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Show The Dally Utah -- CHRONICLE- PORT The S o u nd a n d t h e Male and Female Reporters Alike Should Stay Out GREG BEACHAM by Chronicle Editor Sports Rick Vezqsez ' Paul McPherson hits a heavy d backhand slice shot that lands just beyond the service line He v':l T" speaks. ' "AAAH, just hit it IN, please! I mean, it's so easy!" Seconds later, McPherson chops a Chronicle Sports Writer i This said, there are soil some areas of sport which should be dnided along gender lines. Tm talking about the locker I did the customary sports reporter deal of waking outside the visiting locker room after the game. After coach Doug Collins finished his spid, the members of the media were allowed inside the dressing room for postgame interviews. Now for anyone who has played high school sports, I don't have to describe the locker-rooscene in great dctaiL Adilctcs are walking around showing a little more skin than a lot of us would like to see, and members of the media (well, at least most of ' them) try their best to keep their eyes pointed at the ground while the players change. Understandably, k presents a pretty uncomfortable situation for all parties involved. Then, from out of the blue, a . female reporter from Detroit comes barging in, more than eager to walk right up to guard Joe Dumars as he scrambled to cover himself with only a towel She began firing away with Paul McPherson, a member of the University of Utah men's tennis team, can be a happy man when he wants to be "I'm not always down on myself and talking to myself like that," he says. "It's just when I'm playing." McPherson has been carrying on conversations with himself on the tennis court since he was a prodigy in his native Australia. "I quit for a while last year, but now I've started up again," he says. Ill be playing and TU just think, Tm not ever going to be able get that ball,' and all I do is think negative thoughts. I don't do it off the court, really; even in practice Til just say one thing and shut up for a while It's only during matches that L uh. J planned to go to Iowa State, but the Cyclones dropped their program the year before he was set to enroll. Robbins and Utah assistant (and fellow Aussie) Graeme Cox signed McPherson, but the NCAA clearinghouse didn't approve his grades. . Tennis Center. ;J : American universities. He had b 6-- 1 "I was down about that for a while," McPherson says. He signed on with NAIA school Oklahoma City. College. McPherson rose as high as No. 8 in the NAIA rankings before he had an emergency appendectomy and his ranking dropped to No.20. ' . -. : But rankings were among the least of McPherson's concerns female athletes can not be ignored. For the same reason that males and females are separated in bathrooms and public dressing page 10 I'm kind of proud of that... 105 hours" First, there was an automobile mishap with a buddy. Then g McPherson and a friend "were fire with a around the dorms extinguisher and knocking on doors and, you know. Wc did k to an RA, though, and wc got in a lot of trouble because they said they couldn't breathe when we sprayed them, ancL-ohk really wasn't that bad," he , C?-.. . run-nin- ' says..'. "And the third time..oh, yeah,' he laughs. "Exposing myself to campus would make David and Goliath seem like an average fight, it won't Rick Pldno bark instructions to his Kentwlcy WUdca in the Huntsman Center. Wednesday be his last game during pracd Mercer and his Wildcats will more than likely live to top-seede- security. "I can't do that stuff; it's just so STUPID, reaHyP McPherson nets a backhand. He is leading his match with Cook 6-Cook is overpowered by a serve and lobs it back weakly. McPherson smashes k down. "You'd BETTER go in, you bas.. tard!" 4-- There were a lot of Australians in Oklahoma, so I had a better social life there," McPherson says. "But I like the University of Utah. I like going to football games and things see "McPherson" on pae 11 at Huntsman play another day in the Western regionV in Salt !Lake City, but that ciocsn t mean tney arc looking past 1 Ron Mercer has already let the world know that this will be his last season as a Kentucky Wildcat So ; when his team takes the floor against the No, 16 seed Montana tonight at .5:55 p.m. in the Huntsman Center, he will treat it like it's his last game "(I'm going) to play like every game is my last game and get the feeling back that we got last year when we won the national championship, Mercer said. "It was