Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • 37

CEST AVAILABLE COPY Albuquerque journal MWC FOOTBALL Wyoming 's upset of Biigham Young last week made a race of the Mountain West 5 NFL PAGE Former Lobo Scott McGarrahan is adjusting to life in the NFL, mostly as a special teams player for the Packers 3 More at Stake Than State Supremacy ft Comics 7 M.rno i I Weather 8 I 1 v. Deaths 8 17 1 a. 1 7. JS Mi '99 on Jan. 4).

If the Gators win, they would then need to win the SEC title game on Dec. 4 to put themselves in a strong position to play for another championship. OK, OK. The winner gets the Governor's Cup, but so do lots of other games between state rivals. The Seminoles seem to have the edge, at least at quarterback.

Chris Weinke has thrown for 2,840 yards and 24 touchdowns, including six last week against Maryland. He lines up against the Gators for the first time. "Hands down, it's the biggest game of my career," said Weinke, who missed the final few games of last season with a neck injury. The Gators counter with Doug Johnson and See GATORS on PAGE D5 FSU-Florida Victor Gets Best Shot at Title Game By Richard Rosenblatt The Associated Press Unlike some of Saturday's rivalry games, Florida-Florida State needs no gimmick. It's not The Game or the Big Game or the Apple Cup.

There are no barrels, baskets or buckets on the line, either. When the top-ranked Seminoles (10-0) and third-ranked Gators (9-1) meet in The Swamp, they'll play for one prize a to the national championship game. In four of the past six seasons, the Florida-Florida State winner has played for the national title. The teams even met for the title in the Sugar Bowl after the Seminoles beat the Gators in the '96 regular season. Florida State won its only national title in 1993, while Florida won its championship in 96.

"We are looking forward to the game, a typical game," Gators coach Steve Spurrier said. "FSU is usually 10-0 or 9-1, we are usually 9-1. We have been 10-0 a couple times coming into it. Each team has an opportunity to keep on going in the national picture." If the Seminoles win, they are a virtual lock to finish first in the final BCS standings, which determine the teams in its national title game (the Sugar Bowl i -i On TV The list of this weekend's televised college football games D4 THF ASSOCIATED PRESS SAT OUT: Florida, coach Steve Spurrier, left, didn't use quarterback Doug Johnson (12) last week, but he will this Saturday. "So much of what's on the Internet is rumors and innuendo." FRAN FRASCHILLA Bocock's Back In The Fold 6-3 post has returned from a stint with the New Zealand national team A It 4 By Mike Ham.

Associate Sports Editor Susan Bocock's absence made University of New Mexico women's basketball coach Don Flanagan's heart grow fonder of both Bocock and Jordan Adams. Bocock, a 6-foot, 3-inch sophomore post from New Zealand by way of Mountain View High School in Mesa, returned to the Lobos fold Monday after playing an 11-day tour with her New Zealand national team. Her absence made it possible for JIM THOMPSON JOURNAL STRAIGHT SHOOTER: Jimmy Moore, shown playing billiards In 1997, saw his health decline In recent years, but not his love for the game. Pool Legend Jimmy Moore Dies at Age 89 Albuquerque's "Cowboy" faced and beat the world's best billiards players Flanagan to start Adams, a 6-3 freshman center from Overton, and get her significant playing time. In the Lobos' two exhibition games, Adams averaged 17 minutes, 5.5 rebounds, 7.5 points and two BEVERLY BARRETT JOURNAL RECRUITING PIT-FALLS: Basketball recruits Luke Whitehead, left, and Cliff Hawkins visited the Pit during this year's Lobo Howl.

Whitehead eventually signed with Louisville and Hawkins with Kentucky. Internet Creates New BOCOCK: More skilled Recraittiinig ProMem Friday New Mexico vs. Dayton, CoSIDA Rumors Getting Instant Attention Classic, the Pit, 8 p.m. Radio: KOB-AM (770) By Rick Wright Journal Staff Writer Albuquerque's "Cowboy" Jimmy Moore, who met and defeated the finest pocket billiards players in history, died Wednesday. Moore, whose health had declined steadily in recent years, was 89.

Inducted into the Albuquerque Sports Hall of Fame in 1998, he also was a member of national and international billiards halls of fame. Dennis Bates, Moore's son-in-law, called Moore as successful a person as he was a billiards player. "He was a great father and husband who raised seven children," Bates said. "He was always generous with his money, his time or anything he had." In addition to his colorful and highly decorated career in billiards, Bates said, Moore in his youth rose to the Triple-A level as a baseball player. He also bowled a perfect game and became an outstanding golfer.

"Jimmy was a very competitive person," Bates said. "He loved to compete at anything, but at the same time he was a very giving, caring person." Born in Hogansville, in 1910, Moore took up billiards as a teen-ager after moving to Detroit. He won the first of his four Michigan state titles at the age of 18 in 1929. Moore made his first splash nationally in 1951, when he finished fifth at nationals in Chicago. A year later, he finished second in the same competition to the legendary Willie Mosconi In 1958, the same year he defeated Luther "Wimpy" Lassiter for the national title, he beat Mosconi in a challenge match in Albuquerque.

In 1965, Moore won the National Invitational Professional Pocket Billiards Championship in New York. Nineteen years later, at the age of 74, his game still was strong enough to win the Legends of Pocket Billiards competition on ESPN. He also was a national champion in snooker, a game many of his top billiards rivals never mastered. Along the way, Moore even enjoyed a mini-career in Hollywood. In 1964, he served as technical adviser for a pool-playing scene on the television show "My Living Doll," starring Bob Cummings and Julie Newmar.

