| OCR Text |
Show D4 The Salt Lake Tribune SPORTS Thursday, November11, 1999 Cougars Have Auburn’s Porter Leads Preseason All-America Team BYJIM O°CONNELL THE Chris spent Of Blowout Win BY PHIL MILLER MEN’S PRESEASON ALL-AMERICA I SOCIATED PRESS Porter ConcernsIn Spite THESALT RIBUNE, PROVO There wasa lot to worryabout for Brigham Young’ basketball team Wednesdaynight. the off season awayfromthe basket. Not away from basketball. just the Porter, Aub basket. Auburn’s 6-foot-7 seniorfor. fia 7. F180ps. AS New recruits. Silester Rivers’ wind. Michael Vranes’ big toenails. And oh, yeah, a basketball ward shot hundreds of three. pointers every day during the summerin an attempt to comple: ment the spect, inside game game In that order. Associated Press’ preseason All America team. matched “We know he can dunk, we Cliff Ellis said of Porter, the Southeastern Conference player of the yearlast season. “But we swingman Mic State, the y last season. He led the Blue Demons to an 18-13 record and an NIT berth while averaging of the NCAA tournament to Ohio State. “We were just a couple shots falling a’ from a chance at the Final Four,” Portersaid. “I didn't want to leave Auburn feeling like 1 ballots from a 65-member media panel. DePaul sophomore swing: credit for next with 46 votes. Next were two froma 1-15 conference record to a 27-9 season and the 's fi misand junior forwardTer. ence Morris was fifth in the voting with 35, Junior guard Khalid El-Amin But the Cougars wereglad to be there, if only to take a welcome break from scrimmaging against each other. And shooting 59 percent, holding an opponent to 27 taking the Buckeyes bounds and4.3assists. Cleaves, a AlL-Am repeat preseason selection, is the only returning American, postseason All- ‘Todd J. Van Emst/The Associated Press Auburn's Chris Porter, shooting over Alabama's Jeremy Hays in a gamelast season, was the leading vote-getter on the Associated Press preseason All-America team. The start of his senior season of Connecticut was the next fracturein his foot. With a healthy still a Big Tenfavorite because he will be back for the conference schedule. highest vote-getter with 23. He was followed by junior center Chris Mihm of Texas, 22, junior prakaply been a runaway choice for p ason No. 1, but they are Cleaves averaged 11.7 points and 7.2 assists in helping Michigan State to its first Final Four Ute Starters Sidelined With Injuries BYPATRICK KINAHAN THE ALT LAKETRIBUNE Utah's injury news got worse Wednesday when test results from a MRI showed forward Hanno Mottola has a medial sprainin his left knee and could beout for upto a month. Mottola, Utah’s leading returncorer, Suffered the injury late iday’s preseason loss to the California All-Stars. Hewill begin rehabilitation immediately and hopes to resumepracticing in a week or two. will be pushed ‘k at least until mid-Decemberbecauseofa stress Cleaves the Spartans would ha Tuesday against visiting Arkan- the Utes win, they likely would play Nov. 19 at Kentucky. The four teams that win their first two games will play two games in New York's Madison Square Gardenon Thanksgiving week. Mottola’s injury is the worst of several hampering the Utes. The bug also has hit Nate Althoff, Trent Whiting and AdamSharp. Last season’s starting center, the 6-foot-11 Althoff missed both preseason games with a back sprain. It could be two weeks be: fore he returns. “He's trainer progressing Trevor Jameson well,” sai “We'reoptimisticto get him back soon, But at this point, it would be hard for me to predict whenhe’s going to be ready.” Utah Coach Rick Majerus has been perturbed at Althoff's slow recovery “What would it be without Nate hurt?” Majerus said. With Althoff out, sophomore forward Phil Cullen moved to center, If Mottola andAlthoff each are sidelined, Utah probably would start two forwards and three guards. Expected to challenge for a starting spot, Whiting has been suffering with a thigh irritation. He has missed severalpractices, slowing his transition fromjunior collegebasketball “Whiting has missed more practices than he's made,” Ma Jerus said. “You can see that in his conditioning. He can hardly wait to bend overand grab his shorts.” Sharp, a reserve guard, frac tured his ankle while playing dur: ing the summer, He can play butis not 100 percent. Marylandoffense this season with the departure of Steve Francis to the NBA. Morriswill be the focus of the PICKING THE PREP PLAYOFFS SEMIFINAL GAME Taylorsville vs. Hunter Skyline vs. Bingham Webor vs. Fremont Provo vs. Bountiful