The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 79

Wednesday, Sept. 21, 1983 Philadelphia Inquirer 7-F COMICS Elwood team releases Cureton I THE LEAD ONLY 15 3S I VB THE SAND BUILT ABOUND MV VOICS, L-j TW0" nr BUT My FACB IS JU6TMADB FOR JCl Kiui ri-V Gasoline Alley vf Indeed) I -(UnorV) I (His chum's coming)' '(Ho the 1 HE UT THE I If CLAUPINE THIS WINp' I I PARUNS I HAVE TO BUT I'M IS COMING UP SO WILL BE NO PROBLEM IT'S flY ON AN ERRANP HAVING SUCH 7hmA QUICKLY. SOON IT A MINOR STARR, ANP I'M TAKING XOU RJN ITtj WILL NOT BE SAFE FOR DARLING COME HERE AN? TIXA ZA SO I WANT r5T A SMALL PLANE :4. FOR A StCONP. rvrftOc-'-Cx TO COVE Rex Morgan, M.D.

aw aruie spun poz that sh himzxm anp msrosoB Jvl wmrmiDeertml feel yA'V- as CURETON, from I place on it. released, and reportedly for the same reasons, was former Boston Celtics guard Terry Duerod, who was a college teammate of Cureton's at the University of Detroit and who retains, like Cyreton, Willie McCarter as an agent. The end result could be that Cure ton, a three-year NBA veteran who has spent his entire pro career in Philadelphia, will once again wear the Sixers uniform when the club's training camp opens next week in( Lancaster. "I think at this point he doesn't have too much choice," said Katz, who has wiped eut his three-year offer and now is prepared to give Cureton only a two-year contract with just one year guaranteed. "Earl knows there's a place for him here, but it's a matter of price now," said Katz.

"There's an excellent chance of Earl coming back if his agent starts being reasonable." But until such a signing takes place, Katz, Sixers coach Billy Cun-ningham and Williams will try to find out why the Moot, 10-inch Cure-, ton. hailed as a hero when he arrived in Pesaro last month, is now viewed by many fans there as a big-headed, cocky ball-hog. Morever, they will review what all of this means in the Sixers' overall picture, which is clouded with the prospects of three first-rouud draft choices next season, not to mention the recent signings of free-agent for- ward Howard Wood and this year's top draft pick, forwardfLeo Rautins. "He ICuretonl could have been a big. big player in Italy," said Georgio Gondolfi, who is the basketball ex- pert at Giganti Magazine in Milan.

"But it all turned out to be a big, big Gondolfi said yesterday in a telephone Interview from Milan. "Earl Cureton and Terry Duerod didn't play with the team very much. They didn't like the coach very much. There was a problem there. But it's so hard to understand.

"His team is the richest team in Italy. The fans there are crazy about basketball, and Earl Cureton was the biggest star of them all. There has been no one like him In the last five years." Marc lavaroni, the Sixers' forward who two years ago played in the Italian League before making the Sixers' roster last season, described the situation there as explosive. 76ers officials Italian SHE HASN'T? THAT'S OOP- Jl I DROPPED HER OFF HERE SHE SAID SHE HAD TO pT PICK UP SOME fci. Mm Annie HAS WAR (A LEFT ftLREAPY? jj" ri HASN'T DRIVE HER HOME.

UEEN IN TODAY. MlbS ANGELA' Dick Tracy a. 'n YOU CAN GET PRESSED NOW, WAHiA. VOL) RE NOTHING TO WORRY VERY HEALTHY. NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT.

WONDERFUL. If. us f7 Liberty sails to a 3-1 advantage in defense of the America's Cup I surprise through the third period, when cordine to Gondolfi. he darted ac- off the bench, asked the referee for timeout, inserted himself into the lineup oyer his coach's wishes and continued to nlav. When he was done, he had scored 37 points and had taken down rebounds in IS minutes, but Coach-player relationship apparently had been damaged beyond hope.

