The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 43

Tuesday, March 17, 1998 D-l fSanJirancisco Stammer Hot line to the latest In sports mi On a hot seat Adonal Foyle could give a full dissertation on sitting; for that has pretty Call CityLlne for the latest scores, schedules and updates, 24 hours a day. Call 808-5000 and enter 6005 for NBA, 6001 for college basketball, 6008 for the NHL, and 6201 for other sports news. This is a free call In the local San Francisco, Oakland and San much been the extent of his experiences oflate.D-3 I IIMUI mi 11 1 i PM BUZZ 0-2 GOLF D-3 PREPS D-2 SCOREBOARD D-6 Jose calling areas. A GWEN KNAPP ypc Mr, GAA TOURNAMENTS SBnart I 1 It iimiiiifc jt Hockey team trashed more than rooms SDgms San Jose starts string of tough foes with win over Kings By Rosa McKeon OF THE EXAMINER STAFF SAN JOSE The Sharks opened a critical 10-game stretch of their season Monday night with a result that bodes well on two fronts. They beat Los Angeles, 2-1, to edge back into 5V HE OWNER of the Chicago Black-hawks thinks that everyone is making too much of some I eighth place in Monday's score the West by virtue of a tie-breaking ad V.

Jtii jkA.jf.,.- turn APBETH A. KEISER Purdue coach Gene vantage over Chicago, which has the same number of points (61) and games played (66). Starting with the Kings, and ending with an April 2 date in Ottawa, San Jose faces nothing but teams in possession of playoff spots. That's not a bad thing, though, because the Sharks have fared well against the better teams this season. Success against good teams will give San Jose confidence that it can make noise in postseason, which is really what's it's all about, right? "Against good teams, I like what I see in our team," said Sharks defenseman Marty McSorley.

Although the immediate schedule would appear daunting, don't look for the Sharks to back down. San Jose has reason to feel confident. Since Nov. 15, the Sharks have a winning record against playoff-caliber teams 13-10-3. And if San Jose can continue that kind of See SHARKS, D-7 rui P-l AUDd UV7L By Mark Fainaru-Wada OF THE EXAMINER STAFF MIDWEST REGIONAL Friday, at St Loult Stanford vs.

Purdue, 5:05 p.m. Rhode Island vs. Valparaiso, 7:25 p.m. onships, plus five national Coach of the Year honors. But in the postseason, the book says to bet against the Boilermakers, to bet against Keady, to circle anybody but Purdue.

In 17 previous seasons at Purdue, Keady has taken his team into the NCAA Tournament 13 times but has never reached the Final Four. Only twice has a Keady-coached team made it out of second round, and his last three Boilermakers teams were second-round losers. This seems to be Keady's calling card, despite the 394-167 career record at Purdue or the 90-percent graduation rate or the remarkable consistency while lost in the shadow of Bob Knight and Indiana. "If you want to blame it on my coaching, you certainly can," Keady said during the first weekend of the tournament, in a theme he repeated several times over the course of a few days. "But if you want to get five guys together and IH get five guys, and we'll meet at the YMCA, I'll do that anytime." There won't be a need for a YMCA on Friday.

They've reserved the Kiel Center in St. Louis for Keady and his team, which "got the monkey off his back," as center Brad Miller put it, last weekend See PURDUE, D-5 CHICAGO Every year you fill out that NCAA Tournament bracket, it's clear how to deal with Purdue. Even your co-worker in the next cubicle the one who wouldn't know West Lafayette from West Covina, who guesses the Boilermakers' mascot is a shot glass knows what to do with a Gene Keady team. In the regular season, take Keady any day. He has the six Big Ten Coach of the Year Awards to go with his six conference champi EAST REGIONAL Thursday, at Greensboro, N.C.

N. Carolina vs. Michigan 4:39 p.m. Connecticut vs. Washington, 6:59 p.m.

SOUTH REGIONAL Friday, at St. Petersburg, Fla. Duke vs. Syracuse, 4:39 p.m. Kentucky vs.

UCLA, 6:59 p.m. WEST REGIONAL Thursday, at Anaheim West Virginia vs. Utah, 5:05 p.m. Arizona vs. Maryland, 7:25 p.m.

t-Televised by CBS, channels 5, 13, 46 Rlayne charges Giants' battery fraternity pranks. Why can't we all just let it go, get over the trashed rooms in Nagano? You might say that William Wirtz wants closure. The U.S. Olympic Committee won't go along. The USOC folks have been downright dogmatic about insisting that the male hockey players who caused $3,000 in damage to their Olympic Village dorm rooms own up to their deeds.