Emery vs. Bear River Snow Cnyn vs. Delta Mitford vs, Mant Summit vs, Beaver THE SKINNY Assuming all the Wolverines decide to practice this week, their superior offonse will prevail in case anyoneis still wondering, Mountain View wouldn't have given the Eagles much of a game,either Round Twobetween these Region 4 rivals should be as close af thefirst, a 20-17Fremontwin. Br n like Provo's, but their and s pr We've doubted the Bears and been wrong before, but this time Spartans can match theif speed. Warriors are deepar, bigger,stronger and faster, but Delta has similar tradition and always keepsit ciose. Gritty Tigers should stayin itfor a half, but Mantis superior size and depth will take its toll Now that Beavers have found an offense, this matchup looks better. But Wildcats have too many weapons. TRIBUNEPICK Hunter by4 Skyline by 21 Fremont by 3 Bountiful by 7 Emery by 4 Snow Canyon by 1 Mantby 24 So. Summit by 10 Beaver, Milford, 1 by now, we were way off target with some of our predictionsof last week's qareiHopefity,that 97 Wook (66 percat ang ofthe past. Surely wo Wi bai his wook..or we'lbog of having to Pek thechampionship gare reits.— Jey D Bingham es, Has Tough Foe In Skyline Skyline (11-0) vs. Bingham(8-3), 3 @ Continued from D-1 p.m. opportunities, Binghamhas three losses, bya total of seven points. Last year, Skyline crunched the Miners 42-14 in an inter-region playoff gameat Bingham. Randon Young watched that game from the sidelines with a knee injury Provo (8-3) vs. Bountiful (11-0), 3 Did the Miners learn anything? up forpractice, Wilckentook their sive focus. Edstrom has 1,030 yards and 17 touchdowns on 192 carries Skyline’s weapons include quarterback Brandon Van Leeu wen (959 rushing yards, 611 pass: ing), Bo Nagahi (four punt return touchdowns), running backs Brad Jenson (790 yards on 111 carries) and RobSirstins (825 yards on 90 tries). Defensively, Braden Sudbury leads Skyline with 40 solo tackles, five fumble recoveries andsix interceptions, three of which he returned for touchdowns, Troy Maxfield has 32 solo tackles, including six sacks, and Levi Bills gear andsaid they werefinished. However, “after a couple of days hearing their ” Wi ckensaid, he let the players back onthe teamfor the Brighton game. But that cameonly after he made them do 2» 100-yard dashes, 200 ” eight laps with block ing dummies ontheir backs and 10 bear crawls the length ofthe football field. All in about70 minutes The six players who madeit through Wilcken’s torturous test all played, including Paea Mapa, whobroke Brighton's back with a 99-yard kickoff return, Friday's game is a rematchof a Sept. 10 game won14-10 by Hunter. Wilcken inserted sophomore quarterback Tarell Richards into the gameinthe secondhalf and he drove the Wolverines to the win ning touchdown, Still, defenses dominated, as Taylorsville had 87 total yards and Hunter170, “I rememberleaving the game Bingham will give us afour. thinking we should have won 35- quarter battle,” said 6-foot-6, 315poundoffensivetackle Steve Dahl, 0,” Wilcken said. “Then again, in some ways, we were lucky to win. who has scholarship offers from id, it could havegoneei- BYUandUtah. a HUNTER VILLE vs. TAYLORS- Hunter wouldn't be in the semifinals iffirst-year coach Wes Wileken had not changed his mind last week. When seven players, South Summit (10-1) vs. Beaver 9 Note: Tribune prepwriter Jay Drew p.m. includingsix starters, didn’t show week andwill be Skyline’s defen: SATURDAY’S SEMIFINALS At Timpview High School Milford(9-2) vs. Manti (11-0), noon noon and remembers, “They were run: ning up anddownthefield, and we just sat there, stunned.” “We learned that in person, they are a hell ofa lot better than theylook onfilm,” Sudburysaid ‘The 5-foot-7 Edstrom ranfor 340 yards on 40 carries in Bingham’s 26-21 win over Mountain Viewlast CLASS 2-A FRIDAY’S SEMIFINALS At Weber State University Weber (9-2) vs. Fremont (8-3), Neither school has ever played for a state championship. Hunter starts only four seniors on offense and six seniors ondefense. Q MORE VACANCIES Add Class 5-A's Viewmont and p.m. predic’ted winnersarein wit bold. BY MICHAELC. LEWIS THE SALT LAKETRIBUNE year after taking over a Utah State basketball program hit hard by the departuresofits best players, Coach Stew Morrill feels like he’s doingit all over again. “Basically, it has been a situation where I've had two new teams,”he said. This one, he hopes,will be bet- ter thanthelast. Whichis nottosay that the Ag- graduated from the program. But certainly, the Aggies would