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Show 'hursd Sports: By BOB HUDSON state in-sta- berth." "With Vranes I think we be okay." Pimm said Without him. we'll struggle as will any team that loses such a key player Vranes' condition is currently a thing. Pimm said He anticipates his return by But. by then, the L'tes will have played eight games During the interim, Coby Leavitt or Dan Larson will play in his place. Both Pimm and BYU's Frank Arnold agreed the WAC will be a stronger conference this year, top to bottom. Both men agreed that New Mexico will be and that UTEP could be dangerous, "I look for Jim Williams' team (Colorado State i to be the surprise of the conference," Pimm said. "They're big and physical and anytime you get a team their size that's they're going to be hard to handle." Arnold agreed with Pimm's assessment but said thay Wyoming, with three top returnees back, was his choice as the probable surprise team in much-improve- d d, red-shir- ' d highly-recruite- () d. f It's Thanksgiving Day and something extra to be thankful for today. Today's guest columnist is John Peterson, who resigned his position as sports information director at Weber State College a few weeks ago and is now doing free lance and public relations work in the Ogden area. John grew up in Provo, graduating from B.Y. High. The following column was written by John about BYU basketball star Scott Runia. n I think it is a touching, column, And a great tribute to Runia. Here it is: well-writte- fri-r- v M tj Iff vv iV m WWin ISM DETROIT'S John Long is caught under the basket by a towering Ben Poquette of the Utah Jazz during Wednesday's game. The The game which will draw much of the interest is a match-uof Orem Orem s Joel Gardner is familiar with most of the Cavemen players because most of their kids have been to our starters back. "(Chris) McMullins is a threat both inside and out so we've got to keep the ball away from him somehow. And (Scott) Schlappi has good quickness we'll have to contend with. We need to keep (Dave) McGinn off the boards "Basically," Allred said, "we have By MIKE TWITTY Herald Correspondent TUCSON, Ariz.-T- he long trip south was worthwhile for three Utah junioir college basketball teams. Snow, Eastern Utah and Utah Tech took the first three places in the Pima College Aztec Invitational tournament Wednesday, marking the first time in seven years the host team hastn't played in the finals. Snow beat Eastern Utah for the title while Utah Tech edged Pima 0 for third place. In other games Cochise beat Yavapai 0 for fifth place and Eastern Arizona downed Navajo 0 for seventh. UTC, which returns to action against the Southern Utah State jayvees at Timpview Nov. 30, came came from seven points behind to win on 24 points by Joe Tait, 19 from Karl Anderson and a free throw by Scott Pace with two seconds remaining. 98-9- 3 Telephoto) 91-9- 0 71-7- 89-8- 85-8- Pace made a steal with five seconds left and was intentionally fouled. He made the second shot to give UTC its only lead of the final half. The Wolverines dominated the final three minutes to pull out the victory. Snow, led by Theo Vos and Jeff Scholtec, exploded from a 5 deficit late in the first half and pulled to a lead before sending in its substitutes. Scholtec was named the most valuable player in the tournament. He. Arthur Robinson of CEU and Karl Anderson of UTC were named to the team. 30-2- PIMA (701 Jones U Kochneff 8 0 Savage IT AH TECH Butler Pace 3 3. 1 4 Anderson 7 6 19. Tait 11 24. Hansen 1 2. M. Anderson 0 9. Rowlev 0 0 0. Burke 10-- 2. Totals 0 6 1 71 13. K. 5 Thompson 0. 29 14. Mack Renfro 7 5 19. Graves 2 5. Bon 2. Toledo 0 1. Totals 31 22. 1 2. Halftime score: L'TC 37. Pima 37. tow-head- buck-a-gallo- card-carryin- cookie-cu- t kid indistinguishable from all the other blonde second-grader- s in town. True, Mom has to add "bread winner" and, at least in Jason's case, "coach" to her list of duties but that isn't really an unusual circumstance. In fact, it's probably the complete normalcy of the situation the lack of dramatic overtones that makes Runia's actions worth noting. It's easy to do noble things in a tragedy tougher y in living where stakes don't seem so high. Jason is a normal, active kid. Runia is a day-to-da- colnormal, athletically-talentewas student. Their lege meeting brief, but mutually rewarding. Just a couple of guys who got together, shot the breeze and a few hoops, and struck up a friendship. It happens every day. But people need heroes, other people they can look up to. Idol worship has been supplanted almost everywhere by religions that have real people to emulate. The space program was important to the country because it gave us the d d Ml Team astronauts at a time when there was nobody else to admire. rock stars thrive because they're just there, on display. And little boys without daddies in the house need athletes. No-tale- It doesn't matter, either, whether they're technically good or bad. To a child proficiency, like love