The Record from Hackensack, New Jersey • 18

NJ PC FRIDAY, MARCH 28, 1986 Tha Record eusiiiESS 13 Comics C-10 Real Estate C-14 Weather C-22 I i weekend Texas gushes for basketball, but it wasn't always so ncaa; DALLAS By Mark Heitler Los Angeles Times i. Louisiana State (26-11) vs. Louisville (30-7) At Reunion Arena, Dallaa Semifinal: Tomorrow, 3:30 and 6 p.m. Television: Channel 2 Radio: WCBS (8B0 AM) Championship: Monday, 9 p.m. Duke (36-2) vs.

Kansas (35-3) ESTLNATION, Dallas -the new basketball capital of the world, for the weekend at least don't believe, it? Drive the Stemmons Freeway, IB) tf) FINAL FOU have been relegated to the back What is on people's minds this week Is Danny Manning's sleight of hand for No. 2 Kansas, which plays top-ranked Duke in tomorrow's second game of a national semifinal doubleheader. Or, whether Louisville coach Denny Cram's experience will be the key against underdog Louisiana State University in the opener. Or since almost everyone in town has been frozen out of tickets to the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball Final Four and will have to watch it on TV, on concerns closer to home. "Do people here care?" Ira past Reunion Arena.

It's the blockhouse with the letters 20 feet high spelling out "NCAA Final Four," with the map of the state next to it and a star over this little bit of paradise. How does that sit with the promoters of the old kingpin, spring football? Does anyone care? Zack, the owner of Belle Star, a country music bar a few miles up the Stemmons, is asked. "We're trying to figure a way to See DALLAS, Page C-4 In a word, nope. Stories about the Horned Frogs' new tailback sensation and the comeback of that old boy at outside linebacker after shooting his toe off in a hunting accident Staff file photo by Amy Davis Darryl Dawklns "If really disappointing" Blue Devils swell Gminski9 pride Nets lose Dawkins for the season By Dave D'Alessandro Staff Writer THE AFFINITY one feels for his college usually is tested with each increase in tuition, each unpopular decision by the administration, each campus uprising. After graduation, a complete detachment is often realized in the form of an -attitude that expresses not only a lack of gratitude but perhaps a distorted sense of what an education is all about: to promote more education.

"Athletes in general, not just professional basketball players, probably are guilty of this more than anyone else," says Nets center Mike Gminski. "Since the time you're a kid, excelling in a particular sport, everything is done for you and given to you. You become a taker. It's human nature, a syndrome you fall into. You become 'What are you going to do for me' oriented.

There's something wrong with that" At Duke University, where Gminski was a three-time Academic Ail-American and the school's career scoring and rebounding leader, there is a handful of student athletes in the spotlight G-Man experienced that school's last shining moment It was in 1978, when he led the Blue Devils to the National Collegiate Athletic Association championship game See BLUE DEVILS, Page C-3 MS fr PROFILE OF THE NETS' G-MAN By Dav D'Alesaandro Staff Writer First Sugar, now spice. The announcement yesterday that charismatic center Darryl Dawkins is finished for the season has cost the Nets their second pivotal player in a month and put their playoff chances in double jeopardy. Dawkins is expected to undergo surgery to repair a groin-muscle pull that is related to "an irritation" of a nerve in the upper back. The 11-year veteran has missed 23 of the past 24 games he made a five-minute cameo appearance against Phoenix March 9 and his team has gone 6-17 during that time. Last season he spent 42 days in traction to repair an unrelated back ailment and missed 43 games.

"The doctors have indicated that this injury is definitely not related to the one he had last year," Lewis Schaffel, the Nets' vice-president said last night "This is much less serious. I know the word 'irritation' is vague, but that's the only term I can use at this time. Maybe with additional tests, we'll know more." Dawkins will consult one other back specialist recommended by the team. "He will undergo additional tests. We have also suggested to Darryl and his representative Harvey LaKind to see an independent specialist," said Schaffel.

