The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, January 17, 1990, Page 9, Image 9
Sports
Wednesday, January 17, 1990 The Gamecock 9
Impatient Hoi
embarrassing
By JEFF NICHOLS
Sports Editor |
If patience is one of the seven r?1
virtues, then Charlotte Hornets J
fans must be concentrating on the
other six.
Last year, Hornets tans were Lgi
praised as the most enthusiastic, M
most loyal fans in the league.
Wins and losses didn't matter.
Fans sang and danced in the aisles, onl
Going to a Hornets game was like 1
going to a party. ble
Now, the second season is here, the
Suddenly, Hornets fans are having tiv<
a hard time facing the music, pla
That's mainly because, right now, wc
the tune sounds something like the tez
second worst record in the league. Ch
Not exactly music to the fans' <
ears. But then, their own music oui
doesn't sound good either. In fact, far
it is embarrassing. abi
The "boo birds" are singing in tha
Charlotte. The party is over. the
Not everybody is booing, of co
course. But you might have a hard wf
time convincing Kelly Tripuka of the
that lately. 1-]
A year after leading the Hornets
in scoring and narrowly missing the
out on Comeback Player of the ye
Year honors, Tripuka is having a sp<
rough season to say the least. pr<
He has had to overcome a back
injury earlier in the year and is att
now facing what the Hornets fans th<
have placed on his back ? the th<
role of team scapegoat. tej
It is a role he shrugged off for nij
much of the season. But finally, in Y]
a recent post-game interview, Tripuka
admitted, while fighting back lit
tears, that the boos were getting to re;
him, that he did not appreciate the le;
boos, and he did not feel he de- frc
served them. ne
Soon after Tripuka's interview, Bi
which was shown on all Charlotte an
TV stations, we learned that he is an
now trailing only James Worthy
for most votes in the Western Con- th
ference All-Star balloting. ye
If Kelly Tripuka deserves any- di
thing less than being singled out lo
for a young team's lack of success,
it's a place on the All-Star team.
Does this mean Hornets fans, fe
who are obviously stuffing All
Star ballot boxes, are a compassionate
bunch after all? No, it
oli&n
Com|
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J Don't T
The return
Wednesday V
0 January
# ALL ABC REGULATI
'nets fans A
Charlotte
}m isrw
r jEL JEFF NICHOLS I
y embarrasses them further.
-act: Tripuka is having a horri- BP
year. You don't put a man on lyA
All-Star team out of retrospec- 0"*
i sympathy for him. There are
tyers in the league who have
/xrt tr> Ka laff rvff Bi
I1KUJ LUVJ IIOlVJ tw UV 1V11 Uil Ul^
im because of fan wars in
arlotte.
Dver the holidays, I got a kick
t of listening to many of these
is whine publicly. They whined
out traffic (suddenly, the fact
it Charlotte trails only L.A. for
; honor of worst traffic in the
untry escaped them), they m
lined about pizza prices, and
;y whined about guys shooting
10.
And when asked to explain why
ty boo, in just the team's second
ar of existence, most fans reDnded
with, "Hey, these guys are
3S "
But, in fact, if they really paid
ention to what they're saying, ^
j fans might realize that since
i Hornets are a pro team, these (
ims they're playing night-in-and
?ht-out must not be made up of T
V1CA All-Stars.
And if they thought about it a
tie more, they would probably _
alize that the other teams in the - ,
ague now know what to expect P?
am Charlotte this year. The Hor- ^
ts are part of the family now. 3*P01
it they are still little brothers, an^ '
d they are going to get kicked can c
ound a while. 8*ve
Sure, the Hornets have beaten He
emselves more than once this Sc
lar. But don't take too much ere- failei
t away from guys named Ma- with
ne, Robinson, Johnson and Jor- cle ii
in, just to name a few.
Boos are commonplace in pro- W
ssional sports, but the Hornets pair
and ]
Fe
See Pep Talk page 10 He a
ALWAYS WANTEI
em day heros have a new
not wear capes or fly th
1s and place them where
nunity Service Programs, Can
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iaoi ocaoui i. uaimci ouui cu ciyi il pvjniio 111 i ucouajr o \jsj sjcDver
Louisville.
