3B
SPORTS/The Charlotte Post
Thursday, February 6, 1997
Woods comeback falls short at Pebble Beach tourney
Continued from 1B
fifth time. “Tve got a lot of pride.
That’s what drives me.”
That’s what drives a lot of
golfers on tour. And the aston
ishing way Woods, 21, burst onto
the PGA Tbur challenged the
pride of a lot of players.
“I think Fm a pretty good com
petitor,” (TMeara said. “I didn’t
play real well this week. But I
putted well and I had a lot of
composure.”
O’Meara needed that compo
sure. For Woods - like Michael
Jordan or Reggie Jackson or Joe
Montana - has the rare ability to
perform his best when the spot
light shines brightest.
He has also shown that he
plays for just one reason - to
win. Second-place money is
meaningless to Woods. He does
n’t need it. Nike has taken care
of that.
Woods has played just 11 tour
naments since turning profes
sional. He was won three times,
finished second once, third twice
and fifth another time. That’s
seven top-five finishes in 11
starts.
It’s Tiger against the tour, but
the tour is plenty deep enough to
keep him fi'om winning every
week, or every other week or
even every third for fourth or
fifth time out.
O’Meara welcomed the chal
lenge in Sunday’s final roimd.
Tbm Lehman wanted an 18-hole
showdown badly in the
Mercedes Championships
instead of the rain-required sud
den-death playoff Woods won.
Nick Faldo, Greg Norman,
Mark Brooks, Phil Mickelson
and Fred Couples are the kinds
of players who would relish beat
ing Woods in a high-profile situ
ation.
“I was pretty jacked,” OMeara
said about wanting to defeat
Woods in their final-round show
down at Pebble Beach. “He’s the
hottest player in golf right now.”
OMeara wasn’t able to shoot a
63 or a 64 over the weekend. He
didn’t have to. He out together
four consecutive rounds of 67 in
a very unflashy way.
“It’s not about how many great
shots you hit, “OMeara said.
“It’s about strategy.”
Rice moves into NBA’s elite core of best players with recent play
Continued from 1B
ways than just scoring,”
Cowens said. “It wouldn’t sur
prise me if he got the MVP of
the All-Star game if he keeps
going the way he’s going.”
Point guard Muggsy Bogues,
who played only six games
with Rice last season due to a
chronically sore knee, said he
notices the difference in his
teammate.
“He’s really playing with a
lot of confidence,” Bogues said.
“He feels he can do anything
he wants on the basketball
court, he’s that type of player.
He can post-up smaller
guards, shoot over the top of
them, he can take bigger guys
off the dribble, he can catch
and shoot the three. I mean
you’ve got a total package
there.”
That’s the highest compli
ment to Rice, who smiles every
time he’s asked him how well
he and the Hornets are play
ing defense. Rice gives a lot of
credit to Cowens for not just
talking about defense but
implementing a tough, hard
working system, that the
whole team has bought into.
Cowens won’t take credit for
Rice’s improvement on
defense, instead deflecting it
to the players.
“I think it’s a tribute to the
other players too,” he said.
“The other guys we’ve brought
in like (Anthony) Mason and
(Vlade) Divac, who are known
as good defenders.”
Rice will do double-duty at
All-Star Weekend, also com
peting in the three-point
shootout, a contest he won a
few years ago but failed to get
out of the first roimd last year.
“I’m going to go up there and
try and get some redemption
and try and win the title back,
just go out there and hopefully
I can be one of the guys that’s
hot that particular day,” he
said.
Getting hot hasn’t been a
problem for Rice this season.
CIAA races include new contenders and rebuilding powerhouses
Continued from 1B
coach Steve Joyner and
knocked off Northern Division
leader Elizabeth City. St.
Paul’s, a doormat for years,
has risen to prominence in the
North under third-year coach
Ed Joyner, Steve Joyner’s
brother. Central, which has
rallied to win its share of
games, doesn’t have the expe
rience to dominate opponents,
at least not yet.
“Rigljt now I’m not concerned
about the winning. I’m con
cerned about the quality of
play,” Jackson said. “If you
want to be a championship
team, you have to play like a
championship team. You have
to come on the road and exe
cute, and we’re not doing
that.”
Central’s youth has caused
some difficulty offensively, but
its trademark defense has
made up for the shortcomings.
Still, Jackson wants to see
more consistency, especially
from his point guards.
“We have guys who are not
only playing this position, and
they’re not only trying to learn
the system, they’re still trying
to get accustomed to what I’m
asking them to do,” he said.
“In order for us to win any
kind of championship we have
to play better, especially on the
offensive end.”
Some things never change.
Rushing touchdown leader Allen says ‘97 will be last season
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -
Marcus Allen, one of the most
prolific running backs in NFL
history, said he will play one
more year for the Kansas City
Chiefs before retiring.
Allen, who has two years
remaining on the contract he
signed last year, said during
an Internet chat session that
he plans to retire after the
1997 season.
Allen set the NFL record for
rushing touchdowns last sea
son, surpassing Hall of Famer
Walter Payton. He has rushed
for 112 touchdowns and ranks
second on the career touch
down list with 134.
He is the only player to have
rushed for 10,000 yards and
caught passes for 5,000 yards.
Allen’s record of rushing
touchdowns is unlikely to
stand very long with Emmitt
Smith of Dallas close behind.
But he clearly took pleasure in
the record, and it was a high
point for him and his team
mates in what turned out to be
a disappointing season.
“Kansas City certainly is my
last stop in the NFL,” Allen
said. “I couldn’t think of a bet
ter place to finish my career.
