Sports Monday
T. NOLAN HAYES
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
Hoops Lockout
Needs to End
For NBA's Sake
The NBA has long been the best
league in professional sports.
It was the first to launch a
massive advertising campaign
that marketed its star players to the pub
lic. It introduced innovations such as the
draft lottery and fun-filled All-Star
Weekend. It has become so popular that
cult status is now awarded for the sim
ple art of flushing a ball through a hoop.
In short, the NBA has been at the top
among pro leagues in providing enter
tainment for its fans.
No more.
With the current lockout threatening
to eliminate the entire 1998-99 season,
the NBA is in trouble.
Major League Baseball battled a
work stoppage in 1994 and lost. Fans
realized their lives went on without the
Boys of Summer, and they didn’t come
flooding back in 1995.
Baseball didn’t make its comeback
until this season, and a number of
events had to happen for the rebirth to
be possible.
Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa
broke the home run record, Cal Ripken
Jr. ended his consecutive-games streak
and the Yankees fell just two games shy
of the all-time season wins record.
Such a renaissance would be highly
unlikely for the NBA, which lacks base
ball’s rich tradition.
With ticket prices already soaring
higher than Michael Jordan and a
noticeable drop occurring in the
league’s overall level of play due to
expansion, the NBA is not in good posi
tion to absorb the fallout from a lockout.
The league has seen its profits drop
during each of the past four years, and
though the numbers aren’t in yet, com
missioner David Stern believes the
NBA might have been unprofitable as a
whole last season.
Economics aside, the NBA has been
struggling in other areas. The league has
suffered several black eyes during the
past few years in public relations.
Latrell Sprewell choked coach PJ.
Carlesimo at practice last season in an
incident the whole nation heard about.
In addition, Sports Illustrated ran a
cover story about children fathered out
of wedlock by NBA players.
The list doesn’t stop there. Stories cit
ing players for drug possession and in
domestic violence situations have
become common, littering America’s
sports pages on a near-daily basis.
Fans don’t like this type of behavior.
Many are forming an image of the
league as a group of young thugs run
ning around with their shorts too long
and their egos too big.
With stars like Jordan, Charles
Barkley and Karl Malone nearing retire
ment, adults are starting to lose their
identification with the league.
And watching Isaiah Rider talk
smack during the course of a 3-for-13
shooting night just doesn’t provide
much appeal. Especially when people
have to watch it from a S6O seat.
The NBA needs to act fast. All is not
lost, at least not yet.
The fact is that the NBA season is
extremely long. Including training
camp, the 82 regular-season games and
the playoffs, the season spans nine
months. Losing two weeks of regular
season action isn’t a death sentence.
But that doesn’t change the urgency
of the situation.
Fans can forgive missed games in the
early going, but they don’t soon forget
championship games that fail to hap
pen. Just ask baseball players and own
ers what happened after they failed to
produce a World Series in ’94.
The league must get a labor agree
ment hammered out one way or anoth
er. Fans don’t really care if the Larry
Bird exception is abolished or whether
the salary cap becomes “harder.”
They just want to see the greatest ath
letes in die world run up and down the
floor and play basketball.
They want the NBA to become the
world’s greatest league again.
T. Nolan Hayes can be reached at
nono@email. unc. edu.
Field Hockey Falters at Virginia
The loss is the Tar Heels'
third consecutive defeat,
giving UNC its longest
losing skid in 16 years.
Staff Report
The road has not been kind to North
Carolina’s field hockey team the past
two weekends.
One week after falling from the top of
the national polls following defeats at
Renovations have added a state-of-the-art football center and nearly 8,000 seats to 71-year-old Kenan Stadium, which now seats 60,000 spectators.
Home Improvements
ACC Schools Race to Upgrade Football Facilities in the '9os
By John Zhl
Staff Writer
While ACC football teams batde for
supremacy on the gridiron, a different
race is taking place off the field, and this
contest doesn’t involve pads or helmets.
Instead, the equipment includes con
crete, heavy machinery and a lot of
money.
ACC football stadiums have under
gone a plethora of major renovations in
Men's Hoops Faces Questions
As Preseason Practice Begins
The Tar Heels must replace
four players who accounted
for 73.7 percent of the
team's scoring last season.
