of rebounds and picked up 20 points. Against Denver, in a dose, erratically -played win. Cooper jerked down 17 rebounds and 1," points "If Coop gets the hall in deep, he can be very eliec liv e loi 1 1. ' Nisalkc haul al ter the Denver win "What happened when we let James ' Hardy i go. is it got down to choosing between him and Cooper We knew lh.it we were going to be bringing in Jell W ilkms. So it was a mat ter ol w ho w as producing." During the disastrous Jazz road trip over Thanksgiving, w here they lost lour and beat only Detroit. Hardy was averaging less than live points a game. His late was sealed. As lor Vroman. despite the fact that he's a Utah buy. there had been rumblings as lar back as early October that he wouldn't be with the team long. Alter the 122-1 IX win against Denver, Cooper said. "I've been trying to concentrate concen-trate lately. I don't think I've been playing up to my ability, and I find that if I really concentrate out there it helps. I'm trying to play mentally strong and that helps me play physically strong." Now N'issalke is looking al Wilkens and, so far, what he sees is a player w ho possibly could help the Jazz out in the future. It's true that Wilkens played the first night he was in uniform , but that was because Ben Pouquette and Cooper, the team's centers, both got into foul trouble. "He's big and strong. Nissiilke said. "II we're palieut with him. he might develop into a NBA center by next year. Physically he has the talent to be a starting center in this league. Now the question is if he has the mental toughness. I don't know if he has it we'll find that out." Wilkens. commenting on his new coach, said, "I've heard he's a disciplinarian: that he's not going to take too much off of people. But 1 like to play for a coach who likes to push a person." Wilkens should have no problems when it comes to being pushed by .N'issalke. Tom .N'issalke is not the kind ol man to keep tight lipped w m-ii . ,1 comes to tii or.-, miule by his basketball players. He's a former Coach of the Year lor the Kockels. and his two year plan is to put the Jazz into championship content mn by demanding the most ol each player and using a conservative con-servative approach a "slowdown game" on lite court. The Jazz, slowdown game if you can call an NBA game with its :io second shot clock slow - is to gel the ball to Adrian Dantley anil Darrell Griffith. Those are the people designed to shoot the, ball in the myriad plays that .Nissalkc directs from the bench. You don't freelance like a playground star on a Tom .N'issalke coached basketball team. Those who attempt to are at the end ol the bench and (hen. ultimately, oil the team. And sometimes out ol the league. Ask Pete Maravich. So far. the Jazz coach's program is working. every close game the Jazz have played m. they've won each time. Naturally, that's not a record you can expect to continue. But it is an in dication of the improvement the team is demonstrating at this point in the season. At this time. Dantley is leading the western .NBA in ballots received lor the all star game to be played Feb I al Fichlield, Ohio A D. is leading the NBA with J2.H points a game. Against Den ver, he came up with 40 points. That, it happens, is his average this year in the three games the Jazz have played against Denver. Darrell (irilfith is second in the balloting at the guard line behind Paul U'eslphal ol Phoenix. So. il the game were played tomorrow, two Jazz players would start .N'issalke says that's all fine and well He certainly believes A.I), deserves to be named to the All Star team. But the way (irilfith folded during the Thanksgiving road trip, shooting 27 per cent from the lield. it makes bv Itit'hard Kurnum-lt Going Down With the Utes Utah Football Coach Wayne Howard has been talking about harakiri recently. That fact may have escaped you in the flood of press clippings following the Brigham Young University victory over the University of Utah. It was supposed to be the (lame of the Century, if you recall, and what happened is BYU brought out its mojo and Utah folded. Simple. If you happened to he talking to Mike Davis, a University of Wyoming defensive back, he'd tell you that it doesn't make much sense. "I think Utah has as much if not more talent than BYU." he said. "But BYU brutalized us and we beat Utah by three points." It's true. Utah was supposed to be vying for the WAC crown this year, but all they vied for was the right to get lo the showers first so the fans wouldn't assassinate them. "I know what the problem is," a Utah fan told me this week. 