a great feeling to play the last game of the season.. J want that feeling back, and I am pretty sure my teammates want that feeling back again." However, barring an upset that, be mi he chuckles. "I did the most community service hours in college history without getting kicked out of school. JAMES EDWARD Despite the generic "athlete" tag which has been placed on today's spore figures, the fact that there are male athletes and "Vaiquei" Utah tennis player Paul McPherson has made a name for himself in his first year at the U. Already a key contributor in the upper singles order and in doubles, McPherson has also became known for his lively and vocal playing style. Chronicle Assistant Sports Editor If body language is any indicator, you could dearly tell he did not want her to be mere You know what? She sec V OmomoC Novo BiH HitcMfl Visiting Hoops Squads Prep for Tourney face. rooms, corrunon decency tells us that male athletes should enjoy the same privacy and respect that their female counterparts are at Oklahoma Gty." "I got into a lot of trouble there" he says. "I lived on campus, and. J questions for the AllSur as if the situation was totally normal SaU, you could see the uncomfortable, awkward wrinkle on Dumars's shouldn't V1 - . McPherson smashes a forehand winner past Cook. He has won the first set and taken the first game of the second. But Mcpherson's first service return of the set comes off the frame of his racquet and sails over the mesh curtain that divides the court from the rest of the Ecdcs ) - ld . 1 :Tnfr ll "All of my heroes were Rugby League players," he says. "I never ended up playing rugby because I was too small and too slow." McPherson stands just below six feet and is compactly built- -a perfect size for an aggressive, attacking, style of tennis. . . . "When I was a kid, I was a real tennis bum," he says. "I have an Aussie friend who plays for Texas Christian now, and we used to smoke and drink after matches. One day I finished a match and walked off the court and he handed me a ':. cigarette about 16, 1 deckled was "When I all of that.and I decided that to qiik I needed to get a bit fitter if I wanted to continue playing," he says. McPherson made the changes, amji soon he was in demand from , the Jan Pistons game, nis. McPhcrson's coach, ED. Robbins, watches from the door of his office "He's really got to stop doing that to himself,'' Robbins says. , : I: . - McPherson began playing tennis at age 10, but he didn't do so because of respect or admiration for anyone in the rich Australian history of ten' ."Oh, oh, oh, it's just...YOU COULDNT HIT A LINE IF YOU WERE STANDING ON m" male chauvinist about how and rave rant pigs women's sports wiD never be on a par with men's as far as fan base, popularity or entertain-- 1 menL Anyone who has been to a Ute gymnastics, volleyball or women's basketball event can attest mat these morons are truly stuck in an outdated, ignorant frame of mind. old-scho- is the WORST you've ever played!" ' Three points later, McPherson nets a difficult running forehand. and "Come ON! You get to then you do THAT!" 30-a- ve earth-shatterin- THIS . volley into McPhcrson's feet never seen "Oh, no.oh, na-Tanything like thist's UNBELIEVABLE!" McPherson then smashes two aces to get a game point, but his next two serves miss the center line by millimeters. Double fault. controvermost in the statement non-Psial, world, k b important that I establish that bet before I step into an area that may confuse people as " to my true beliefs. I find k sickening when I hear rooms. After covering ! volley past Idaho State's Rodney Cook, but Cook hits a nice approach - While this may not be the the v " -- in support gender equity ' spots. one-hande- i X j) d the Grizzlies. "The first game is the one I dislike the most," Kentucky coach Rick Pitino said. "Last year we had a battle with San Jose State at halftimc. That's what you get: teams that play with a great deal of emotion. What you hope for is that by the end of the 40 minutes that you're the better basketball team." Pitino has nothing to fear, his team is dearly the better team, but he as a coach he knows that "talent does not always prevail." That's the only thing that is driv- ing the Montana players. They already know that a No. 16 seed has never defeated a No. 1 seed. "I guarantee you we are going to enjoy what we do tomorrow night," Montana coach Blaine Taylor said. "I think one of the exciting things about March Madness is the undcr-se"NCAA" on page 11 e |