to an adult, is in the eye of the beholder. Charlie Brown s idol is baseball player Joe Shlabotnik, the most inept major leaguer ever. Which is not to say that Scott Runia isn't one very fine basketh ball player. Pick an team, and Runia would be playing guard. As a prep and college player, he's been providing thrills for many years to the turned-olocal fans. His performance in the 1976 state championship game in high school is remembered as one of the finest individual perforall-tim- e, n mances ever. Runia last-seco- was a dynamo, doing everything he could including missing a free to pull out a victory. throw He's that kind of player. He's had three great seasons as a Cougar, and while he's not THE STAR for BYU this year, do you think they'd like to play a game without him? Sunday's visit to Ogden was, in many ways, like that final high school game. It was Runia doing more than be should have been expected to do. Jason's mom wrot several weeks ago, telling a, mi the birthday, the adoration, and asking for a picture. She even sent a stamped envelope along. And then well, nothing happened. No response. No reply. No picture. No acknowledgement. But when the knock came on the door Sunday evening, then things happened. Jason had Runia play twice - although he doesn't miss the late-nigreplays on channel 11. Still, he'd never seen his hero in mufti before, and at first didn't, know who he was. But two guards can't be together long before the ice is broken. They talked, then went out to the garage to shoot a few. Runia gave the kid an autographed picture and a card. Then he pulled out a team shot signed by all the Cougars. Then he gave Jason a poster. Then he proffered an invitation to visit the locker room whenever Jason could come down to a game. They ate some birthday cake together, and then Runia went back to Provo through the storm. The visit wasn't a major sacrifice but the point is: he made it! He did it on his own. without being asked, without making a production of it. The Cougar publicist didn't know about it. Coach Frank Arnold likely wasn't aware. The PR staff didn't get involved. It was just Scott Runia Sunday night, going one-on-o- with a big-eye- d eight-year-ol- Scott has been to more exotic places than Ogden. He's been, it's fairly safe to say, to more exciting parties than Jason's He's performed before much larger and noisier audiences. But he's probably never been appreciated more. His first appearance in Ogden wasn't nearly as rewarding. In his first collegiate game, back in 1976, he was generally outplayed by his opposite number on the Weber State team also a freshman guard. Runia had four fouls, one assist, and went that night. He left town as a loser, and had a long ride home. Sunday evening the ride was much shorter. py'' summer camps This is a good senior crew they have," Gardner said "There's a lot of talent over there We're going to have to rebound bet- ter and have better overall defense than we've been having in practice," Gardner said Facing a new coach makjs us edgy, but we know we can expect an aggressive, tough-nosegame. "The main thing we've got to do," Gardner said, "is handle their pressure d defense, get the ball down the floor and into our offensive sets "' Other Friday openers include Pleasant Grove at Judge, Union at Payson, Provo at Highland. Cyprus at Springvil-land Carbon at Lehi. Wasatch will be at the Top o' the Mountains tournae ment. Saturday Pleasant Grove is at Bountiful, Lehi's at Springville and the Top O the Mountains tournament concludes. All games begin at 7:30 p.m. Bulldogs Favored In Region 6 Race Jazz came close, but faded in the stretch and lost for their 13th straight defeat. (UPI Snow Wins Pima Tournament; Utah Tech Cla ims 3rd Place All-St- ar Pre-Seas- on Runia himself won't even regard it as significant. But don't try to tell Jason that it wasn't important. Sunday was Jason's eighth birthday, and Runia was a very special surprise guest at the party. Driving through a night that would have grounded a Saint Bernard, Scott and his lady n friend poured some gas into their car and used up a few scarce and precious personal hours to deliver an autographed picture to a kid. Now if Jason were terminally ill, or crippled, or seriously handicapped, this would have the makings of a pretty juicy story. Fortunately, though, Jason is perfectly healthy and whole. He's a Scott Runia put on one heckuv-v- a performance in Ogden last weekend. It won't go into any record books, won't be regarded by anyone on the national scene, won't land him a pro contract or assure his Brigham Young University basketball team of a championship. Chances are, SCOTT RUNIA to stop a lot of things Defensively we'll have to play good position and be scrap- tip-of- Marion Dunn perfect time to run a guest column giving all of you 7 age High school basketball begins fur most Utah Countv iand surrounding' teams Friday By BOB HUDSON Herald Sports Writer In some ways it's not surprising most Region Six coaches expect