'It 's Arnie Ferrin. He's the guy w ho screwed it up." Arnie Ferrin is the University of Utah Athletic Director and, a former All-American basketball player in the 194js. According to the Utah fan, Ferrin. being a former basketball basket-ball player, wouldn't support the Utah football foot-ball program becaus'e of his loyalty to basketball. basket-ball. But that's balderdash. Ferrin would like to see the Utes win every time they field a team. He's no different than any other athletics crazie: he's sold on the solid smell of victory. And there isn't a whole lot Ferrin could do , about the Utah fool ball team going undefeated un-defeated anyway. What's he supposed to do'.' Pull the starting line-up'.' "That's right." our Utah fan says. "That's exactly what he did. For example, the Utah ski team volunteered to put in a couple of thousand extra bleachers at the BYU game if Ferrin would share the revenue with the team. You know, they'd do all the work if they could raise some money from ticket sales to help the team out. The Utah Ski Team budget this year is a travesty. They want to tie national champions for once. They've got the talent and they wan! to be able to get enough money for the training programs and scholarship money It's not easy " The last time I saw Ferrin was at the Utah-Wyoming Utah-Wyoming game in Laramie. He was puttering around the press box at War Memorial Stadium before lh lash between the Cowboys and the Utes. It not an easy game Ntoi :!.e University of Utah when they go up there to Laramie. Laramie is. at best. a. strange place for people to want to live; something out of Star Wars. There's a sign in brown and gold on the stadium opposite the visiting players bench. The Wyoming football coaches put ii .v- 'R block letters to he sure that ih .,c j; . would see it. 'W't. une to 7 . 'i1' i 'll. " the sign t els That s h:.b'T ,!' ;i the elevation of Old Park and we're taikiii;' about the fabled Plains of Wyoming, the flat part. In fact, the game was in the early part of the fall, because the University of Wyoming does not schedule games at home in the last half of the season. They know they won't be able to get into the stadium. The winds are too vicious and the snow has a tendency to come down toui Rci u a time. Which is exactly what happened last October Oc-tober in Laramie to the Ule football learn! They were leading the conference, having come off with wins against Nevada-Las Vegas and UTF.P. Wyoming, however, had jusl loM to BYU by 30 points and Wyoming had a hard-edged hard-edged compulsion to kick u1 Utes in the head. It didn't matter that Wyoming is virtually a no-talent team. They lost a few starters this year, and that was the end of Hie season for them. Air Force. Las Vegas everybody was beating them. But not the Saturday that Arnie Ferrin accompanied ac-companied Way ne Howard through the snow up into Laramie. That day. the Cowboys were lying in wait and they punched out the Utah football team like an aging boxer bouncing drunks at a West Side bar. "I don't know how to explain it." Coach Howard said. "This is one of the most difficult years I've ever had." He was talking about the way his multi. talented team members played like zombies out there. Since football is a game of emotion, and since the players seemed to be devoid of emotion, the team that some believed would challenge for the WAC championship finished 5-5-1. with its final humiliation being a defeat by Sun Diego -a team so bad that its coach was fired in mid-season. mid-season. But don't blame Arnie Ferrin. And if you look hard at Utah's record in football during the past 20 years or so. it's difficult to blame Howard either. Utah is not a football power, and if it ever plans to become one, it 's going to have to do much more than cross its fingers and hope for the best. But that's not going to happen. Football victories vic-tories are purchased by .high-rolling alumni who put money into football programs. You might not know this, but O.J. Simpson's second choice was the University of Utah, where former Southern California assistant. Mike biddings, was Irving lo rebuild the Ule football fortunes O.J. decided on Southern ( 'alitm -in i because Utah couldn't come up w ith the kind ol guarantees he needed. One of those gua i an tees was a winning football tradition. The other guarantee was to be taken care ol. I know this. I was there, playing I'oot'Mil !i,r Utah, overhearing the conversation ol a Utah football coach and O.J. They were talking about how they planned to lurnish In. ap.u tment Money to lurnish apartments do- not come out of a (Quarters lor iuas" IiukI I comes from alumni wiio want in see in. I i. s win football games. But the true nut is this: It will lx dill milt to win football games at Utah as long as many Utah alumni consider