Days later, Cureton was released, Pesaro annarentlv willine to let Cure- ton keep, the $50,000 up-front bonus "The. reoorts seem to be consis tent," said Williams, who said he had a network of coaches who reported to mm irom me mropean leagues "But we've had Earl for three years and we know that's iust not his style It's obvious that he was extremely bothered or troubled, and he trtieht have acted this way as an expression t. 1 1. lll.lll oi discontent, i aon i Know, we jusi have to see, fnrcton was en route from Italv to the United States yesterday, accord ing to family members in Detroit and could not be reached for com ment. McCarter also could not b( reached.

"There is a laree problem with some American players in dealing with loneliness ana tneir longing ic return to the NBA." Gondolfi said "Earl Cureton said all along that he'd like to return." Cureton's problem now is a dual one, concerning both the contract and the future of the team. With three first-round Dicks avail able to the Sixers next vcar. Katz will have to find a way to sign all of them and still stay beneath the $5.6 million salary ceiling under the NBA's new collective-bargaining agreement. With Moses Malone nulling down $2.2 million and with Julius Erving at $1.1 million, not to mention the combined salaries of such stars as Bobbv Jones. Clint Richardson.

Mau rice Cheeks and Andrew Tonev. Katz might feel he is in too position to oner cureton anytning more man contract guaranteed for this year onlv. Cureton's agent, McCarter, wants a three-year deal instead, which Katz said yesterday was out oflhe question. Moreover, there suddenly is a ques tion aoout cureton aunuae an asnect never ouestioned before But given the events in Italy over the course of the last month, it may be an issue now. sically, in spite of being ahead, we were like a dying man, hanging on by his fingertips.

"We won this race by our sailing more than anything. We're nowhere near being in their league in the light air. The difference between the two boats lirj light airl is just extraordinary." There was speculation that the Americans had in some way altered Liberty on Monday, a day off, to help tier compete with the Aussies in lighter air. There was even talk that they had changed the ballast of the boat and doclored some sails. "We didn't do anything like that," Marshall said.

"We just gave her a pat on the bottom. A nice little put on the lull curve of her bottom. Whatever they did, pat or no pat, they managed to push Liberty past a yacht that is clearly faster. Of course Australia ll's speed is no surprise to Ilerreshoff, who set off fireworks here when he said that, if the Aussies were allowed to use their keel, they would win the Cup. "I still think it's a case of racing apples against oranges, he said.

was the perfect wind range for us. lomorrow. the wind is supposed to blow harder, and we'll see how she ILibertyl reacts to that. "I think maybe she lAustralia III is good at the two ends of the wind spectrum and not so good in the middle. We II see.

nave you ever raced against a horse with its legs under a blanket?" Conner asked, referring to Australia li keel, which has been covered by canvas all summer while at dockside. That's what It's like. You don't know what you're up against." What they are up against is an Australian crew that, although il has its back to the wall, has a boat than Liberty. Then, again, ihe guys on top of the boat have something to do with what happens in a race. "I have no doubt," Ilerreshoff said, "that if you put our crew on that boat, we would win this thing." As it is, they can win it today on their own boat.

place votes for 598 points, while the Longhorns were a distant second with 544. Ohio State received the other first-place vote and 523 points. 1 Nebraska's high-powered offense featuring quarterback Turner Gill, I-back Mike Rozier and wingback Irving Fryar has brought the Corn-buskers three blowout "They have the best players at their positions in the country." said Minnesota coach Joe Salem. "We knew we couldn't stop all of them. We knew they were going to show us that they are one of the greatest offensive football teams in college history, and they did." express "He could have been a big, big player in Italy.

