2B
SPORTS/The Charlotte Post
Thursday, August 7, 1997
■ii
Front court kicks into gear
Continued from IB
we’re just beginning to set our
selves in our ways and play
together,” Bullett said.
Mapp overcame an inconsistent
early-season start to become a
force in the middle, averaging
18.6 points per game through
Sunday’s 77-70 win over Los
Angeles. The Asheville native and
former N.C. State standout is too
quick for big defenders and too
powerful for smaller ones, a com
bination she’s used to become
Charlotte’ second-leading scorer.
“There’s nobody in the league
who can stop Mapp,” Meadors
said. “The only one who is going to
stop Mapp is Rhonda herself. I
don’t think there’s anybody who’s
going to stop Rhonda. I just don’t
see it.”
For all of Mapp’s work inside,
Bullett, the power forward, is as
capable of scoring from the
perimeter as the post.
’Ib complement Rhonda, you’ve
got Vicky moving aroimd in the
high-low setting,” Meadors said.
“(Bullett is capable of) shooting
shots from the free throw line and
three-pointers, which brings the
opponent’s post player from the
rebounding area. 'They do a good
job in the high-low setting, and
it’s pretty tough to stop that.”
“Vicky is the best post player
because she has a lot of quick
ness,” Mapp said. “She can shoot
from the outside. She’s like a
guard, but she’s a post player.”
'The partnership between
Bullett, who was averaging 15.8
points a game over the last five
contests, and Mapp has eased the
scoring burden on Charlotte’s best
player, guard Andrea Stinson.
’The fiontcourfs emergence gives
the Sting more scoring options,
which forces defenses into diffi
cult assignments.
“That’s why we have to be the
way we are,” BuUett said. “We
can’t have just two people in dou
ble-figures. We have to have
three. That shows they can’t key
on two people. They’ve got to key
on all of us and that’s why our
post players have to come in and
put up big numbers.”
Congreaves, the small forward,
does the little things - rebound,
set picks and play defense. After
providing a spark off the bench
early in the season, Meadors
moved her into the starting line
up to get her more minutes.
“What we’ve been doing with
Andrea is make sure she got
enough playing time,” Meadors
said. “Right now we’ve got Andrea
playing really good defense and
she’s going to the board exception
ally well for us.”
Defense has never been a prob
lem for Charlotte, but it helps
when the big people clog the mid
dle. Mapp said the front court’s
plan is to dominate the opponent
position to drive to the playoffs. As
a team, the Sting is playing its
best basketball, and the front
court finally has an identity.
Bullett says it’s as simple as
everyone understanding their
strengths.
“It’s chemistry,” she said. “We’re
getting to know our offense a lot
better and a team that plays
together and constantly does the
same things every day, you can’t
help but get better. Having that
chemistry really helps the team.”
Does it ever.
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3401 Tuckaseegce Rd.
Charlotte, NC 28208
(704)393-1109
NEWLOCATtON
2012 Beatties Ford Rd.
Charic«e,NC 28216
(704:09^9799
1222 Central Ave.
Charlotte, NC 282
(704)377-0870
Chariotte Sting forward Vicky
Bullett has become a as much a
scoring threat from the perime
ter as the paint Chariotte has
won five of its iast six games in
its battle for the WNBA playoffs.
on both ends of the floor. It’s
worked against some of the
league’s big-name stars like Lisa
Leslie of Los Angeles and Rebecca
Lobo of New York.
“It’s a goal of ours to shut down
the inside,” Mapp said. “Inside’s
not getting anything, and I think
we do a pre^ good job every
night shutting down the inside.”
Vfith three weeks left in the reg
ular season, Charlotte is in a good
Sting is real thing for basketball
Continued from 1B
female, filling the stands. They
took great pride in the Sting,
something that isn’t always obvi
ous when the NBA Hornets play
here. The Hornets’ typical crowd
is bankers. The Sting play before
Jane and Joe Sixpack. Wing-tips
vs. earth shoes. Porsche vs. mini-
vans. Hornets fans have fun.
Sting fans have fun.
'The Sting are positive role mod
els for girls who dream of a place
in the sport. Players work with
yoimgsters and qven allowed
teams in the AAU Junior
Olympics to dazzle the crowd.
'The Sting take women’s basket
ball seriorrsly. Substitues support
the starters and group high fives
can be seen on a regular basis.
Everyone works together, not for
themselves, something you don’t
see often in the men’s game. Vicky
Bullet fights for loose balls and
position on the floor with the best
of them. Nicole Levesque may be
the shortest player on the floor at
5-foot-2, but she pushes the ball
aU over the court, leaving oppo
nents breathless in her wake.