themselves graduates of BYU as well as Utah. Howard is reported to ave said that. A reporter who follows the team regularly told me. Maybe it's an accurate ac-curate quote and maybe it's not. But it is a true representation of the problem o! Utah football, whether Howard said it or not. The Utes will not be able to take on BYU with BY'U's high powered program and new 5(1. nonplus non-plus stadium without a big inflow of money. -il ' -.te :e-)lv. the munev ;sn't there. you wonder about the veracity ol all star balloting. "He was just horrible at Atlanta." Nissalkc said about (irilfith. "l! was a bad trip lor Inn: overall. In college. Darrell didn't have a speed ic delonsivc assignment. assign-ment. Here, he's got to stop the other team's best scoring guard. Still, mentally, he's excellent. II he were on a team with a strong front line, his mistakes would be wiped out Magic Johnson when he came in the league, he wasn't much ol a defensive player, but the Big Guy Kareem would wipe out any errors he'd make by stepping in and blocking a shot." Nissalkc said he isn't con ccrned about the all star game. He's concerned about the way the Jazz Is performing. perfor-ming. "That live-day road I rip we just I unshed was v cry difficult on us." he said. "Il wasn't the live games., n was the i: days we were on the road. We'd lose our rhythm. It was like we'd have three days m Atlanta, three days m Detroit, and then three days in Philly. "And I'm like W.C. I- iclds," N'issalke said. "I'd lather be dead than in Philadelphia." By the lime the Jazz reached Milwaukee, they Acre down to eight players, i Mil', the team's starlum ecu ter Ben Pouquette. was play nit; like i as he put it i he d leu Ins iiinp shoi in his suitcase in Atlanta. "It was a phantom trip lor Ben. Nissalkc said. "I told him I wasn't sure if he was really there But Ben's got great character and I 'm sure he'll come back lor us. He's done loo good a job for us in the past not to come back out ol this slump." .la Notes: Coach Nissalkc says he's particularly par-ticularly pleased with the performance of Wayne Cooper but. unfortunately. Cooper is out for two or three weeks with a severely strained ankle he picked up in the Seattle loss. Alter the Jazz, loss to L A. at the Forum, the team stood even at 14 wins vs. 14 losses. Kicky Green, the former University ol Michigan star, appears lo be one of the fastest, if not the fastest, guards in the NBA. "Now it 's just a matter ol him gelling lo know our offense." .Nissalkc says. Nissalkc said he would like lo start Ben Pouquette 'Who's in a sluinpi. Cooper and Dantley. and bring in Alan Bristow the' assist leader ai the NBA anions lorwards'. Thai leaves Billy McKinney and Given .it point guard, with Boone. Jell .ludkiiis and Daneii Grillitli at the nil u.u d Student Athletes onored At Awards Ceremony Members of Park City High School's football and volleyball teams were honored Friday at awards ceremonies held at the school. Coming away with an armful of awards was senior Jeff Smith. Beside winning the trophy as the team's most valuable lineman. Smith also was honored for providing team leadership, and won a third award as the team captain. Other members of the lootball team receiving awards were Glen Wright i sportsmanship), Troy Packard (most valuable player) and Pat Ott (junior varsity achiever). Also honored were the members of the varsity and junior varsity volleyball teams. Varsity: Kelly Bolton, Bol-ton, Kim Koch, Madge Marcellin, Anita Miles, Mickie Roach, Alana Soares, Lora Stevens, Shelly Stover and Lisa Thaller. Junior Varsity: Julie Eriksen, Casey Hazelrigg, Raquel Hughes, Amy Irvine, Selina Gurski, Margo Mahoney, Wendy Plummer, Tlesa Sanchez, San-chez, Amanda Smith, Lisa Stevens, Susan Stover, Joanna Jo-anna Taylor, Lis Thaller and Diane Von Classen. Managers: Man-agers: Susan Mahoney and Wendy Hagmann. Aprcs Ski Nitro Nachos Crispy tortilla chips smothered in Cheddar and Jack cheese with green peppers, onion and tang salsa. 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London Broil 7.95 Beef and Bird 6.95 Chicken Cordon Bleu 6.95 Fresh Snapper 5.95 k yf'f IlIliilFJ 'mN I Shrimp Scampi 9.95 Ii Iff IfrrX OPEN FOR Halibut 7.95 ill ' JSil WINTER I r t A n n nc I 4 I irfW crA com Ilk Seafood Boat 9.95 , f!-!Jfer season yjk ht: V"s S if rKm Steak & Sea Combo 12.50 :.. rf WW :t " Reasonably priced dining in a casual atmosphere. Menu items include 'i'dl AlmonJine, Chicken Supreme, h m Crab Legs. S'nmp Trmpuri hrimp Provcncai, Now :,k S'-ik. i iiue Rib, Rock Corni-.h Came 1 u n a.nl nightly Chef s Special, Reservations accepted for larger groups (8-12) Open 7 days a week, 5:30 -10:30 I 438 Main Street .1 ...... . |