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Show Page Fourteen The Daily Utah Chronicle, Friday, March NBA strike could Virginia tops final Ghronypbll by Dave Hosick Chronicle staff secured the first spot in this year's NCA basketball tburnameht by winning the Sun Belt Alabama-Birmingha- m Conference season-endin- tournament,but manypfrJah g ft . endbasket cases of stopping Nevada Las Vegas. Arkansas drops to sixth in the season-endin- g poll, and the faced this the major problem year is that Razorbacksjiave in the same conferenceas Houston. they're The Razorbacks should battle Houston in the Southwest Conference tournament title game Saturday. Look for Coach Eddie Sutton to empty his bag of tricks in hopes of an . , There has been much on . ed . - top-seed- ed k;" I ed - j . ed . ed . ed HkTirettgbt HBsS 7 hand-wringi- by the National ng Basketball Association over the basket cases which are posing as franchisesteams that, the: league says, almost certainly- will evaporate under the burden of a players' strike. like the Cleveland Cavaliers and Indiana Pacers But have-no- ts might manage to disappear with no help whatsoever from the NBA Players Association which says come April 2, it will be "No Contract, No Work."The Cavaliers and Pacers could slip away from inertia, and their partners in the executives suites might not mourn their passing nearly as noisily as they are complaining about their problems right now., less date on the home schedule against That's because-on- e Geoff Houston, World B. Free and the fine fellows from Cleveland might mean one more against Dr. J., Moses Malone and the Philadelphia 76ers. Who would you rather have in your building, selling tickets for you good guys like Marty Byrnes, Butch Carter and the Indiana Pacers, or Larry Bird, Robert Parish and the Boston. Celtics? Why do these teams have problems? Look at the standings. They are marketing a marginal product. And remember', the NBA is the only pro league in which member teams do not share revenues with their partners. So even if they could sell out a building in some other town, it wouldn't help the struggling teams a bit. Geveland does, however, get to keep all the revenue Jrora the crowds ef4,059it averages at home arid Indiana doesn't have to sharea penny from the 4,806 who show up for its home games. Now the league turns to the union and says the players must help it swim out of this sea of red ink. And what's more, it even offers a method. Just accept a cap on the salaries teams may pay, a percentage of the revenues. "Sure," says Larry Fleisher,' general counsel of the players association. "See me in 1987." "The task is to do something now," says Russ Granik, general counsel of the NBA. "Who knows what the state of the NBA will be in 1987?" Fleisher thinks he does. "We believe a cable television bonanza will occur by then," he says. ;v More significantly, the Oscar Robertson antitrust settlement, which sets the league's free agent rules, will expire then. And vuntil it does, says Fleisher, he will see to it that the NBA lives by its terms. Fleisher sees the current battle as nothing more than a calculated attack on free agency. That position would seem to be fortified by the NBA's move over the weekend attempting to bar le player who participates in a strike in April any free from walking away from his team in June. , Suddenly, the thrust of league's position has turned from helping its ailing teams to punishing the infidels. "The players are easy scapegoats," says Fleisher. "It's always the players." , . ce top-rank- By HAL BOCK ; AP Sports Writer - , other spots are still up for grabs. : Virginia tops the final Chronicle college basketball pott ' Arkansas upset. heading into post-seasplay. The Cavaliers ended the ". J Seventh-ranke- d Missouri ended the Big Eight Atlantic Coast Conference regular season with a 12-- 2 mark. 'Conference 'regular season with a 12-- 2 mark two games Virginia now goes into the ACCTournament which begins ahead of second-plaOklahoma. Friday and ends Sunday. North Carolina" has the best chance Missouri opened the Big Eight tournament Tuesday with to upset the Cavaliers in the tournament. "an 88-7- 3 win over Colorado. Seniors Steve Stipanovich and; Second-ranke- d Houston dominated the Southwest Jon Sundvolcfcarried the Tigers as they have most of the year. Conference race, as the Cougars finished league play with a combined for 33 points to key the win They ' 16-- 0 : . record; :. The- - seventh-ranke- d Tigers now .face upset-mindUCLA ends the season in the No. 3 spot. The Bruins close Nebraska, which posted a 94-8- 1 win over Iowa State. , out their Pac-1- 0 season this week by hosting Arizona and Indiana grabs the eight spot. The Hoosiers close out their Arizona State.''