It's been almost a month now, and no one has come forward to take responsibility. Chris Che-lios, the Olympic team captain, has just sent a $3,000 check off to the Japanese Olympic Committee and apologized, in writing, to everyone concerned. But Chelios has an alibi for the night the furniture went flying. He apologized only because the culprits wouldn't come forward. WIRTZ, who employs Chelios in Chicago, thinks that should be enough.

The USOC, speaking for most of us, said no. As of Monday, the committee's official position was: Tess up, boys, or everyone gets hurt. All 23 players on the team could be banned from future Olympics. It's not an especially original tactic. Coaches do it all the time.

Everyone makes 10 straight free throws, or everyone runs suicide sprints. The strategy begins with the cliche that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. In the case of the miscreant hockey players, there were several weaknesses. The Americans played without passion, but that could have been forgotten. Then some of them trashed the rooms, and that could have been forgiven.

But in return for the forgiveness, in the first step toward closure, the USOC wants to see something all too rare in public life these days. It wants remorse. Wirtz believes that the room-trashing has been blown out of proportion. It's easy enough to believe that he's right. After all, what are a few chairs? What is $3,000 among millionaires, or even a good night's sleep for the other athletes nearby? BUT FOR ANYONE who went to Nagano, who experienced the gracious-ness of the Japanese hosts, the hockey players offended sensibilities that many American visitors probably didn't know they had.

The concept of "losing face" gained currency among the visitors, who, even at their Westernized worst, probably knew something about being polite guests. Still, once the damage was done, the culprits had a chance to redeem themselves. A little honesty and humility would have gone a long way, would have finished the USOC investi- Z-rr JTj' By Edvins Beitiks OF THE EXAMINER STAFF No Maples magic: harvard vanishes Arkansas advances to West Regional at Oakland By Dwight Chapin EXAMINER SENIOR WRITER STANFORD For the first WEST REGIONAL Saturday, at Oakland Florida vs. Duke, 7 p.m. Kansas vs.

Arkansas, 9:30 p.m. EAST REGIONAL Saturday, at Dayton, Ohio Old Dominion vs. N. Carolina 8:30 a.m. ft Arizona vs.

Connecticut, 1 1 a.m. MIDWEST REGIONAL Saturday, at Lubbock, Texas Louisiana Tech vs. Alabama, 9 a.m. Notre Dame vs. Purdue, 1 1:30 a.m.

tt MIDEAST REGIONAL Saturday, at Nashville Tennessee vs. Rutgers, 5 p.m. North Carolina vs. Illinois, 7:30 p.m. tt t-broadcast on ESPN; tt-on ESPN2 time in 16 years, there was a night of women's basketball at Maples Pavilion without Stanford on Monday night.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. Danny Darwin, 42 years old, a pro baseball player since Gerald Ford was in office, thinks the Giants may have the best one-two combination at catcher he's seen. "I might not have been on a team that has two better catchers than the ones we have now," said Darwin, who has been paid to pitch since 1976. The difference this season is the addition of left-handed hitting Brent Mayne to complement righthander Brian Johnson. The pair make for a good package, said Darwin, and both call a solid, comfortable game.

Mayne, 29, who came over from the A's in the offseason, returns the compliment He likes the looks of the Giants all the way around. "This is the best team I've ever been on, chemistry-wise," he said. "Older guys, younger guys, people from all over. Leaders, quiet peo- See GIANTS, D-7 One-time starting contender Ta-varez bounced to the bullpen D-7 A's happy to have a day off, brace for second half of training D-7 And the Maples magic clearly was missing, Monday's score even though Cardinal coach Tara VanDer-veer and her players sat APSUSAN RAQAN rather glumly in the stands and watched Arkansas handle Harvard, 82-64, to advance to the NCAA West Regional semifinals ed by No. 16 seed Harvard on Saturday night, in the NCAA Tournament's biggest upset ever.

The Crimson inherited some of the Cardinal's bad luck losing starting frontliner Rose Janowski before the game. Janowski underwent surgery on an ovarian cyst late Monday night at Stanford Medical Center. So Harvard, none too deep any- against Kansas this Saturday night Harvard's Allison Feaster can carry a shot over Arkansas' Karyn Karlin but can't carry the Crimson any further in the NCAA Tournament. way, was even more of a one-wom- ward Allison Feaster, was brilliant an team than usual again, scoring 28 points just be- That one woman, senior for- See ARKANSAS. D-4 1 in Oakland.

The Cardinal were on the out side looking in after being eliminat-.