But it all turned out to be a big, big mess." Georgio Gondolfi, Milan basketball expert "There are always fights there," he said yesterday in a telephone interview from Charlottesville, "and the fans treat the team with a love hate relationship. It's very strange." But as to what happened to Cure-Jon, lavaroni did not know. Gondolfi, however, laid equal blame on Cureton, the team's front office and Pesaro coach Petar Skansi, a former Yugoslavian National Team coach who himself has been embroiled in controversy over the years, the latest episode being a suspension by the league for his accusations of discrimination against Yugoslavians. "In my opinion, and this is only my opinion, the eoich is not very good or bright," said Gondolfi. "Two years ago, he had the best team by far, and yet they lost in the final game due to a number of coaching mistakes.

Last year, they lost in the semifinals, also due to coaching mistakes. I just don't think he knows how to handle all the big egos." The reports surprised front-office people connected with the NBA, who said yesterday that they knew Cure-ton to be exactly the opposite kind of player. "I think it was the culture shock of it all." offered Katz. "Earl just wasn't happy over there, and neither was Terry Duerod. It probably was a matter of Duerod complaining to Earl, Earl complaining to Duerod, and you know how those things escalate." Apparently, they escalated quickly in Pesaro.

Take, for example, the one game that forever put an end to any hopes of The Twirl's dominating pro basketball in Italy. It was a recent exhibition game. Cureton, playing center, began the game by scorching consecutive dunks, thrilling a crowd not used to such fly-in-the-rafters style of play. However, coach Skansi, on the sideline, was apparently miffed be-cause Cureton was not running the set plays. So he pulled Cureton out.

In the second half, Cureton was a bench warmer until midway boat will get beaten." Conner, though he knew his maneuvering at the starting line had worked, did not think that it had ended the race. "I've never seen a race won at the start," he said. "It's a 24-mile Let's just say we did not open the champagne right there." One thing is certain: Although Ber-, trand made the mistake, it was Conner and his crew who forced it, prov-ing once again that, in tight situations, they are superior to their Australia II counterparts. "Bertrand does the basic things well," Ilerreshoff said, "but when it gets down lo split-second decisions, when it lakes a smart, quick decision, Liberty is better than Australia II." As for the weather, despite what he had seen in the morning dew, Ilerreshoff was worried at the start. "Actually." he said, "we didn't really have enough wind at the start.

She (Australia III wasctually gaining on us in that first teg. But that start got us out to a point where we caught all the wind shifts." "We got them all' Marshall said. got all the wind shifts on that first leg. Believe me, that's unusual." Even more unusual was the fact that Liberty led by 36 seconds at the first mark, making yesterday's the first race in the series in which she was in front at that point. From there, Conner simply stayed far enough ahead on the downwind legs to avoid losing air and far enough ahead on the upwind legs to avoid a tacking duel with a boat that tacks superbly.

"When you get a certain degree behind, there is not much you can do," Marshall said. "You can only lack if the boat ahead wants to play your game, and we certainly didn't want to play Conner guided Liberty to a 48-sec-ond lead after (downwind) reaches, a 46-second lead after four legs, a 35-second edge after the dead run on the fifth leg and. finally, sailing the last leg with a broken mainstay, the 43-second victory. "We saw how fast they were in the last two races," Ilerreshoff said. "Ba places into fourth- The next four teams No.

5 Alabama. No. 6 Iowa, No. 7 Washington and No. 8 West Virginia all ascended at least six places after No.

9 Pittsburgh moved up four places while idle, while Oklahoma tumbled from second to 10th after' losing to Ohio State. Rounding out the top 20 are No. 11 Georgia, No. 12 Southern Methodist, No. 13 Florida, No.

