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Show 1. Thursday, January 16. 1992 The Daily Utah Chronicle - Page Thirteen POETS Hobblim' Uttes hope lowly Falcons will ease pain By Matthew Coles Chronicle Sports Editor It's worse than bad. The Runnin' Utes are not only wondering who's going to be healthy enough to suit up tonight against Air Force in the Huntsman Center at 7:35 p.m., they're wondering if they're going to have enough to field a team. The Utah roster looks more like an casualty report than a list of players. Here's quick rundown: Paul Afeaki (leg bone a OUT-Ce-nter bruise). QUESTIONABLE Guard Byron Wilson (influenza), Craig (sprained wrist). Rydalch PROBABLE Guard Jimmy Soto (thigh contusion, sprained thumb). Wilson wasn't at practice Wednesday because he was running a fever and had more than just a bad cold. Rydalch was advised by Utah trainers not to shoot at practice and Soto's thumb isn't going to get better unless he rests But there's no time to recover for the Utes. It's just a darn good thing Air Force that fellow cellar-dwellwill be the Hobblin' Utes' opponents. The Falcons' early season slate was even weaker than Utah's; it included such patsies as Nicholls State, Regis, Mesa State, Doane (No, not Duane the neighbor kid you played against on it er the driveway hoop, Doane, the college). The most amazing thing about it is that the Falcons haven't even mustered a winning record against those teams. Air Force is 8 overall but did push Colorado State (which isn't really saying much) to the limit in the WAC opener before losing. But Utah Coach Rick Majerus politely said, "Air Force is a good team. They're very methodical with good shooters and they'll always play hard." The Falcons' best player is Dale French, a per game scorer who sat out last year with an academy 5-- 16-poi- nt suspension. The forward shoots more than 50 percent from the field and 87 percent from the line. He and senior guard Charles Smith can shoot the lights out if they're left open. On the Utes' side, Majerus plans to start Larry Cain in the center position and since the Falcons' tallest and since the player is only Utes just don't have big players, the Utes will often go small, very small. "I think we'll look to play four guards (Phil Dixon, Soto, Thomas Wyatt and Wilson, if he's able) together a lot and play small," Majerus said. However, Cain feels his height and this opportunity may give the team a CHRONIOE mOTOjMid I. The Runnin Utes will be looking to junior center Larry Cain to step into Paul Afeaki's big shoes when Utah meets Air Force in the Huntsman Center tonight at 7:35 p.m. Afeaki is out with a bone bruise. much-neede- d lift. m (?!730 "The height may give us an advantage against Air Force but I'm ; just going to look to set screens, get others open and score when I can. But mostly, I'm going to go hard and get on the boards," Cain said. The loss of Afeaki should also give Antoine Davison increased action. Often in Majerus' doghouse, perhaps because the coach sees the enormous untapped potential, Davison has shown flashes of brilliance and stretches of pale disappointing play. This weekend, with games against two of the worst teams in the conference (AFA and CSU Saturday), the Utes can get back on track and back in the pack Because as Majerus mused, "Even if we had Josh and everybody else healthy, we may have lost both those games (New Mexico and UTEP) on the road." Nothing like a game against the Falcons to lift the Utes' spirits and confidence for the tough WAC season to come. Utah (10-13-M'IC- VAD 4, McGrath (6-- ay 5.4 ppg, 4,4 F 5) rpg il Cain 31-Lar- ry 3.5 ppg, 2.4 45-Byr- Tate (6-5.2 ppg, 3.0 apg - le French (6-- 6) 30-Bre- nt 10-Ot- 8) 0) 10.9 ppg, 3.5 apg , G 0) 42-Da- 0--2) (6-- 3) 16,0 ppg, 5.2 rpg Roberts (6-8.0 ppg, 4.4 rpg is Jones (6-- G (6--2) ll.lppg, 4.9 rpg 11-l- ae , rpg Wilson on . C (6-1- 0) WAD Smith 12.4 ppg, 3.7 rpg F 5) (5-- 8, 22-Char- les , Dixon (6-10,9 ppg, 3,4 rpg 32-Ph- Air Force Starting lineups 0--2) 12-Geoi- ge mippg, , Irvin (6-- 0) 3.5 rpg Majerus so frustrated he laughs, but he feels like crying was a dream for Runnin' Ute basketball and the architect behind all the success, Utah Coach Last year Rick Majerus, was well rewarded and well recognized. He became a darling of the local press and Utah fans everywhere deified the Magi as a hoops genius and the second coming of legendary Ute coach Jack Gardner, but