love to finish this season with something more impressive than a first- round exit from the Big West Conference tournament, even if the news media and coaches around the league don’t expectto see it. Going into Saturday night's season opener against Simon Fraser at the Spectrum in Logan (8 p.m.), the Aggies have been picked to finish fourth or fifth in the Big West's Eastern Division. The top four teams qualify for the postsea- son tournament, so judging by the Senior forward Troy Rolle, to Depestrtbsen before Monday. e story and charts onhigh school offenses will be published next week. The missing schools include: Northridge, Clearfield, Viewmont, and 6-foot-11 center Dimitri Jors- sen are the only players back who played last season. And while Rolle and Brownare certainly ca- pable enough — Brown made the Big West All-Freshman team and set a school record by shooting 92.1 percentat the free-throw line - Jorssenisstill a bit of a project and the Ags lost a lot in the middle. Center Donnie Johnson and forward Pharoah Davis both BYU Kanab and South endedina tie, eight points apiece.) “I'd have to say Utahis the better team, but [BYU's] guards are a little better,” he said diplomatically. graduated, taking 25 points and 16 rebounds per game with them. Morrill hopes junior transfer Shawn Daniels can make up for that loss; the 6-foot-6, 250-pound Daniels averaged 17.7 points, 11.4 rebounds and 2.8 blocks in two yearsat Bakersfield (Calif.) Junior College. Danielssigned with the Aggies in part because his old juniorcollege coach, Mark Arce, is now an assistant under Morrill, having replaced Tony Fuller. Fuller left USU tojoin thestaff at Stanford. (he Ags also areexpecting immediate contributions from 5- foot-10 point guard Bernard Rock, playing his first season of basketball in two years after playing only football last year while he finished up course work at New Mexico Military Institute. The Aggies had majorproblemsat the point last season, when opponents practically ignored RashadElliott and Tyrone Allick because they shot so poorly and had problems with turnovers. “That was certainly a concern,” Morrill said. The other big concern was free-throw shooting. Despite having Brown, the Aggies shot only 65 percent from the line last year. Combined with nearly 16 turn- overs per game, that was enough to offset the benefit of leading the leaguein field-goal percentage. Among the other new Aggies whofigure to get into Morrill’s rotation he might use 11 players regularly, maybe even into the league season — are transfers Rashaun Thomas (6-foot-11) and Dion Bailey (6-foot-3) at guard and Curtis Bobb (6-foot-6) and Andre Mahorn (6-foot-6) at forward. Mahorn is a nephew of former NBA player Rick Mahorn. Sophomores Brad Willden (6foot4) and Brennan Ray(6-foot-5) are coming off redshirt years, while sophomore Dan Stewart (6foot-7) returns after missing two seasons while serving an LDS Churchmission, Natalyn Lewis drilled off Cal goal- Keeper Maite Zabala. Lowe was right there for the rebound and nailed it into the top right corner Sara Reading and scored her 12th ‘The junior scored herfirst goal Enterprise, Summit. : With no competition in the goal of the season while giving the Union, Park City, South Sevier, North easily @ Continued from D-1 entire half, shutting down the Cal offense while Lowe made the most of the 11 shots the Cougars launched. Emery, Spears, ofthe net, In the 66th minute, Lowe got ahold of the rebound of a shot by Sanpete, Richfield, Dixie, Wasatch, Lomond, Ogden, Angeles. Nunawading’s best player, scored Defeats Cal In NCAA Soccer Bingham, Taylorsville, West Jor- dan, Logan, Payson, Spanish Fork, Springville, Pleasant Grove, Ben Los 27 points against Utah last week and 19 against San Francisco on USU Basketball Coach Getting a Fresh Start e guard Tony Brown information played Division II ball in this country for Westmont College in Utah hadsimilar luck with the Aussies last week, winning 92-53, needed it — points, wings, posts.” information regarding which style of offense they employ. Please con-’ Jay Drew at 257-8900 or e-mail against Michael Spears, who has so Wallace was asked the obligatory question: Who's better? much,”hesaid. “You nameit, we OFFENSIVE REPORTS Coaches at 24 schools have not responded to a Tribune request for he or six newrecruits by Friday, were without Vranes, a guard who had the infected nails on his big toes removed on Wednesday. ‘The Cougars are also without senior center Bret Jepsen, Coming Friday andSat Spanish Fork also have vacancies. Q that The Cougars, who hopetooffi- cially announcethesigningof five urday, previews of the other playoff games. resi The Vikingswere 0-8 this season and the Royals were1-8. Tooele and conceding middle, BYU ran out to a 45-13 halftime lead, and the only drama left was whether BYU’s Nathan Cooper could outscore Nunawading’s Nathan Cooper Brown.