Provo to be the team to beat. Again. However, in others it's surprising since the Bulldogs return just one starter from guard Mike Olpin last year's squad. "As far as having a lot of experience, we're a pretty young team," said Coach Jim Spencer. "The kids we have undoubtedly got more experience playing in the AAU and BCI tournaments last summer than they did on the varsity last year." Five of the seven players return from the team which placed fourth in the tournament. national AAU under-1- 6 Only Steve Sanders, who graduated, and Todd Cooper, who moved to Parowan, are gone. Gaining experience in that tourna3 Dave Heaton, ment were John Spencer, 2 Jim Edwards, 1 Mike Lohner. Dan Hatch and Heaton and Spencer also played on the local BCI team with Olpin and 6 5 Kirk - 21-- 3 6-- 6-- 6-- Ashby. Runia Makes Utah-P- and local sports, the third-placfinisher in its state tournament last year, and defending champion American Fork The game will be played on the Cavemen maples f with scheduled for 7 30 p m American Fork has a new coach in Art Allred. an assistant at the school for the past eight years He has no starters returning from last year s championship team He does have, however, returning spot starters in Clark Burgess, Bruce Hansen. Todd Dimick and Todd Wheeler Dimick and Wheeler are injured and will not plav until later in the season. "We're looking for a battle from Orem," Allred said "They have a really good crew, with essentially four day-to-da- y o THE HERALD. Provo. Prep Cage Teams Begin Play Friday n Tueller said he won't decide until conference. later what to do with Leo CuArnold said that Danny Ainge is nningham. Cunningham had been shooting very well now. "That's excounted upon to provide some punch in citing to me,'; he said. "Although he the middle for the Aggies, but cut his shot 54 per cent last year I didn't feel arm severely when he put it through a he shot well. plate glass fire extinguisher box "We asked all our players to shoot a several weeks ago. lot over the summer," Arnold said. "If we feel it will be to Leo's benefit "Because of his baseball. Danny wasn't t, to we'll go that route. But if able to do that. When he got to campus, we feel he can help us, we won't his shooting was terrible. But he came hesitate to use him," Tueller said. down to the Marriott Center at 7 a.m. Tueller said that both Utah County each day and spent an hour to an playere in, Aggieville, center Gary E. and now he's shooting very Beck from American Fork and guard well." Steve Pinegar from Provo, arc doing Devin Durrant according to Arnold, well. was doing very well prior to suffering a " We' re really pleased wi th Gary thus broken ankle. Now he's struggling a far, Tueller said. "And Pinegar, who bit, but will still start. has always been the best shooter on the Fred Roberts, Arnold said, "has unteam, will get more playing time. We limited potential, not only in college expect him to help us at the scoring basketball, but perhaps professionally, too. He's guard position." playing very well right now Weber State's Neil McCarthy said he and is making great strides." Arnold said the same about Alan expected to win the Big Sky Conference 'again despite the league's addition of a Taylor and Steve Trumbo. He said that 'strong Nevada-Renquintet. Greg Kite is playing "On paper," McCarthy said, "we're well enough that Taylor will get the the best team. But games are won on rest he needs this season. Trumbo, the floor." who spelled Taylor in the post last McCarthy, who has four starters year, will probably get less playing back, pointed out that none of his time as a result, but Arnold said he is But. shooting better and will make more of players were a contribution to the team. .through dedication to the fundamenBYU's "other" guards, Scott Runia, tals, they've molded themselves into a Steve Craig and Greg Ballif , Also drew good team, he said. Utah's Jerry Pimm spent most of his Arnold's praise. He added that Steve time discussing Danny Vranes' condi- Arnold, who played very well in Europe tion. Vranes stretched knee ligaments during a summer tour, is not doing so a couple of weeks ago and was thought, right now, much to hisjisappointment. at one time, to be through for the "He's like a big bear," he joked. "He season. goes into hibernation in the winter." : 19TS. columns and opinions 11 - 22 What's happening on the national scene, Optimism High In Cage Camps Herald Sporti Writer SALT LAKE CITY Last vear all four Utah major college basketball teams made it into the first round of the NCAA tournament It could, according to the four coaches, happen again. Obviously, there are a lot of things necessary for that to happen. Utah State coach Rod f uelier spoke of his team's three seasons during the annual Old Oquirrh Bucket at the Hotel Utah Wednesday, pointing out the difficult trail the Aggies willl have to follow to return to the tournament. "We have three seasons." Tueller said. "Our season in December, our PCAA schedule and the PCAA tournament