ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 23, 1997 TAG: 9704230026
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: JACK BOGACZYK
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
Midweek musings:
Chicago bulled through four rounds of the NBA playoffs last year with a 15-3 record. The Phil Jackson Five will have to play more games to win this year - if they even survive the tournament that begins Thursday night.
Dennis Rodman and Toni Kukoc are back from injuries, but even with the pair - certainly not at 100 percent - the defending champs will have problems with the physicality of some opponents. Of course, no other team has Michael Jordan, either.
Even the Washington Bullets, those playoff strangers, have a front line that will trouble the the Bulls in Georghe Muresan, Chris Webber and Juwan Howard. The Bulls also have trouble defending quick point guards, and the future Wizards have Rod Strickland.
Even with Rodman in the lineup this season, the Bulls have become a jump-shooting team. Coach Jackson's triangle offense hasn't gotten the club as many good shots, so the Bulls will need Rodman's offensive glass-cleaning. Miami and New York (if the Knicks shove past Charlotte in the first round) might play one of the most physically contentious series in NBA history.
In the Western Conference, it's tough to like top-seeded Utah. Portland is very talented, but it has a bad matchup in trying to deal with the Los Angeles Shaqs. The Blazers-Lakers survivor should meet Houston in the Western final.
The Rockets are a dangerous team with enough old fuel for one more run at a title. Miami, with Dan Majerle and Keith Askins bumping Jordan, will stop the Bulls. The Heat was the league's best road team, and that's where you must win if you're going to upset your way to an NBA title.
NET LOSS: The U.S. Tennis Association Women's Challenger series won't stop in Roanoke this year. John Barker, the pro at Hunting Hills Country Club, said Tuesday the USTA wanted a $25,000 purse like last year, and the club preferred $10,000, which was the figure before 1996.
``By the time we got our ducks in a row, the USTA was committed,'' Barker said. ``We asked to see if we could get the [increased] sponsors, but it was too late.'' If the USTA is to return a Women's Challenger to the Roanoke Valley, it wants a $25,000 purse.
``We only have four outdoor courts, and that makes it tough to do a 25,'' Barker said. ``We'd like to do it, but we're looking at some other things, maybe getting some seniors in here to play round-robin for a weekend or maybe a men's tournament.''
SAME NAME: Another Druckenmiller could follow first-round NFL draft pick Jim to Virginia Tech. The star quarterback's younger sister, Nicole, is a 6-foot junior basketball prospect at Northampton (Pa.) High School. Her coach, Ellen Malone, said the Hokies, Auburn, Clemson, La Salle and Notre Dame have been her most interested recruiters.
In three varsity seasons at Pennsylvania's highest (4A) level, Druckenmiller has scored 1,021 points and her teams are 78-12. ``She's a power player with a nice touch,'' Malone said. ``I call her a woman in the paint among little girls.''
UP NEXT: With the NFL draft history, the Washington Redskins turn to this weekend's minicamp, for which defensive tackle Sean Gilbert will be a no-show. Gilbert made $1.25 million this past season, and the team designated him as its franchise player.
That means the Redskins will have to pay him at least the average of the five highest-paid players at defensive tackle, which would be $3.8 million in 1997. Gilbert wants an average of $4 million annually. The Redskins are said to be offering about $1 million less.
Negotiations with quarterback Gus Frerotte, who can't be a free agent until next season, aren't going well, either. Frerotte's agent is talking about taking a one-year offer and going for huge bucks in free agency a year from now. The Redskins, having let Heath Shuler go to New Orleans and can't afford to let Frerotte do that, or Norv Turner's program will be starting all over - again.
NO SENIORS: Although it's unlikely underclassmen will get the message on staying in school, 39 percent (17) of the 44 players who left behind college eligibility to declare for the NFL draft weren't selected during the weekend. However, of the 27 picked, 20 went in the first three rounds, including cornerback Ronde Barber of Virginia to Tampa Bay.
The Barber twins weren't the first Roanokers drafted in more than a decade, as I said in this space last week. Former William Fleming and UVa lineman David Ware was a fourth-round choice by the New York Jets in 1993. Ware is too big a guy to lose in your research.
MASONRY: The final numbers are in, and the bricklaying in NCAA men's basketball continues. In the 1996-97 season, only three of 305 Division I teams managed to hit 50 percent of their shots - UCLA (.520), Northern Arizona (.516) and Princeton (.500). Only three, including the Bruins, did it a year ago, too. Only four shot better than 40 percent from behind the 3-point arc, including Radford (.405), which ranked fourth nationally.
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines KEYWORDS: FOOTBALLby CNB