The following year, he served in the same capacity on the set of the Jerry Lewis movie "The Family Jewels." In recent years, arthritis made it difficult for Moore See BILLIARDS on PAGE D5 Fraschilla and others are pointing their finfers at the Internet. College hoops is colliding with the information age. "It gives instant access to every rumor that's out there, most of which have just a grain of truth to them," says first-year San Diego State coach Steve Fisher, who led Michigan to a national title in 1989. "I don't pay a lot of attention to it. But you never know what kids read into it.

It's another thing all of us coaches deal with." Whereas professional media services are accountable for what they report, Internet sites are not. Fraschilla said that many times erroneous information on Web sites chase away prospective recruits. "So much of what's on the Internet is rumors and innuendo," Fraschilla said. It's really the 'nth degree of poor journalism. It can really shoot holes in your recruiting.

Kids find out how they stand on your pecking order and compare themselves to other players See INTERNET on PAGE D6 By Mark Smith Journal Staff Writer "He loves us, he loves us not." When it comes to recruiting, sometimes University of New Mexico men's basketball coach Fran Fraschilla must feel like he's sitting on a porch swing picking petals off a daisy. These days, getting verbal commitments from players doesn't mean all that much. Witness the bizarre week Fraschilla's had. On Nov. 10, the first day of the early signing period, two of the three players who had given Fraschilla verbals backed out.

Only 6-foot, 10-inch prep star Patrick Dennehy signed with UNM. One, high school sensation Cliff Hawkins, signed with Kentucky. The other, junior college standout Malcolm Battles, said he was signing with Memphis. "Then Battles did an about face and signed with UNM after all. "I thought I'd seen it all in 20 years," Fraschilla said earlier this week.

"But this was a new one." On Friday, prep star Keith Jenifer of Towson (Md.) Catholic will visit the Pit. But late Wednesday evening he told the Journal he had not signed a letter of intent nor will he for the early signing period. Wednesday was the final day to sign a letter, although it could be delivered to a school for another two weeks. College recruiting has always been a rugged undertaking. Gut-wrenching at times, downright sleazy at others (see Lobogate, Kentucky, UNLV, Still, despite all of the problems in the past, it may only get worse.

Nocks. Flanagan concedes that if Bocock had been around, it would have been tougher to find Adams that many minutes. Now Flanagan says, "It's probably all going to work out well. It's riot going to hurt us. Eventually our rotation may be Jordan and Susan (at center and forward, respectively) and Jen (6-0 Jennifer Williams) and Mir (6-1 Miranda Sanchez).

I dpu't know that for sure, but it's something I'm considering right now, "That gives us a big lineup, and an experienced lineup," he continues. Flanagan also says he's toying with the idea of using the sophomore at the 3-spot, giving her a chance to slash to the basket and make UNM one of the nation's tallest teams on the front line. -Bocock made an immediate impact upon her return, Flanagan says. "She was on the second group (Monday), and that's the first time they won. They'd been getting beaten, up pretty solidly, but they were just more solid with Susan in there." "I'm fitting in and working my way back into the rotation," Bocock say's Tve felt really good the past few days.

I think I'm doing a good job." Bocock played sparingly with the veteran New Zealand team, which alsfi was a blessing in disguise for the Lobos. "Her shoulder, which had been bothering her, had a little time to rest She said for the last week she has been feeling so good she hadn't even thought about it," Flanagan says. Bocock hoped to play more for the country's team, "but it was a little like last year for me here." In other words, she was a newcomer working for playing time. Last season Bocock averaged a little over 10 minutes per game, totalling 3.7 points per game and 2.9 rebounds. Her improvement, however, was noticeable as the season progressed.

This year, Flanagan says, "She's made a lot of improvements. I think 5t? LOCOS on PAGE D6 Jones Voted NL's Most Valuable Player i 2 Piazza (109) and Edgardo Alfonzo (SSX! Chicago's Sammy Sosa was ninth at 87u, "Matt Williams is one of the guys I try to be like. Just to be in the hunt with him is an honor in itself," Jones said. "I didn't have a real good first half. Baggy put togethfTa full year." Jones, a 27-year-old third baseman, earned a $100,000 bonus and became the fifth Brave to win the award, joining Eob Elliott (1947), Hank Aaron (1957), Dale Murphy (1982 and "83) and Terry Pend! ton (1991).

Jones hit .319 with 110 RBI, 116 runs, 25 steals and 126 walks, He finished third in homers behind Mark McGwire (65) and Sammy Sosa (63) and third in walks and fourth in slugging percentage on-base percentage (.441) and total bases (359). Series Against Mets Gave Him the Edge in Balloting By Ronald Biam The Associated Press NEW YORK Four swings changed Chipper Jones' season into an MVP year four home runs in a three-game September series against the New York Mets. "I think those four home runs were huge. I'd like to think my name was already on the map before that, but that kind of jump-started everything," Jones said Wednesday after winning the National League Most Valuable Player Award in a landslide. Jones, who hit 45 homers and carried Atlanta to an eighth straight division title, received 29 of 32 first-place votes and finished with 432 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

He also got two second-place votes and one third. "It's awfully hard to believe," Jones said. To have this in your corner, to always be able to say you won an MVP, is a tremendous honor." Houston first baseman Jeff Bagwell was second with one first and 276 points, followed by Arizona third baseman Matt Williams, who had two firsts and 269 points. They were the only players picked on every ballot. Cincinnati's Greg Vaughn was fourth with 121 points' and St, Louis' Mark McGwire was fifth with 115, followed by the New York Mets' Robin Ventura (1 13), Mike A 1 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Friday New Mexico at Texas-El Paso, Don Haskins Center, 6 p.m.

Radio: KNML-AM (1050) CHIPPING AWAY: Atlanta's Chipper Jones hit 45 homers this season, Including some key shots against the New York Met. ''Jk.