(It ners backfrom last year, And Morrill doesnot disagree. “We just needed so dang nounced he was stepping down after eight years. Roy High Principal Drew Wilson has askedthreeyear coach Shane Quilling to While forward Eric Nielsen's defense fouling out. team with only three letterwin- 4-A’s Royto thelist of schools look. ing for football coaches. Viewmont’s Ross Harris last week an- to push himself inpractice.” couldn't evaluatehis team against competition, Cleveland did note forward managed just 10 before opinions of others, Morrill will have his hands full molding a % More Previews He's not remotely in ket ball shape,” Clevelandsaid. “Il take a month[to get ready]. He has lated 5,000frequent-flier miles this week alone. “At the stage we'reat, it’s good to get a little confidence,” said Cougar forward Mekeli Wesley, who led BYU with 20points on 7- on, Kevin Rice and Justin Jones At Southern Utah University Snow Canyon (9-1) vs. Delta (6-3), 1 p.m. At CopperHills High School Bear River (10-0) vs. Emery (10-1), 1 p.m. of bone chips in his ankle, far from ready for real competition. against a team that has accumu- yearafter losingalmostall of their SATURDAY’S SEMIFINALS twice this fall because Tuesdaynight. Nielsen got Spears in foul trouble, andthe Australian scoring punch when Marcus Sax: FRIDAY’S SEMIFINALS At Brigham Young University Taylorsville(8-3) vs. Hunter(6-5), noon forward, who haspracticed only at one point is fun, even gies were bad last season. Far from it. They finished 15-13 the PREP FOOTBALL PAIRINGS oe Utes start their season sas State in the Preseason NIT. If appearance since Magic Johnson led the Spartans tothetitle in 1979. Rivers played well, too, against the small es S points on 6-0! but Cleveland ald tell the 6foot-7 percent andopening up a 49-point of-9 shooting. Final Four appearance since1968. He averaged 16.9 points, 3.9 re seemed to wish he had taken in a moviein “Sorry you had to watch that,” werehis parting words probablyas good as there is in the court.” ae and Mateen ¢ leaves make the trip, he said Quentin. is medium-range game.” Penn, a third-team All-America last season, was given a lot of senior guards from the Big Ten Who| led their teams to the Final ason Scoonie Penn players couldn't get off work to DePaul Coach at aid. “As a post-up playe! country. He needs to work onhis Porter waslisted on 53 of 65 Even Aussie Coach Grant Wal- lace, wh team ofclub players and fill-ins four of his best 18.9 points and 10.5 rebounds. got a lot of confidence hadieft something out on the man Quentin Richardson was Center. a consensus national freshman around the basket, gath- ering of 2,150 in the Marriott center Kenyon dunk or two a game as Auburn got Porteraveraged 16.0 points, 8.6 rebounds and a_highlight-reel Australian 97-48victory before a sparse 1 Redd of Ohio 13, Martin of Cincinnati, 12, and senior forward Mark Madsen of as high as No. 2 in the rankings during a 29-4 seasonin whichhe was a second-team All-America TheTigers lost in the third round range.” of tice therestofthe night, posting Stanford, 10. Richardson, who made many in Chicago happy when he an nounced his return to DePaul, want to stretchout his group tourists, and ran a glorified pra know hecan play within eight, 10 feet, we know his game is strong around the rim,” Tigers Coach ing a coupleofthree-pointers and Steve Cleveland's concerns, was over quickly. BYUscored 15 of the first 17 points against the Nunawading Spectres, an over- ing vote-getter Wednesdayon The himself at home with a 13-point first half (17 for the night), includacoupleofdunks. The game, the least of Coach that helped him becomethe lead perhaps permanently. Jepsen has missed fall practice with a viral infection and severe headaches, and Cleveland hinted that Jepsen me giveupbasketball. Newcomer ‘Terrell Lyday tedin Vranes’place and made in the 60th minute, after Hendershot crossed a pass that teammate Cougars all the hope in the world for a big upset on Saturday. “We played an outstanding game all the way through from whenthe whistle blew to start the game until the end,” BYU Coach Jennifer Rockwood said. “Watch out, Santa Clara, Here we come.” |
