Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 27

Wednesday, December 24, 1997 The Arizona Republic DM We recommend Figure skating: Skate International Champions final (tape delay), 7 tonight, Channel 10, 9 a.m. Thursday, Fox Sports Arizona. 1 Basketball: Long Beach StingRays vs. Portland Power, 5 p.m. Saturday, Black Entertainment Television.

Basketball: Oklahoma-Arizona State, 7 p.m. Monday, University Activity Center. I The Arizona Republic JEFF METCALFE The Arizona Republic ABLs reasons to be cheerful Mercury guard mulls job as coach ALL-STARS Players chosen by fan, coach and league official balloting for the American Basketball League All-Star Game, Jan. 18 at the Disney Wide World of Sports. Eastern Conference GF Teresa Edwards (Atlanta), league-high 22.9 ppg Tonya Edwards (Columbus), 14.6 ppg, 7 apg Adrienne Goodson (Philadelphia), 17.8 ppg, 8.3 rpg Shannon Johnson (Columbus), 12.1 ppg, 4.1 apg FG Carolyn Jones (New England), 20.8 ppg Katrina McClain (Atlanta), 13.3 ppg, 8.4 rpg Jennifer Rizzotti (New England), 11.7 ppg, 4.5 apg GF Katie Smith (Columbus), 18 ppg Dawn Staley (Philadelphia), 14.6 ppg, 7 apg FC Valerie Still (Columbus), 11.3 ppg, 7.9 rpg Western Conference Jennifer Azzi (San Jose), 14.1 ppg, 5.3 apg Debbie Black (Colorado), 5.6 agp, 2.7 spg Shalond Enis (Seattle), 17.4 ppg, 7.4 rpg Yolanda Griffith (Long Beach), 19.1 ppg, league-high 12 rpg Fe Tari Phillips (Colorado), 14 ppg, 8.2 rpg Elaine Powell (Portland), 3.3 apg, 1.7 spg GF Crystal Robinson (Colorado), 15.2 ppg, 3.5 apg GF Sheri Sam (San Jose), 14.4 ppg, 2.7 apg Beverly Williams (Long Beach), 13 ppg, 3.5 apg FC Natalie Williams (Portland), 21 ppg, 10.7 rpg I fl ft YW 1 IK ''is (j rv ii Ti ABL unveils dunk contest for All-Stars Rival of WNBA claims gains in TY fans, player loyalty By Jeff Metcalfe The Arizona Republic y' There are those in the WNBA who look at attendance for the second season of the American Basketball League and wonder how long the lights can stay on.

Women's professional basketball "barely works (financially) with the NBA behind it and 17 national sponsorships," an executive of a WNBA team said. Gary Cavalli, ABL co-founder-chief executive officer, counters with his own math: The WNBA drew 1,082,963 fans and spent, by what he says is a conservative estimate, $15 million on marketing, or roughly $14 per spectator. "That's not exactly efficient marketing," Cavalli said. By contrast, he said, the ABL spent $1.5 million on marketing last year and attracted 565,787 fans, which equates to approximately $3 per fanny. So it goes with the repartee between the leagues, each professing to prefer the high road but needing little prodding to drop to the low.

America, or at least its media, demands that there be a winner between the two leagues. But beware of a rush to judgment, Cavalli said, and simply appreciate the process. "We'd all like to have a crystal ball," he said, "but enjoy the fact two leagues are doing well and all these players are making a living. Let's not dwell on the negative or the guessing game." At midseason of Year 2, the ABL is finding reasons to celebrate: Attendance is up 19 percent over the first half of last season, to an average of 3,991. Cavalli thinks that will grow to an average of 4,500 for the season (up from 3,536 in 1996-97) when crowds increase for the playoff drive.

Television exposure is greater with a Fox Sports Net Sunday Game of the Week and an increased Black Entertainment Television package. Only two players, 1996-97 league MVP Nikki McCray and All-Star Cindy Brown, have jumped to the WNBA, although 54 had one-year contracts with the ABL -and were free to consider such a move. Top 1997 collegiate seniors such as Connecticut's Kara Wolters and Stanford's Kate Starbird chose the ABL over the WNBA. They signed multiyear contracts, as have 32 of the 35 players identified by the league as elite. "Our exposure is going to be very minimal in terms of people who are free agents," Cavalli said.