even better. Everything went right for Utah and all the magic seemed to come from the intense fat man's instructions and pointing fingers. He mocked his team's lack of talent. The Runnin' Utes that reached the Sweet Sixteen in 1991 were Little Engines That Could and Majerus described the players collectively as "the little Dutch boy who keeps plugging his fingers and the dike." That man, who seemed just as flabbergasted as the fans at Utah's meteroric rise into the upper thumbs in echelon of college basketball, is the same man who looks off in the distance as he speaks and rubs his bald head furiously as if a genie was waiting to appear and grant him all the answers. Did the Majerus use up all his luck last year? Was Murphy's Law doomed to catch up with him? As good as things were last year, they're bad this season. Tuesday after practice, things never looked dimmer as Majerus flops into a chair in the basketball office, wipes his eyes and sighs deeply. Obviously tiring of comparisons to last year's magical squad, the 1991 Coach of the Year pipes up. "We're just in a situation where we're doing the best we can with what we got," Majerus says. "I'll tell you what the difference is, the MVP of the league (Josh Grant) is out, our top three scorers are sick or hurt (Jimmy Soto, Byron Wilson, Paul Afeaki). The difference is we lost our firepower. We don't have players." Majerus cringes when M'Kay McGrath tells him he has to miss practice because he has class or when Craig Rydalch says he's nursing an injury and can't shoot in practice. To top it off, Majerus finds out that redshirt center Deon Mims may never play at Utah because of damaged tendons in his knees. Majerus became the Master of Team Deprecation last year as the Utes came from nowhere to the Top-2The Utes were picked sixth in the WAC and ended up setting a 0. conference record with 15 league wins. And all the while Majerus was telling people how bad the team was. The worse he made them look, the more ingenious Majerus looked for molding such a terrible team into Matthew 3 Coles CSsi' jfclr a group of winners. Chronicle Sports Editor Again, Majerus is trying to lower the lofty expectations of predictions that Utah would repeat as WAC kings. But he feels this team he has right now is special, too. But special in a different and less talented way. "We're playing our ass off. We're playing defense and rebounding to we're at. We're in a big way. overachieving "I'm not one to praise the team like that. Last year, I'd rip these guys every chance I got because I thought they could play harder. But these guys play as hard as they can." The adversity has tested all the players as they have seen their well be where defined roles of a year change quickly with the circumstances t)f this tumultuous season. "We're taking role players and saying to them, 'You have to do more.' They're just not capable of it." Majerus compares himself to a poor salesman who is ready to hit the road with a line of products. However, just before he goes to make are his money his three taken away from him. "I'm at the point that I don't know what direction to go. I'm just playing around. I'm not throwing he towel in by any means but sometimes I just don't know what to do," Majerus says, making himself seem as lost as the team is on court sometimes. top-selle- rs Majerus has never known anything else beside coaching and he often says, " Maybe I'm just not a very smart person. If I was, I probably wouldn't be coaching, that's for sure." But he is coaching and some think he is the best basketball mind on the planet. But now he wonders how much more that mind can take. "We're beat up and we're hurt. And people are always asking why aren't we winning. And I'll tell them we just don't have the players. They're all in the training room." Al McGuire, the NBC sports commentator and legendary coach at friend Marquette, called long-tim- e and asked him how he was Majerus all with the adversity the dealing team was suffering. He told him he was a basketcase. Majerus never comes into the office anymore. He doesn't call anybody. He spends hours looking at film and devising plays hoping there's still a way to win a way to recapture the magic. After a time of silence, I ask the coach if he still enjoys his job. His forehead furrows and he starts speaking very slowly, "I'm so frustrated I just have to laugh. Because ifl didn't, I'd have to crv." 1 |