SC declares McKoy 2
EFF NICHOLS semester only if 1
s Editor mer school and me
you happen to be adept at knocking down
nters, hitting the open man in a motion offense canw i eel
seating full-court pressure - and if you think you ^uar.f an ?^,a,
lo it against major college basketball competition, a ~on' ^ IC
USC head coach George Felton a call. McKoy, a 6-foc
' needs you. Conn., was avera
>phomore shooting guard Troy McKoy, who second shot gave I
I two courses in the fall semester and finished Maryland in the
a 1.08 grade-point average according to an arti- Classic in Richmo
a The State Tuesday, is academically ineligible.
There are now
ith Monday's loss of McKoy, Felton has only a 1989-90 NCAA to
of guards remaining ? sophomores Jo Jo English Starting point g
Brian Popovich. lahoma in the sur
Jton may not have McKoy back until next spring, was lost for the i
vill be eligible for basketball in next year's fall chips in his left I
) TO BE A HERO..."
name these days, VOLUNTEERS. They
rough the sky, but we applaud their
they're needed most: The Office of
npus Activities Center, 777-6688.
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Lady Gar
get by Lo
By DAVID CARAVIELLO
Staff Writer pre
Danny Ford and Nancy Wilson Wi
don't have much in common. One tha
is a football coach, the other a ba- rno
sketball coach. One chews tobacco,
the other doesn't. One is goi
1 - - i -1 xrn ? A ?k/>
unaer investigation oy trie i>v./\/\, mc
the other is not. nit
But after USC's 65-52 victory wh
over the Lady Cardinals of Louis- def
ville Monday night, Wilson likened
her team to Ford's. ing
"Well, I probably shouldn't hin
quote a Clemson person," Wilson on<
said, "but I remember reading in fivi
an article on Danny Ford when he thr
was talking about this years' foot- lea
ball team that one mark of a good I
team is to be able to play flat and wit
still win. I think that's exactly La<
what we did tonight." 31
The game itself looked like a net
four-part miniseries. The first half 1
was pretty even. Then, USC ex- roc
ploded in the first few minutes of tw<
the second half, going up by as 18much
as 18 points on good defense Wi
and transition. lay
Louisville mounted a furious ]
rally midway through the second cle
half, cutting the lead to as little as at
six. But the Lady Gamecocks Ga
came through in the clutch as de- ?
fense once again secured the win.
icademicaiiy
ie appeals for admission into sum- I
>ets academic standards then.
ion will have to make due with two 1
nine-man roster unless he picks up I
ie hasn't ruled out.
)t-7-inch guard from East Hartford, 9
ging 4.8 points a game. His last- HI
he Gamecocks a 52-51 victory over I
first round of the Central Fidelity ?
nd on Dec.l.
three guards missing from Felton's
umament team.
uard Brent Price transferred to Oknmer.
Junior guard Barry Manning
season three weeks ago with bone
hand.
?he Ga
- ' ? *
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necocks
uisville
I thought the defense was
tty good, especially at the end,"
Ison said. "I feel like the shots
t they made were tough shots,
st of the time anyway.
They're a good team so they're
ng to create some easy shots for
mselves," she said. "It was defiely
a feeling throughout the
ole game that if we didn't do it
ensively it was long gone."
rhe game seesawed in the openminntp.s
with I JSC falling be
id by as much as three points at
i time. USC boosted the lead to
e. Then Beth Hunt converted a
ee-point play for a 19-11 USC
d.
Sherry David's three-pointer
j; :01 left in the half put the
3y Gamecocks up by seven at
-24 and gave them a much
ided halftime boost.
JSC exploded out of the locker
>m in the second half. Hunt hit
3 free throws. David nailed an
-foot jumper. Freshman Marsha
illiams hit three consecutive
ups.
By the time the smoke had
ared, USC was up by 19 points
49-30 with 8:14 left. The Lady
mecock defense had also kept
See Gamecocks page 10
ineligible
B iJ
PMBp
Troy McKoy
[tieco^,
^)"
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