It has launched a stock-option program that allows all players, regardless of salary, to own stock in the league, fulfilling promise made at the first league tryouts. "All in all, we're alive and well," Cavalli said. "I can't tell you how many skeptics and cynics that we've proven wrong every day. We've made some decisions that may prove to be wrong. But we're not a league that is timid." There are some fiscal realities, though, for a league with an average salary of $80,000, compared with the 1997 WNBA range of $10,000 to $50,000 for all players except Lisa Leslie, Rebecca Lobo and Sheryl Swoopes.

The ABLs top draw is the New England Blizzard (8,174 average), which would rank sixth in the WNBA and significantly behind the top two: the Mercury (13,703) and New York Liberty More significant, the ABLs Long Beach expansion team "is averaging only 1,896, even though former Arizona State Coach Maura McHugh has the StingRays (13-10) in second place in the Western Conference. Moving league runner-up Richmond to Philadelphia has not spiked attendance for the Rage, even with the return of All-Star guard Dawn Staley to her hometown. "It was the correct decision (to move)," Cavalli said, "but we made it too late (in July). We should have done it in February or March." In Seattle, where the Reign has a league-worst 6-19 record, former ASU Akili-Casundria RamsessAtlanta Journal-Constitution Teresa Edwards, player-coach of the Atlanta Glory, leads the ABL in scoring with a 22.9-point average and was the first in her league to score 1 ,000 points. Nancy Lieberman-CIine won't say how close she is to accepting a job as coach of one of the two WNBA expansion teams, but she has interviewed with both and is a premier candidate.

"I still could play," said Lieberman-CIine, the Mercury guard who at 39 was the oldest player in the WNBA's inaugural season. "I'm training as if I'm playing. The (coaching) situation has to be right for my family. I'm squarely sitting on the fence." Some moves will begin to happen soon. The recently named Washington Mystics and Detroit expansion teams need to begin naming personnel by next month in preparation for an expansion draft in February.

Lieberman-CIine could be hired as a general manager-coach, like the Mercury's Cheryl Miller, but said she would not try to be a player-coach like Teresa Edwards of the American, Basketball League's Atlanta Glory. A league allocation to place four players Nikki McCray, Cindy Brown, A-lessandra Santos de Oliveira and Razija Mujanovic with an expansion team is expected to precede the expansion draft. McCray was the ABL Most Valuable Player in 1996-97. Brown was a 1988 U.S. Olympian who was an ABL All-Star with the Seattle Reign last season, then opted against a second year in the league after being traded to the expansion Long Beach StingRays.

The 6-foot-5 Santos de Oliveira was the starting center for the 1996 Olympic silver medal-winning Brazilians. Her Olympic teammate Janeth Arcain plays for the WNBA champion Houston Comets. Mujanovic will be the league's second 6-8 center, joining Haixia Zheng of the Los Angeles Sparks. Mujanovic, a is averaging 20 points and 1 1 rebounds in the Brazilian pro league. Rumors have McCray, a 5-11 guard, going to Washington and Brown, a 6-2 forward, to Detroit.

"Those teams can be competitive right away," Lieberman-CIine said. The WNBA's base pay will rise cent, so a player in the $50,000 slot, such, as the Mercury's Michele Timms, goes to $55,000. An additional raise is being discussed because the league was more successful than expected and because the signing of McCray to a three-year, six-figure personal services contract could create some animosity among second-year players. The Mercury's Monique Ambers is playing well enough for the league-leading team in Greece to have offers from Italy and Spain. Also succeeding in Greece, as teammates on another team, are Ryneldi Becenti, who finished the season as a Mercury developmental player, and Melissa Gurile, on the developmental squad much of the year.

Molly Tuter, who played collegiately at Arizona State, has left her team in Luxemborg and is returning to the Valley. All are represented by Shelli Poulos, who now has 20 clients in the rapidly expanding world of women's sports agents. Erica Calhoun, former Mercury public relations director, also is becoming an agent and will be based in Tempe. ASU gym help Kristin Fanning of the Arizona Sunrays is graduating early from Paradise Valley High School and joining Arizona State, which returns all but one gymnast from the 1997 NCAA runners-up. Fanning should help ASU immediately on uneven parallel bars and perhaps floor exercise.

