| Show "r -- 2 - — - - - 11 1 1 ebtfrattatteCgiVrtnt S OFR Scores: DAY March 6 1992 (89 mnta per minute) Cl Who Needs Centers? NBA Elite Move Forward With Forwards 4 - Win Strengthened Jazz Hold on 1st four-gam- center in the league and Cleveland is a fine SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE team that unfortunately is not big news OAKLAND Calif — It's curious how the because the Cavs are lost in the vapor trail NBA has changed In the past a team had to of Michael Jordan and the Bulls So why is it that you no longer need a have a great center or at least a very good center — to get into the elite class great center to be a great team? Warriors coach Don Nelson considered Boston had Bill Russell The Lakers had the NBA's top guru of basketball theory Wilt Chamberlain and later Kareem The Knicks had Willis Reed pondered this question the other day "You have to distinguish between a domiPortland had Bill Walton But today the best teams do not have the nating center and a dominating inside playbest centers Chicago Utah and Portland all er" Nelson said His point? The best teams don't need a are playing beautifully But their centers — first-rat- e center but one way or another Bill Cartwright Mark Eaton Kevin Duckworth? Get serious they need a player who takes over inside — On the other hand the best centers are plays killer defense blocks shots scores not on the best teams Hakeem Olajuwon and gets fouled To fill this role Utah has Karl Malone toils in Houston David Robinson in San Antonio And Patrick Ewing plays for the who's virtually unstoppable Portland has Knicks who are flawed despite their im- Buck Williams Chicago has Horace Grant "Even Phoenix has a player like that" Nelpressive record The only exception is the Cavaliers Brad son said "When he's healthy Tom ChamSee Column 2 Daugherty is probably the best By Lowell Cohn I 1 P Jaw ''" i 11 t e I '' 1 00 J 1 k - )''''-! 1 "" : ' 0 ' x giTlk i t ' bbar t ' 0 Abdul-Ja- ' 1 " ': f v ' iI Ii AA " z i o '' 10' 4 ' N - i 1 " - r- - 8 — Imite'wwmo ------ - ' Steve I' it" -- 4 5 '' sA - an Joe Baird THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Utah's little man has taken a beating this season Game after game night after night Jimmy Soto gets bumped bruised flattened and abused by his much bigger opponents And with increasing frequency as the campaign has worn on But the 5400t-- 8 junior keeps getting up and more often than not has the last laugh "Jimmy Soto has great heart" says Utah's resident big man Rick Majerus "He's a gutsy player who plays with a lot of emotion But he also plays with a lot of confidence and a lot of smarts He's given a lot to this team" This season more than ever When MVP forward Josh Grant was forced to the sideline in December because of a slow comeback from knee surgery Soto was asked to help fill the void He's 114 responded by averaging a career-higpoints 28 assists and 21 rebounds per game and hasn't missed a contest this season Which is really saying something As Soto's contributions have grown so has the attention he attracts Teams come after the Ute guard now with the kind of fervor they used to reserve for Grant The result has been a series of nagging n shooting difinjuries as well as some ficulties "It's been pretty tough" Soto acknowledged "Earlier in the year it wasn't as bad But once we got into the WAC and started playing good people began keying on me They've made it tougher for me to get open and get shots It's been hard I'm just doing what I can whatever it takes to help the team win" So far that has been quite enough Going into Saturday night's regular season finale against BYU in the Huntsman Center the Utes (19-are just one victory away from a second consecuseason tive Soto has scored in double figures in 17 of 25 Utah's 27 games produced a career-higpoints against Utah State in December and delivered an overtime victory at Wyoming in January with seven straight points and the assist in the extra period Even when his shot isn't falling Soto still defends as well as any Ute and provides steady leadership on the floor "And for his size" notes Majerus "he's probably the best rebounder in the league" Being a marked man has hardly been a novel experience for Soto The Ute guard was a freshman