"If the consensus is that surgery is the right course to take and we're See LOSS, Page C-6 Sparrow breaks ankle as Knicks woes mount C-6 proud of the no-hitter I threw in little league," he says. Also: Won the national Punt, Pass, and Kick competition (1971); led Duke to the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball final as a sophomore (1978); became second player to have his uniform retired at Duke, after former Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Dick Groat (1980); graduated as school's all-time leading scorer and re bounder (1980); selected by the Nets in the first round of 1980 National Basketball Association draft; generally regarded as the league's best backup center until becoming a starter four games into 1985-86 season; currently second on team in scoring (15.4 points per game), rebounds (7.8 per game), blocked shots, and minutes played. BORN: Aug. 3, 1959, in Monroe, Conn. EDUCATION: Masuk (Conn.) High School, graduated In three years.

Duke University, B.A., History; graduated in 1980 with 3.4 grade-point average; three-time Academic All-American. MARITAL STATUS: Married to the former Stacy Anderson, a stock broker. "A perfect marriage," says Gminski. figure she'll be moving into six figures Just about the time I'll be moving out." HOBBIES: Golf, tennis, reading (Robert Ludlum is his favorite author), crossword puzzles, traveling, economics, business. RESIDENCE: Florham Park.

NOTEWORTHY ATHLETIC ACHIEVEMENTS: "I'm especially Staff file photo by Carmine Galasso Mike Gminski tviU root for Duke, his alma mater, this weekend. relief ery spurs Waddell's org For The Record TUCSON. Ariz. BIG PURPLE scar runs down the inside of Tom Waddell's right elbow. A smaller wound decorates Mike Celizic 4 he appeared in 58 games for the Indians in 1984, pitched 97 innings, and compiled a record of 7-4 with six saves.

"I thought last winter the pain would go away," he said. When the 1985 season started, he found it hadn't Worse, Ernie Ca-macho, the Tribe's top reliever, was injured, and Waddell took his place. Later, the team became even more desperate for starting pitching, so Waddell became a starter. He started his first big-league game July 31 in Cleveland against Ron Guidry and the Yankees. Waddell won, 6-5.

The game was televised in New York, where he knew his family and friends were watching. It didn't make him nervous. See FOR THE RECORD, Page C-6 Also, a muscle on the inside of the joint had grown so large that it hindered his movement The result was a feeling like a toothache, he said. "But pain is something an athlete has to deal with." For a while, he did. When you've spent years trying to get to the major leagues, you don't want to lose your place by complaining that your arm hurts.

A year after graduating from Manhattan College, Waddell was signed by the Atlanta Braves as a free agent in April 1981. After three good years in the minors, he was drafted by the Indians when the Braves did not protect him. "I was always a Met fan," said Waddell. "I wasn't really aware of Cleveland. So I went there with no preconceived ideas." Though the elbow was hurting, heard things popping in his arm.

The medics said it was just scar tissue tearing loose. A little rest and treatment and he would be ready to go. The Indians have said he might start the season on the disabled list. "They don't want to expose it to the cold weather," Waddell guessed with a slight shrug. The arm feels fine, he said.

He wants to pitch. Throwing a baseball is one of the nastier things a human being can do to an arm. A pitcher's arm is a delicate machine subject to bone spurs, calcium deposits, tendinitis, and muscle tears. By pitching standards, the malfunctions that struck Waddell's right arm were not that serious. He had accumulated a ridge of bone on the outside of the elbow that irritated an overlying tendon.

the outside of the joint. "It was kind of a maintenance operation," the onetime star pitcher at Demarest High School said yesterday as his team, the Cleveland Indians, played the Chicago Cubs in a spring training game. Waddell would rather have been playing, but instead he was kicking around in the clubhouse. "Frankly, I'm bored," he said in the team's cramped quarters beneath Hi Corbett Field. His idleness has been forced upon him by those two purple welts, and though he can't wait to get on a mound again, the Indians are being very careful with the man who was their best pitcher last season.

In Cleveland, after all, good pitching has been as rare as penguins in Hoboken. The surgery, to remove bone spurs, was performed in August after Waddell was unable to pitch effectively because of constant pain. He threw in three spring training games this year, but two weeks ago he delivered a pitch and Staff file photo by Amy Davis Tom Waddell Eager to pitch again Kinneion's shooting star C-7.