14 Auburn. No. IS Boston College, No. 16 Notre Dame. No.

17 Michigan, No. 18 Arkansas and Arizona State and Michigan State, which tied for 19th. Nebraska received 39 of 40 first- IjL DECIDED TO GIVE TOU AN XI If Of COURSE, WHEN THE THE UNVEILING OF THE EXCLUSIVE, MS. WICHEL-BEGINNING ACTUAL TIME COMES, A FIRST CRYONIC MAM 13 AN 1 WITH A GUIDED TOUR OF THE 1 I FULL CONTINGENT OF EVENT THAT MUST BE SHARED, I JNSTITU "STBil YAR THfi UNVEILING OP THE first csrtemc man is an EVENT THAT MUST BE SHARED) The Amazing Spider-Man 1 I fiwr rHg'LL Ivr thatmoment.at the moesrevs I iMusrHAve see know 1 -M i-J OH MV WAV TO A WHO I 1 LWW TAKES II I 7ij from I race. The Americans won because of skipper Dennis Conner's masterful work at the starting line, where Australian skipper John Bertrand committed a fatal error.

They also won because the wind, which blew from 10-20 knots over the 24-mile course, was just strong enough to render Australia II a beatable yacht. "We knew we had to have wind." Marshall said. "She Australia 111 is just too fast in real light winds. We knew the forecast was for stronger winds, but when I got up at 6 o'clock in the morning, I looked at the tree-lops lo see how hard they were blowing. And.

believe me, at 6 o'clock in lie morning, they weren't blowing. Not at all." But Ilerreshoff got a belter reading. "My father had an old saying." he said. "He told me that, if there is a lot of dew on the ground in the morn-ing, the wind will blow hard from the southwest. So I looked on the ground, and there was a lot of dew." The dew forecast was correct, and when the two J2-meter yachis showed up at the starting line, the wind was blowing at 10 knots, just enough to move the race out of the light-air category, one in which Australia II and her winged keel are untouchable.

But the wind was not the only factor. There was also the pre-race maneuvering, in which Conner pulled a bold move to beat Bertrand over the line by 6 seconds, a lead that Liberty never relinquished. Conner, trying to get on a port tack 'move to the left side of the course), drove toward the right side of the starting line, where he intended to cross the stern of Australia II. How-ever, Bertrand pulled his yacht back and made the crucial mistake of waiting perhaps 5 seconds too long, allowing Conner to cross the bow of Australia II. instead of the stern, and cruise off in the lead.

"It was a judgmental error," said Bertrand. who offered no alibis. "And when two boats are so evenly matched, if one makes one more mistake than the other, obviously, that st ii jphn bimxton'5 frrv ML ltw NTI vou wen caw so. I've vou abs akkjt to wcome twe victim or bOT WHAT I WANT. NOW, 11 A NASTY AM UHFOZWNATt Mil YOUNS FEOM THE fkKAPET.

PLEA6E WALK TOWARDS i THE DOOR! THAT A NAM! IT'S THt! eOTTAX.WHO WON THE 'pf BVTAHTt oV i NEW TAR6ET I N-V. A4IRROR FIND THE- ytAR TITLE AT TUt WRK A iMM-fin IRl 1 1 HP DOC-) br woulo it cost I wret, his mcmoi? $nu aone, mas just fOUNPA SCAAP PAPER IN "THE EUMI' M7V'S" WALLET. ir My -i rnin 08AVTOANP Juliet Jones vou wtst PooLiaw to rgy miss jones. YOU'VE CAUSED ME A LOT OP TBOU0LE PUT I'VE (HADE A DECISION -AND yOU'8ENOTSOIN5TOLIIT Steve Canyon tfMK IJ I STUDVING HIS MAPS "5 2 R'6HT UP TO INVASION Rivets I rc-m Nebraska tops UPI poll; Texas 2d I'm fed Pri International NEW YORK In a week in which eight of the top 20 teams were either bedten or tied, the survivors prospered in the United Press Interna-tiofiaj college football poll released yeslerday. Nebraska, which continued to roll with an 84-13 whipping of Minnesota, retained its top spot in balloting by the UPI board of coaches, but the ratings were thoroughly shuffled below.

No. 2 Texas and No. 3 Ohio State both scored impressive victories over highly rated opponents to move up and North Carolina Jumped four if fH ittjffiti rti irtl iff nrH irtui ifii i mPtni.