sensation at South High then moved to Judge Memorial when South closed and was a three-tim- e As a freshman at Utah Soto averaged five points a game and improved to 61 per contest as a sophomore as Utah went 30-- and made it to the NCAA's Sweet Sixteen Majerus ceased being amazed by Soto's talent a long time ago He's long maintained his smallest player is also his best athlete But the Ute coach has truly marveled at Soto's resilience this season "He's one of our leading scorers he's coming it's off the bench for us and when you're hard on you" said Majerus "Smaller guys slighter guys tend to wear down Guys have been physical with Jimmy they've really roughed him up It's been hard on him but he's done a great - flick Eganfthe Salt Lake Tribune Mark Eaton's presence In mid die proves valuable for the J1172 ' 1H The Layton Lancers win the prize win over By virtue of their the West Jordan Jaguars in the 4- A girls state basketball tournament Thusday the Lancers get to play the Mountain View Bruins The undefeated Bruins Layton coach Van Price doesn't even blink at the prospect of meeting an opponent of such stature in today's semifinals "Mountain View has a lot of pressure on them" he said "They're primed for an upset" And he added if anyone can beat the Bruins the Lancers can DeGraffenreld seconds remaining fouled the wrong guy free-thro- ing i '0 - k El 8 2-- A Tourneys Hurricane scored from inside Manti from outside and both were winners in the boys tournament Page Southern Utah high schools showed their ability in the girls tourtiament advancing via routs Page 4 411' ! C-- 2 tL4 A de' A C-- 2 1 ! secThe Lancers used a ond quarter to take control of the game on the Salt Lake Community 20-1- 1 - College South Campus court Then they stayed in charge by employing a tenacious defense The Lancers forced 23 West Jordan turnovers 10 in the critical second period "The players have worked hard on their defense" said Price On the offensive end Shalei Valentine scored 10 of her 13 points in the second quarter to spark Layton's run After West Jordan's Lori Bullock drilled a 3- pointer to pull her team within six with two minutes left in the half Valentine answered with two baskets and then had a steal that Tara Perrin converted into two more points as the half ended "Valentine has had a great tournament" said Layton coach Van Price "She feeds on confidence and she's hard to stop" Stephanie Cooper added nine points to the balanced Layton attack Wendy Pettit and Mindy Jarvis had 11 points each for the 4411 - - I SS --46 13 11 12 14 20 13 11-- 44 Cooper 4049 kso Fvert 3 22 I I-8 Tim few 2 4 6 McCormick 'I 5 Wiesen 2 2 Irg 5 Owehow 2 00 1 Totals 22 56 West kraal — Peotit 5 I Jams 5 Dever 3 437 Drnond 2 42 ClowAcik 2 5 Bullock 04 3 Robroon 104 Vest 3o0tar (174) 1204)vaierine 6 It hit nothing but air however and the Lions roared off with the win "We had a set play and they deBut fensed it" said Peterson " no one came out to get the ball so he just put it up He panicked" The Box Elder loss broke a remarkable string of six straight See 2 Column 5 1 yl00lc2O5-1304001-40- 34o04 000 13 2 2 (lecci4 Pato IR Coocett We Josior I Mountain View 67 Alta 56 Steve GriffinThe Salt Lake Tribune state tournament Payson's Mark Bailey fires a pass during Thursday's Class as Box Elder's Jeff Beadles closes In to apply pressure Payson won the game 3-- A The Mountain View Bruins kept e their bid for a championship C-- 2 Column 5 roll-Se- - New York 101 LA Clippers 91 Washington 119 Dallas 109 Chicago 113 Minnesota 100 Houston 114 Miami 93 Phoenix 118 Seattle 105 Golden State 118 Cleveland 108 Arizona 100 California 77 Southern Cal 75 Washington 63 UCLA 89 Washington State 85 Michigan St 72 Northwestern 55 Fort Wayne MIL Vancouver 2 Boston 2 Minnesota 4 Detroit 2 Quebec 10 Hartford 4 NY Islanders 4 Chicago 4 5 Toronto 5 C g9-7- 7 r I - w 1111 :I 7 ri Top 25 Basketball Basketball - " But they rratt Colorado State 72 Air Force 54 - game stepped to the line after a timeout and sank two The strategy was reverse psychology or something like that said Wall "I was too nervous to think about being nervous" Down by three Box Elder had trouble working the ball in and finally settled for a Ryan Shaw 3point try with 10 seconds remain- CAPSULE : - hitting C-- i - Payson's David Wall who hadn't taken a shot the entire job" V7AC 58-4- 6 -9 4 i OGDEN — It's no surprise that green is Payson junior Phil De Graffenreid's favorite color That's the color of the Lions' uniforms It's also a symbol of his favorite shot — the "Love that green light" said DeGraffenreid who hit all five pointers he attempted to lead Paywin over Box Elder son to a state tourThursday in a Class nament quarterfinal game The win moves Payson into a semifinal game against Ogden tonight at 8:50 pm Mountain Crest will meet Sky View at 7:10 pm in the other semifinal It's the first time Payson has been to the semifinals since 1972 when BIrti coach Roger Reid was the coach "It helps when you have guys throwing them in from 40 feet" said Payson coach John Warden-burwho says he gives DeGraffenreid carte blanche to cast off whenever and where ever he wants In other words the junior those 3s" DeGraffenreid who finished with 19 points had some help Riley Marshall scored 20 points while Doug Christiansen held Box Elder's top gun Bill Bergeson to just nine points Even with that the Bees had a chance late They made shots in the fourth quarter to stay close and were down one with 34 4 Jill Johnson THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE "was g 5-- By THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE minutes remaining to give the Lions the lead Then with the game tied at 54 he hit another with 1:55 remaining "The key to the game" said Box Elder coach Kim Peterson all-stat- er t Stay Alive With Easy Wins Box Elder With Payson down 50- with four 49 he drilled a 9-- 6) 5-- i oys Girls Tourneys 4 Bruins Lancers light" It was DeGraffenreid's last two bombs that especially devastated 120-poun- d 1 eit e-tt!it- sharpshooter has "the green n game-winnin- C-- 5 g h I 0 3-- A - 1 4 60-5- 6 late-seaso- i 2) 3- h 20-wi- 4 I er d 8 Wit! ft By Jay Drew Soto Plays Big 150-poun- 54-2- 8 DeGraffenreld's Bombs Shoot Down Box Elder Jimmy Soto is used to battling taller players like BYIPs Nathan Call (left) and Russell Larson By 0 - Salt Lake Tribune tUtes' Little 7 if 4 AEMMEN - Griffinle II IMIMO -' - ) salvor"k 7' - --- - - C-- 5 00'0 How significant was Utah's win over the Spurs Wednesday night? e The Jazz now own a lead over San Antonio in the Midwest Division With their third straight win over the Spurs this season they also clinched the tiebreaker used in case the teams end up with identical records The Jazz have 21 games left 11 at home and 12 on the road The Spurs have 23 games remaining 13 at home and 10 on the road If the Jazz continue to win at their current pace — roughly two out of three — they would go 14-and finish at If that happened the Spurs would have to go 20-- 3 to overtake Utah win the division and claim no worse than the No 2 seed in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs Jazz Notes: 4 Salt Lake Ing) 1 In Action Tonight NBA Basketball: Jazz vs New Jer- sey at the Delta Center 7:30 pm NIL Hockey: Eagles at San Diego pm TV Srorts CITED Ca° 2 2 pm — Senior Golf pm — Golf Doral Open I 13 5 8 pm — College Hockey pm — Women's Basket- ball Arizona at UCLA Rebels Set to Sue LAS VEGAS — The UNLV Runnin Rebel basketball team is expected to sue the NCAA in Nevada State Court Friday in an effort to have its postseason tournament ban overturned If lawyers representing the players are successful in obtaining a temporary restraining order coach Jerry Tarkanian said 'V "We'll start practice Sunday" "I won't coach the team in any tournament games" Tarkanian said "I'd be a consultant to Tim Grgurich If I coached there would be a lot of heat on the players" Majerns No 1 in Utah Rick Majerus who coached led the University of Utah to a 30-- record and a spot in the NCAA basketball tournament's Sweet 16 was named the 1991 Utah Sportsperson of the Year by the Salt Lake Area 4 AP Chamber of Commerce "The award is presented to the individual who has made the single most significant contribution to Utah sports during the year" said Fred S Ball president of the Salt Lake area Chamber "Rick Majerus has brought great recognition to the University of Utah and the state of Utah" Recent honorees include Ty Detmer Melissa Marlowe Denise Parker Mike Price LaVelle Ed wards and Karl Malone -- -- 4g |
