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Show ChRONicU . ThLRsdAy, Paqe Ten January 14, 1988 SPORTS hoop teams Unfriendly territory will greet Utah CSU starts WAC season 1 1 nrnnroc fnr HAP not looking for miracles with By Laury Livsey Chronicle sports editor By Kent Condon Chronicle staff writer Don't tell new Colorado State Coach Boyd Grant his team tough road swing Playing six consecutive to compete for the WAC championship. He says his team, despite a 3 record, isn't to that level is ready games on the road is nothing to look forward to. The Lady 9-- y "Utes" will be doing just yet. "If people would watch us play, they would know we beat Southern Cal at Southern Cal. But USC hasn't beat Bay is a anybody all year. I don't think Wisconsin-Gree- n great team and we beat them by six at our place," Grant said. "I doubt they have a kid on their team who could make Utah's team." Yep, Grant's already back into the swing of things as a V til that over the next two weeks. But playing the first three games in sunny California isn't exactly the worst way to start off a long road swing. Utah will be facing Cal. jMeZ... tonight, U.S. International on Saturday Michelle Hennessey and San Diego next week. Tonight's game with the Broncos could be the most difficult of the three. Cal is off to an 1 start and will be hungry after dropping its last game to San Diego State on Tuesday. Last year the Broncos finished as runner-u- p in the NCAA Division II tournament. If the first half of this year is any indication, look for them to make another appearance in '88. First things first, however. They must first get by the 4 Lady "Utes." Utah, which trounced a decent Fairfield team a week ago found its Saturday night opponent harder to handle. Montana snapped Utah's four-gam- e winning streak handing the U. a 62-5- 4 setback. Utah Coach Elaine Elliott will be spending the next five games fine tuning her team before conference action gets underway Jan. 28 at New Mexico State. "We'll spend this trip trying to concern ourselves with our own play and not; our opponents," Elliott said. who has Leading Utah scorer Tiffany Rogers-Krame- r, missed the last four games nursing a back injury, is still forward questionable for this week's games. The started out the season on a tear averaging 15.7 points and six rebounds a game. With the absence of Rogers-Krame- r, Utah has relied on the strength of its bench. Fortunately, Utah has the kind of depth to handle adversity. Picking up the slack have been seniors Leslie Neebling and Donna Holzwarth. Both have had strong performances and one or the other has been the leading scorer in Utah's last three games. Also chipping in has been guard Gina Butters, who has established herself as Utah's three-poispecialist. She has converted on 20 of 44 attempts for the year. Freshman Michelle Hennessey and sophomore Leslie Carpenter have also been major contributors. Leading the Broncos is junior Cathy Gooden. She averages 18.4 points a game, while teammate Paula Tezak dishes out 7.8 assists. That stat is tops in their conference. "I think we're heading in the right direction, Elliott said. see "Pomona" on page eleven 'ff Poly-Pomo- na coach. He's got the Rams off to their best start since the 1968-6- 9 season and is still proving he can bait opponents with the best of them. He had plenty of practice, though. He left as coach of Fresno State in 1986 after nine years with the Bulldogs and a 194-7- 4 record. Before that, he coached College of Southern Idaho to 94 wins against only Poly-Pomo- na six losses. The guy knows how to coach. He also knows how to deal the press. The Rams can't be as bad as he says, can they? Well, let's just say we might have caught the coach at the wrong time. After all, his team had just been routed by Colorado, a team Utah defeated by 29 points. Inconsistent, maybe. But you can bet tonight's game with Utah, as is usually the case, will be a tough one, for the U. The 7:35 tipoff will mark the beginning of Colorado State's WAC season. Utah is already 0 in the conference on the strength of wins over Hawaii and San Diego State last week. "The biggest problem Utah poses is all that talent they have," Grant said. "They have a very good team, are well ' t ' - ' - II coached and seem to do everything well." . J Indeed. But then, Utah may be a little like Colorado State. The U. "VS I hasn't played a Top opponent yet so its 10-- 3 record coming in might also be deceiving. n- Still, Utah drilled the Buffaloes while the Rams lost to foes Monday if scores against common their cross-sta- te opponents means anything. &..M "We have some limitations," Grant added. "I don't think ;PHn we're ready to contend for the WAC." That isn't to say he thinks his team never will. "The biggest thing is I didn't say we had to win the national championship or the WAC when I took the job," Grant continued. "I want to see CSU be a competitive basketball school where we can come into a place like Provo V .'r or iSalt Lake and compete instead of getting beat, Chronicle photo by Steven C. Wilson ' Or 78-4- 8, the score of Utah's win over CSU last year in the Huntsman Center. Forward Keith Chapman may dish in vital points all which last week without of Gale Utah, played guard Thursday as the U. faces Colorado State in its first see "Colorado State" on page eleven WAC road game. Tip off is at 7:35. jwith 2-- f " ' Jl "1 20-cali- . "mmm' '" 95-60- 1- -3 9-- nt Edited by Laury Livsey IF THEY CAN DO IT, SO CAN I The Utah and BYU rivalry is still as strong as ever, so you can't blame anybody from Utah if they're not particulary friendly with the folks from Provo. wins never came easily for McAndrews while he was head coach at Colorado State. In his seven seasons in Fort Collins, his record was 0. And after last year's 6, disappointing campaign,; he was let go by the 80-12- 13-1- However, Utah and everybody else in the WAC should be applauding the efforts of BYU Coach Ladell Andersen to get the WAC some more national scope. Andersen, who has a vote on the UPI poll, recently voted his team No. 2 in the ff tezX2m nation, UTEP, No. 8, Wyoming No. 9, New Mexico in the 11th spot, Utah at No. 14 and Colorado State in the 15th position. Maybe not a fair assess Ladell Andersen ment by Andersen, but then it's safe to say the votes the rest of the coaches on the UPI board cast might be a little slanted toward their own conferences, too. SUCCESS AT LAST Tony McAndrews was known in basketball circles as one of the truly nice guys in the game. Unfortunately, i " . university.' McAndrews, who was an assistant coach at Iowa from 1976-8- 0 before taking over the Rams' program, happened to be an assistant to one Lute Olson, then the Hawkeyes' head coach. Now, seven years later, Olson, the head coach at Arizona, and McAndrews have been reunited this time as coaches for the No. 1 team in the nation. McAndrews is a part-tim- e coach for the Wildcats, but full-tiworks for part-tim- e actually pay. However, this monetary sacrifice may be worth it considering the Wildcats have a definite shot at winning the national championship this year. RETIRING" IT COULD BE KIND OF TOUGH Should BYU begin retiring jerseys of its athletes again, it could run into a bit of difficulty with basketball player Michael Smith who is compiling the kind of stats that could warrant a retirement of his number. Or numbers. During his three years at BYU, Smith has worn three numbers No. 34, No. 20 and his current No. 4. During his freshman season before going on an LDS me mission, Smith wore No. 34. Then when he returned, he assumed the same number after Anthony Matthews wore it while he was gone. However, last year his jersey was stolen for a while and he had to wear No. 20. Now, for no apparent reason, Smith is wearing No. 4 and freshman Gary Trost is sporting No. 34. The San Diego Union got Smith to admit that one of the reasons for changing was because former Cougar Fred Roberts also wore No. 34. Smith still hasn't ex- plained the reason for the change. But if his number is retired, maybe then we can finally find out. SO THIS IS WHAT A POSSEE'S LIKE "Since we got back, there've been a couple of funerals, my family won't Tony McAndrews speak to me and there's a possee after the coach." coach Dees after Wyoming Benny Wyoming lost to New Mexico and UTEP on successive nights last weekend. |