The Sun Devils open their season Jan. 10 at Hawaii, then compete against national champion UCLA on Jan. 18 before their first home meet on Jan. 23. Arizona Coach Jim Gault has signed three gymnasts for his successor, including Randi Lynn Liljenquist of Tucson, a former Desert Devil.

Current Wildcats include junior Heidi Hornbeek of Glendale, senior Tenli Poggemeyer and sophomore Altx Moss of Scottsdale and sophomore Lisa Hcckel of Cave CreeFc. The 61 -year-old Gault is in his 18th and final season. Arizona's women's basketball team, down four spots to No. 1 1 nationally after its first loss, must make a difficult rebound. If the Wildcats beat Baylor as expected on Monday, they almost certainly will meet No.

4 Louisiana Tech in the final of the LaTech Dial Classic. Then comes the Pac-10 opener at UCLA on Jan. 2. ASU tennis is eighth nationally in the Rolex Collegiate rankings. ASU ended last season ranked No.

7 and reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament before losing to Florida, still ranked No. 1. Other Pac-10 teams in the top 25 are: UCLA (2), Stanford (5), California (7) and Arizona (23). ASU begins second-semester play at the Milwaukee Classic, Jan. 6-10.

The Devils are led by Reka Cseresnyes in singles and Stephanie Lansdorp-Katy Propstra in doubles. Womensports can be reached at 444-8053 or at womensportstpni.com via e-mail. BY THE NUMBERS ABL average attendance Current season through Dec. 21 Team 1996-97 1997-98 New England 5,008 8,174 Portland 4,167 5,112 San Jose 3,181 4,422 y-Philadelphia 3,139 3,210 Seattle 3,229 3,163 Colorado 4,103 3,037 Columbus 2,682 3,018 Atlanta 2,780 2,952 x-Long Beach 1,896 Overall 3,536 3,991 x-Second-year expansion team. y-Played 1996-97 in Richmond, Va.

WNBA attendance Team 1997 Phoenix 13,703 New York 13,270 Houston 9,703 Los Angeles 8,931 Charlotte 8,307 Cleveland 7,971 Sacramento 7,858 Utah 7,611 Overall 9,669 Note: WNBA is expanding to Washington, D.C., and Detroit in 1998. Figures based on regular-season attendance. By Jeff Metcalfe The Arizona Republic There will be an all-star dunk contest after all. The American Basketball League insisting it is not picking up a castoff from the NBA All-Star Weekend will debut a women's dunk contest during its second All-Game Game on Jan. 1 8.

The NBA announced Dec. 15 that it is abandoning the dunk contest, first held in 1976 at the defunct American Basketball Association All-Star Game, in favor of "2-ball." The new game is a shooting and skills contest for teams made up of a player from an NBA team and another from the same city's WNBA team. Duos already committed for 2-ball on Feb. 7 are Clyde Drexler and Cynthia Cooper from Houston, Allan Houston and Rebecca Lobo from New York and Mitch Richmond and Ruthie Bolton-Holifield from Sacramento. The Phoenix entry is likely to be Steve Nash and Michele Timms.

The ABL announcement came three days after the NBA news. "We've been talking about this for many, many months," said Gary Cavalli, ABL co-founder and chief executive officer. "Some said this is in response (to the NBA), but that's not true." The dunk contest has stirred up interest for the ABL, which is without the market-ing might of the WNBA. Neither women's league has had a dunk in competition. The only attempt was an ill-timed miss by Lisa Leslie of the Los Angeles Sparks in the nationally televised WNBA opener against the New York Liberty.

"A lot of people have shied away from trying to avoid being embarrassed," Cavalli said. Women's basketball has de-emphasized dunking since West Virginia's Georgeann Wells broke the collegiate barrier in 1984. Instead, the focus has been on fundamentals and teamwork. "This will be a chance to showcase some of the phenomenal leaping ability we have in this league," said Tracey Williams, ABL vice president for player personnel. Like that of Portlands Natalie Williams, who doubled in volleyball and basketball at UCLA.