Sharon Manning is proving to be
a great asset off the bench when
she pumps up teammates and
gets the crowd on its feet. Not only
is the Sting doing their job, but
they’re also having fun. They’ve
got next, the WNBA slogan sa3rs,
and we’re lucky to have it.
JASMINE CORBETT is a UNC
Greensboro junior and Charlotte
Post summer intern.
Undoing a grand game
Specializing in Special Occasions
Individualized
attention to detail
Accommodate
rehearsal dinners
for 30 to
full receptions
for 100
Rooms available
for all size parties
Facilities
available for
corporate catering
Personally
designed menus
Remember
631 North Tryon Street
Charlotte, NC 28202
(704)333-8899
: I
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PITTSBURGH - Heavens to
Honus Wagner! Could baseball’s
hierarchy really be thinking
about moving the Pittsburgh
Pirates and six other NL teams to
... the American League?
A preliminaiy vote on that very
proposal, one so revolutionary
that it would have been deemed
unthinkable even weeks ago,
could come as early as next week.
In what might be interim com
missioner Bud Selig’s biggest
blow yet to the very tradition that
some believe is the root of the
sport's popularity, a radical plan
currently before baseball’s
realignment committee would
shift the Pirates to the American
League.
The coimnittee will meet again
next week by conference call and
could vote to recommend the plan
to baseball’s Executive Coimcil.
The coimdl then could decide to
ask all 30 club ovmers to vote on
it.
Of course, the Pirates wouldn’t
be the only team to switch
leagues - the Expos, Mets,
Phillies, Braves, Reds and
Marlins would make the move,
too, to the AL. Under a realign
ment that woirld sweep away aU
of baseball’s historical perspec
tive, all 14 teams east of
Cincinnati would belong to tbe
AL; the NL would be composed of
the remaining teams, including
all of those on the West Coast.
The Pirates’ proposed AL
Midwest Division would also
include the Braves, Reds,
Indians, Hgers, Marlins and the
expansion Tampa Bay Devil
Rays. The AL East would be com
posed of the Orioles, Red Sox,
Expos, Mets, Yankees, PhiUies
and Blue Jays.
'The NL Central, the Pirates’
current division, would include
the Cubs, White Sox, Astros,
Royals, Brewers, Twins,
Cardinals and Rangers. The NL
West would be the Dodgers,
Angels, Padres, Mariners,
Giants, Athletics, Rockies and the
expansion Arizona
Diamondbacks.
Accustomed to ambling along at
its own pace - after all, it is the
only major pro sport without a
clock — baseball now seems intent
on sweeping away every last bas
tion of bistorical relevance as
rapidly as Deion Sanders can cir
cle the bases.
First, came the designated hit
ter, an invention stiU viewed by
NL partisans as a blight on the
game akin to the Black Sox scan
dal. Then came division play, wild
cards (yes, a second-place team
reaUy could reach the postseason)
and interleague play.
And fans in the early 1970s
thought replacing flannel uni
forms vrith stretch knit polyester
was radical.
The proposed realignment
would significantly reduce in-sea
son travel as the number of
intradivision teams would likely
be increased. It would also mean
backyard rivals such as the
Yankees and Mets, Cubs and
White Sox and Indians and
Pirates would compete not to
oppose each other in the World
Series, but rather to win their
division.
As Pirates manager Gene
Lament said, “You couldn’t have a
crosstown World Series.”
Pirates owner Kevin McClatchy
and general manager Cam
Bonifay declined to comment on
the plan until it is presented to
ownership. But it is knovm the
Pirates are ftmdamentally
opposed to leaving the NL after
110 years, no matter the format,
and, under current rules, a team
caimot be forced to change
leagues without its permission.
“Tm an NL guy. I like the NL,”
Pirates outfielder A1 Martin said.
“I don’t want to move. I want to
keep it the way it is. We just got
interleague play this year, let’s
wait awhile and watch it develop."
The players union also has the
power to block any realignment
that proposes to scrap the desig
nated hitter rule. It has not yet
been decided if the DH would con
tinue only in the AL, or if there
might be a grace period for AL
teams that have built tbeir ros
ters around designated hitters,
only to suddenly find themselves
shuffled off to a different league.
“I don’t think it would be fair to
do it (move a fianchise into a dif
ferent league) in one year,”
Lament said. “It’s just a different
game with the DH. “
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