.. V'; Big Ten' Conference season Saturday when they host Ohio . i The Bruins are expected to breeze through these final , State. 12-5 conference record, and Ohio State has , Indiana has a opponents and possibly enter the NCAA Tournament as the team in the West. . ', posted 11. wins in its 17 games. Indiana, even without the ; Louisville ends the season as the fourth-rankteam in services of steady Ted Kitcel, should have enough the Chronicle poll. The Cardinals warmed up for the Metro ammunition to nail down the victory and the conference Conference tournament by posting a 64-6- 2 win over championship. ' y,, The Big East Conference is regarded by many as the Memphis State. St. John's and toughest in the country. Ninth-ranke- d tenth-rank12-Louisville ended its conference season with a perfect 0 Villanova will attest to that. , mark. It will be difficult for anyone to stop the Cardinals in St. John's was rolling along on an undefeated course until " the tournament. the Redmen ran into a couple of conference ambushes against Fifth-rank' L Nevada Las Vegas finished its Pacific Coast Villanova and Boston College. , Athletic Associationseason with 15 winsjn ljamciandriie--. fifffi'handle on the ;j hsd S conference championship until a iawcdtowm the tournament this week regular-seaso- n in Inglcwood, Calif. season-endin- g loss to Georgetown tossed the team into a three-waThe Runnin' Rebels open the tournament by meeting y tie with Boston College and St. John's. They all v lowly pacific, and only Fresno Stateis given much of a chance. posted 12-- 4 marks. s" . 11, 1983 ill VA. agent-eligib- Big SEty tourney evenly matched RENO Weber State's Neil McCarthy, the Big Sky Conference's winningest basketball coach, unhesitatingly bills this weekend's leamie tournament . Mssnl ffisSM mWW mn nnsr-seasAnd Nf.AA as the most evenly matched even An mialifvine It's an assessment shared by Montana's Mike Montgomery, taking his fifth team to the tournament, Nevada-Reno- 's Sonny Allen, whose squad is hosting the event, and Don Monson of Idaho, the league champion. 1 r :? ' fc k "All four teamSllavl thc; potential to win it and that always; hasn't been that way in' thc'5past," said McCarthy, holder of a 155-8- 0 record in eight seasons at Wber, where his teams have won the tdumamlcnF three times hi lt?ight-yea- r lifespan. i ne comercnce nas oeen very, very naiancea tms year ana in fact, this is the first time in the history of the conference that we ve had three winners over the season playing in the " 20-ga- me tournament." Nevada-Ren- o, Top-seed- ed overall, plays fourth-seede- irtthe league and 10-- 4 Idaho, d 9-- 5 first game Triday night at Reno's Coliseum. 10 Centennial 5,600-se- at . , . 17-- anct 20-- 7 overall, in the ... Weber State, 10-- 4 in the conference and 21-- 7 overall; goes against No. 3 seed Montana, 5 and 21-- 7, in the second game Friday. The winners play Saturday night for the league championship and an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. . Montana has a returning first-teaig Sky player in senior forward Derrick Pope, the second-be- st scorer and rebounder in the conference with averages of 19 points and 9.6 l:"';'; ''Wii";r ':,:'v "';V .reboundsr.;i...'::;v "He always plays well against us, but he has not had an exceptional game like he has against other teams," McCarthy . . Second-seede- d 9-- all-B- m -- "V;- u, ;;i a .inm mm sum i - - i m ,j$ ui-- i situ mm: " said..-- i ... ", ci'y'S v-- V. Facing Pope will be Weber State senior Royal Edwards, who is scoring 12.2 points and collecting 6.6 rebounds per game. Weber narrowly beat the Grizzlies twice this season, including a 56-5- 4 .win at the buzzer at Missoula. Montgomery says he hasn't made any major adjustments for Friday's matchup. ' "With this being essentially on a neutral court, the game between Weber and ourselves has to be considered close," Montgomery said, 'They're sound offensively and defensively, and there's nothing specifically you can do to give yourself a big muium, "mtwmi i edge." The four coaches concede few advantages to their Coll thootroo for ohowtimoo -MMiM UUMHILM IHJIlt M f iijn Mitt aaaawaw' , 11211 www- . . M , 8i II TROLLEY SQUARE CENTER TROLLEY rrvTV7 a iTTTmVTL Wf I fVW ' ry ... FAMILY 2BB-3e0- Jaaaa rr lumen 4 ySoc 040 7"J counterparts, even the home court that traditionally is a team's biggest ally. "We've beaten all three teams here Idaho in overtime, Weber State in two overtimes and Montana on a shot in the last four seconds, so we haven't exactly blown anyone out, but it's still nice to be home," said Allen, in his third season at UNR and second tournament' THEATRE - . |