Or Colorado's 6-foot-5 Sylvia Crawley and San Jose's Charlotte Smith. "It might be more entertaining than you think," said All-Star Valerie Still of Columbus. "Given the right conditions, its viable they can do it. People are going to be shocked by what they see." Calif, has opened an East Coast office specifically to improve corporate connections. Cavalli said close to $3 million will be spent on marketing this season.

"We're losing money," he said, "but we're making progress." The ABL was close to $4 million in the red for its first season but offset that with new investors, some of whom are purchasing operating rights of individual teams from the league. "Any professional league is going to take some time to build," said All-Star Valerie Still of the Columbus Quest. "The league is trying to get us out there more into the public. That's what we're going to have to continue to do. If we don't market it, if people don't know about it, it's not going to go." ABL play resumes Saturday, and the All-Star Game is Jan.

18 at Disney's Wide World of Sports in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The regular season ends Feb. 17 with the first- and second-place teams in each conference and the two teams with the next-best records advancing to the playoffs. First- and second-round playoff series are best of three, with the championship series, televised by Fox Sports Net, to be best of five. The defending champion Columbus Quest (19-6) is seven games ahead in the Eastern Conference.

The Portland Power (17-9), under former Purdue Coach Lin Dunn, has three more wins than it had last year and is ahead by 2'A games in the West. Atlanta player-Coach Teresa Edwards is leading in scoring with a 22.9-point average. She is the first in the ABL to score 1,000 points, a plateau soon to be reached by Staley and Tonya Edwards of Columbus. Long Beach center Yolanda Griffith is the leading candidate for Rookie of the Year, averaging 19.1 points, a league-high 12 rebounds, 2.9 steals and 1.6 blocks. Coach Jacquie Hullah was fired Dec.

8 and replaced on an interim basis by Tammy Holder, former Rage general manager. Seattle has three of the league's top 20 scorers Shalonda Enis, Val Whiting and Starbird but last won a game Nov. 28. "We were faced with the loss of morale and almost a loss of hope on the team," Cavalli said. "Seattle is one of our most successful markets in terms of (team) prominence in the community.

We got to a point where we were afraid of losing our Tan base." While licensing and sponsorships are improving, the ABL still lags far behind the WNBA. The ABL, based out of Palo Alto, Kwan has sights set on Olympics i I 11 rr-r niw ice and skate right way." Carroll said. "She's not limping. When she's running through her program, she's not favoring one foot over the other. She's doing a very nice double axel off that foot and nice salchows." Her confidence isn't as high as it was before the injury, but that's no surprise.

After losing to Tara Lipinski at last year's U.S. and World Championships as well as the Champions Series final, Kwan put everyone on notice that the gold was hers to lose with two perfect programs at Skate America. "I really focus on how I skate," Kwan said. "If I skate my best, that would be good enough for me. If I don't skate my best, everyone can win.

I just mind my own business and focus on my own thing." She's back to full run-throughs of her programs, skipping only her triple toe loop in the free skate. "Maybe nationals we're not going to be quite as ready as we could be," Coach Frank Carroll said. "But the Olympics are in another month, and I think it's going to keep getting betteu" Kwan aggravated a stress fracture initially suffered in August 1996 during Skate Canada on Nov. 7-9. The timing of the injury was less than ideal with the Winter Olympics beginning Feb.

7 in Nagano, Japan. She walked through her jumps on the floor, and even went to the rink one day but only so her friends could sign her cast. "The training of the body, if you're really in shape, you can get back on the The Associated Press Michelle Kwan sits down every day and decides just how badly that second toe on her left foot hurts. On good days, it might be a four. On bad ones, like the day she flopped onto the ice at Skate Canada, it's more like a nine.

These days, the 1996 U.S. and world figure skating champion says it feels like a three or a four. She has all but one of her jumps back, is staying on the ice a little longer each day and says she'll be healed enough to compete in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, which start Jan. 4 in Philadelphia.

Not exactly the ideal pre-Olympic training regimen, but Kwan will take it. She was off the ice for three weeks her longest break ever and in a cast. Michelle Kwan has her cast signed during a trip to the rink. She was sidelined because of a toe injury, but is starting to round into form in time for the U.S. Nationals.

Damian DovarganeVAssociated Press.