in March. Last year we finished second in the PCAA tournament and got an berth into the NCAA. We can thank our other friends in Utah for that. They provided the kind of competition a team needs to get an November "The AAU and BCI tournaments were a lot of work, but I think we got a lot of good experience from them," Spencer said. "I think we're going to be a very good ball club, but I don't know where we'll be ranked as far as region." "Payson and Spanish Fork probably have the most returning veterans so I expect them to be tough. And I expect Springville and Timpview to be strong, too. Dixie's had a couple of move-in- s who will help them. "It's going to be really, really close in region this year. I don't know how I would rank teams in region if I were doing that." Spencer said. Don't expect any wide variances from Spencer teams of previous years. in fundamenThey'll be tals and they won't beat themselves very often. well-coach- "We've got some excellent players," Spencer said. "But defensively we're going to have to compensate for the lack of a BIG, big man. Our biggest will be around Some of the really big ones around the state include 8 (Ter6-- 6-- ry) Murnin at Judge and there's another one about the same size at Bountiful. The things we do defensively against such teams will have to com- pensate for that." Of course, during most of the year, the Bulldogs face people their own size. It's likely, though, they'll be using the same types of defenses one might expect them to use against bigger teams. In all, Spencer and assistants Craig Drury, Randy Cusick and Mark Poth are working with 13 players. Seniors include Olpin, Spencer, Ashby and David Wright. Juniors include Heaton, Hatch, Lohner, Edwards, Kent Jorgensen, Dan Paulsen and Dan Ricks. Sophomores include Paul Gardner and Dean Lott. The Bulldogs open against Highland in Salt Lake City Friday night. The game, according to Spencer, will be a good test of the young Bulldogs. "Highland's supposed to be rebuilding, but anytime you play Highland you're going to have to go to play ball, they have a good tradition that they're really proud of." Rebounding, Defense Will Be Orem's Keys By SEAN FRANCIS e they were 6 in play. They open the season Friday at American Fork, and play Timpview the following Tuesday. Their first league game is not until January. 4-- Herald Correspondent Orem, a team which placed third in last year's state tournament, returns three starters for this basketball season, but Coach Joel Gardner is only guardedly optimistic about his team's chances in Region Two. "Although we do return three starters from last year," the coach said, "we will be quite small for our league." "The keys to our success will be the rebounding of our front-coumen and aggressive defense." Headlining the three is first team Chris McMullin, a center. Also coming back for their senior year are 3 forward Dave McGinn, who started last season, and guard Scott Schlappi, who also was a member of the primary quintet a year ago. Other seniors expected to see action are Mike Russel, Jeff McMullin and Dean Anderson. The Golden Tigers, who finished at 0 last year, play a 10 game preseason schedule, including two tournaments. The team is looking forward to a better start this year, as last season 4-- rt 6-- 5 6-- 0 In remarking about his team's weaknesses and strengths, Coach Gardner said "Of course size, in this league is very important, and we don't have impressive height. So, if we don't rebound aggressively and play a tight defense, we won't win. However, as a team, we have been shooting very well, and we have good quickness." A team game plan conducive to fast break, perhaps? "Well. I guess tnat depends on our rebounding," Coach Gardner laughed. "Our defense must make things happen," he continued "and we'll take the rest from there." Bingham, Hillcrest and Alta, under former American Fork coach Carl Ingersoll, are Gardner's picks in the ranks, but if Region Two is anything like it was last year, expect to see Orem's Golden Tigers clawing their way into the upper echelon, despite their "weaknesses." 4-- Eagles Dump Stingers CINCIN'ATTI. Ohio UPI i - The Salt Lake Golden Eagles won sole possession of first place in the Central Hockey League's western division Wednesday victory over the night with a 5-- 3 ti Stingers Tony Currie led the scoring for the Eagles with two goals first Salt Lake jumped out to a period lead on goals by Bob Crawford Bob Hess and Brian Ogilvie. Cincinat-ti'- s scoring was started by John and Alex Tidey. Curne hit a wrist shot midway Bed-nars- 5-- 3 through the second period to give the lead at the end of forty Eagles a minutes of play. The added another score at the beginning of the third period to put the game awav for Salt Lake. Don Kozak gave the Stingers a final goal just seconds after Currie s second score. The Eagles and the Stingers tangle again in Cincinatti Friday night. Salt The loss drops the Lake is now in the CHL's eastern Stingers to division. 2 right-wing- |