By Dave Alexander
Sport Saturday Editor
North Carolina coach Bill Guthridge
knows his task this season is more diffi
cult than it was a year ago.
And he has a minor request for UNC
basketball fans this season.
“The fans need to be more patient,”
Guthridge said at UNC’s preseason
media day Sunday. “But I’m not expect
ing it. There’s no way for us to have
close to the team we had last year.”
That’s not surprising considering the
Tar Heels lost four starters from last sea
son’s Final Four participant, which fin
ished the season 34-4 and ranked No. 1
in the final regular-season AP poll.
Seniors Makhtar Ndiaye and
Shammond Williams graduated, and
juniors Vince Carter and Antawn
Jamison opted to forego their senior sea
sons in favor of the NBA.
What remains is a collection of skilled
but inexperienced players and more
questions than are posed in a round of
Jeopardy.
Field Hockey
James
Madison and
Maryland, the
fourth-ranked
Tar Heels
UNC I
Virginia 2
dropped another road contest Sunday,
this time to No. 6 Virginia, 2-1.
Cavalier forward Meredith Thorpe,
the ACC’s all-time leading scorer,
notched three points on one goal and
one assist in the victory.
Thorpe got the scoring underway
with her 95th career goal at the 14:20
mark of the first half. Michelle Vizzuo
the past decade. Every team in the con
ference either has done major renova
tions in the last 10 years or is planning to
do so in the near future.
Virginia Associate Athletics Director
Mark Fletcher, who is in charge of the
school’s athletics-related construction
projects, said the renovations signify
football’s growing popularity.
“In general, the conference has
changed from being a dominant basket
ball conference,” he said. “Football has
msmam
First and fore
most - who will
score?
The departed
quartet accounted
for 60.4 points per
game last season, a
staggering 73.7
percent of UNC’s
scoring output.
The Tar Heels’
leading returning
scorer is its junior
point guard, Eld
Cota, who
chipped in 8.1 ppg
a year ago and
UNC coach
Bill Guthridge
enters his second
season with only
two returning
starters.
will be charged with picking up some of
the scoring slack.
But there is concern that focusing too
much on putting points on the board
could hamper Cota’s ability to lead the
team, which he did last season with an
ACC-best 7.4 assists per game.
“I’m thrilled to death to have Ed Cota
back,” Guthridge said. “But if Ed has to
score all the points, we won’t be that
good of a team.”
Joining Cota as a returning starter is
senior Ademola Okulaja, who ranked
fifth in scoring for the Tar Heels last sea
son with 8.0 ppg.
Beyond that, little is certain.
Seven-foot sophomore Brendan
and Laura Lindsay assisted on the goal,
which came off a Virginia penalty Con
ner.
UNC turned to its biggest weapons to
tie the game.
Nancy Pelligreen scored the Tar
Heels’ only goal of the game on a penal
ty comer from Jana Toepel at the 11:45
mark of the first period.
But the Cavaliers answered back, as
Meredith Elwell scored off an assist from
Thorpe with 1:47 to go that gave UVa.
the winning margin.
The two teams went scoreless
stepped up.”
Fletcher attributed the renovations in
part to the 1992 addition of Florida State
to the conference. He said the other
teams are improving their football stadi
ums to help them achieve FSU’s status
as a perennial football power.
“For the other schools in the confer
ence, you’re trying to beat the best, and
you want to be like the best,” Fletcher
said.
FSU, ironically, has done the least
Haywood, who saw action in all 38 of
North Carolina’s games in 1998, should
see time in the middle. So should 6-11
sophomore Brian Bersticker.
Bulky forward Vasco Evtimov returns
after serving a year in the French army
and could help up front
Senior Brad Frederick and sopho
mores Michael Brooker and Max
Owens could provide UNC with a sec
ondary scoring threat from the outside.
Freshmen Kris Lang, Jason Capel
and Ronald Curry, who will join the
team full-time following football season,
could also fit into the equation.
“We have a lot of capable people,”
Brooker said. “If somebody’s off, some
body else can come in and pick it up.”
That remains to be seen. But one
thing is obvious - the “wills” of recent
campaigns have been replaced with
“coulds” and “shoulds.” And Guthridge
is doing his part to temper expectations.