An organization with a
tremendous amount of class,
integrity and genuine care for
not only the athlete, but the
athlete’s family as well.”
Allen was signed as an unre
stricted free agent by the
Chiefs in 1993 after incurring
the displeasure of Oakland
owner A1 Davis and spending
two years on the bench for the
Raiders.
The 1981 Heisman Trophy
winner from Southern
California is known for his
ability in short yardage situa
tions.
In each of the past two years,
coach Marty Schottenheimer
said Greg Hill would be the
featured back in the offense,
but in each year it was Allen,
who will be 38 in March, who
has been the starting back.
Hill played a larger role last
year as the Chiefs finished 9-7
and missed the playoffs for the
JCSU looks for ‘momentum change’
Continued from 1B
ing a three-game losing streak,
had eight assists and six
points. 'That’s the type of pro
duction the Bulls will need as
the season winds down.
“I think this is a momentum
change for us,” Wright said.
“We’ve been stuck on five wins
for the longest. We just have to
build on it and not take a step
backwards.”
Despite starting two fresh
men and two sophomores.
Smith has shown more aggres
siveness on both ends of the
floor. It also doesn’t hurt to
play in front of a supportive
home crowd that has stuck
with the Bulls during the try
ing times.
“Intensity played a major
factor,” Wright said. “We
plaj'ed better defense, we kept
people off the boards and we
played pretty good.”
The challenge now is to can
keep it up.
Bellamy works to reel off best jump effort
Continued from 1B
up to the next level everybody
will be at 22 feet and above.”
Although he may hurl himself
head long into the fi'ay, Bellamy
doesn’t always win. Yet it is the
way he bounces back from it, is
what makes him special.
Lion is tough competitor
“Some kids get blovm away,
and they get shell shock, but you
can blow Justin away and he
will come back full force,”
Streeter said. “You can’t get him
down.”
If Bellamy could piece together
his last jump of the season,
based on Streeter’s instructions,
it would be memorable.
“Back in ‘88 when you saw
Michael Jordan doing that dunk
from the free throw line (in the
NBA All-Star Game), that’s how
I want my last jump to be, like
something you’ve never seen
before,” Bellamy said. “Basically
what coach Streeter is teaching
me is that I have to get it in my
mind that I can do it. Coach
Streeter is a great motivatator.”
Vikings, all-pro guard may part company
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ST. PAUL, Minn. - All-Pro
guard Randall McDaniel will
be free to test the market
when he becomes a free agent
this month, Minnesota Vikings
vice president Jeff Diamond
said.
The Vikings will not pay the
$3.2 million annual salary nec
essary to make McDaniel their
franchise or transition player,
Diamond told the Saint Paul
Pioneer Press on Friday.
“We’re not saying that we
aren’t trying to re-sign him,”
Diamond said. “As he checks
out his options, we’ll check out
ours.”
McDaniel’s agent. Jack Mills,
said he would be “surprised if
there isn’t some strong inter
est, particularly from teams
that are in a winning posture.”
Mills said signing McDaniel
would not make much sense
for a team that is rebuilding.
“But it sure does for a team
that is winning and needs to
improve their line at offensive
guard,” he said.
The Vikings made McDaniel,
32, their transition player in
1994. He received no offers
from other teams, and the
Outing’s goal: turn more folks on to skiing
By Herbert L. White
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Randy Philpotts is the clos
est an African American has
come to making the U.S.
Olympic ski team.
His mission, however, isn’t
finished.
Philpotts, a Charlotte consul
tant, holds several national
National Brotherhood of
Skiers records and champi
onships in alpine and cross
country events. Now he’s
branching out, leading a group
of black college students to
Winterplace Ski Resort in Flat
Top, WVa. on Feb. 28 for a day
on the slopes. The one-day
trip, about three hours from
Charlotte, includes equip
ment, transportation and
lessons for $60. Deposits are
due by Feb. 15
“My goal is to present the
sport of skiing to the southeast
during Black History Month
first through our young, gifted
and black students, then move
on to the business world,”
Philpotts said.
Philpotts said students from
Johnson C. Smith, N.C. A&T,
Livingstone and Barber-Scotia
have reserved space at
Winterplace. Couples are also
signing up as a Valentine’s gift
of sorts.
‘We wanted it to be close to
Valentine’s Day so people
could use it as a sort of roman
tic getaway,” Philpotts said.
Philpotts discovered cross
country at NBS’s eastern
regional championships, and
began training for Olympic
competition. At 36, the likeli
hood of skiing for the U.S. is
fading, but Philpotts is excited
about the possibility of helping
future champions get their
start.
“I want to make the mys
tique of the black skier visible
to the world,” he said.
For more information, call
Philpotts at 519-0777.
first time this decade, but it
was still Allen who was count
ed on for that first down.
Schottenheimer has
announced that Hill definitely
will be the featured back for
the Chiefs next season. Allen
said in the chat session that he
agrees with that decision.
“It is an appropriate and cor
rect decision.” Allen said. “The
Chiefs do have to look to the
future, and the future is Greg
Hill. I feel I can contribute
and, if called upon, continue to
play football at an extremely
high level. But I realize they
have to look to the future.”
Allen, who owns a car dealer
ship in Kansas City, said he
hoped to work in television or
in another position related to
football.
“I don’t see myself coaching,”
Allen said. “It takes a special
breed to coach, and I’m not
equipped with the patience nor
the selflessness that they
have.”
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to a three-year contract worth
$7,875 million. It made him
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