“It will be a real challenge for the
team and the coaching staff to get it all
together,” Guthridge said. “The expec
tations are always high around here.
“I think it’s very important for this
year’s team not to put pressure on them
selves. The results take care of them
selves.”
The Sports Editor can be reached at
sports@unc.edu.
Women’s
Soccer Keeps
Rolling Along
The Tar Heels beat No. 7
Portland and St. Mary's
during the weekend to
stay unbeaten. Forward
Raven McDonald (left)
led UNC with two goals
on Friday. See Page 11.
through the second half.
UNC outshot Virginia 9-6 and had a
10-4 advantage in penalty corners for
the contest.
Virginia improved to 11-3 on the sea
son and is now 2-0 in the ACC. The win
was the Cavaliers’ 12th in a row and
19th-consecutive win in the month of
October. Both win marks are school
records.
For the Tar Heels (9-4, 1-2 in the
ACC), the loss marks their third-con
secutive defeat. It is UNC’s longest los
ing skid since 1982.
amount of football-related construction
in the ACC this decade, the only extrav
agance being anew scoreboard in 1992.
The year after FSU joined the ACC,
Georgia Tech built anew athletics and
academic center behind the west stands
of 85-year-old Bobby Dodd Stadium.
From 1990-95, Maryland erected
Tyser Tower, which serves as a press
box, and added 300 luxury suites to
See RENOVATIONS, Page 9
r ‘ ~ jtjtr
T
a/ j H
J if T Je. HE'
m & iUfL -■ . HUffNB 1$!. JaL
B fi uL
ft § -’nHHfci Apr k
I a \ \ 8 a H
■jh. %' frsßsg-fg’yt ‘f-gHBCg.— lb * |. |jf \ xm
i'IH'MICHAEL KANAREK
UNC sophomore center Brendan Haywood (sitting) talks to the media
during Sunday’s basketball media day at the Smith Center.
INSIDE:
■ Men's soccer ties
UNC-G on Saturday.
Page 11
■ Cross Country earns
top finishes in meet
at Auburn. Page 11
■ The Carolina
Panthers fall to
0-6. Page 11
Volleyball
Win Streak
Ends at 14
UNC lost to Wake Forest
on Friday but rebounded
to post a 3-1 victory against
Notre Dame on Sunday.
By Hugh Pressi ey
Assistant Sport Saturday Editor
North Carolina’s volleyball team had
a stark realization during fall break:
winning can mask many sins.
Although UNC (19-4, 7-1 in the
ACC) has ripped through foes this sea
son with ease, it’s been winning despite
suffering from service errors, mental
lapses and let- SMHMMHHHi
downs
After UNC
took a break Notre Dame I
from its win- UNC 3
ning ways on y NC I
Friday against Wake Forest .3
Wake Forest
in a 3-1 road loss that snapped its 14-
match winning streak, the Tar Heels did
some psychoanalysis.
The prognosis: The Tar Heels can’t
go through the rest of 1998 merely
thinking they can win. They have to
prove it.
So when No. 24
UNC took on
Notre Dame (7-9)
on Sunday at
Carmichael
Auditorium, the
Tar Heels knew
they’d have to
give a 100-percent
effort to befuddle
the Fighting Irish
and return to top
form.
Mission accom
plished.
UNC outhus
tled Notre Dame
UNC setter
Erin Berg
tallied 82 assists
during Sunday's
3-1 win against
Notre Dame.
to a 15-10, 15-13, 9-15, 15-8 win on
Sunday, improving the Tar Heels’
record at Carmichael to 12-0 in 1998.
“We really wanted to just get back to
the way we were playing in the begin
ning of the season (against Notre
Dame),” outside hitter Maya Starks
said.
The Tar Heels won game one the
way they’ve won many games this sea
son - sheer offense.
UNC jumped out to a 9-2 lead
behind kills by five different Tar Heels,
including Tar Heel sophomore Casey
Simpson’s five kills.
After a brief Fighting Irish comeback
try, the Tar Heels thwarted Notre
Dame’s efforts with three-consecutive
See VOLLEYBALL, Page 9
14