Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 72

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 1995 E-8 SWIMMING Brady pools talents at Pitt Penn I fills resident pursues several goals By Chuck McCartney i if 3r li Cs- John HellerPost-Gazette Brandon Short guards Uniontown's John Rubish. Short, a McKeesport football star, is also finding success on the basketball court. Tigers' football success carries over BOYS' BASKETBALL Defending (bhamps getting act together By David Garth Post-Gazette Sports Writer Rich Moran, the Duquesne High School boys' basketball coach, isn't complaining when he says he has an uneasy feeling when he watches his team play this season. Many of the faces on his team are the same, but Moran still has yet to get comfortable with his squad this season. "We have guys back, but it's different," Moran said.

"We don't have the big guy in the middle." The big guy Moran referred to is former Duquesne standout Kevin Price, who is now a forward for Duquesne University. Price, the WPIAL's second leading all-time leading scorer, led the Dukes to three straight WPIAL titles. The Price-less Dukes, ranked No. 3 in Class had a 9-5 overall record and 4-0 in Section 6-AAA before last night's contest at Brentwood. Duquesne is a different team without Price this season.

Their offense seems to have less direction. Last season, Duquesne's guards took some of the scoring wad from Price, who averaged 26.5 points per game. They would hit the outside shots, and Price cleaned up inside. This season, senior guard Bruce Davidson has been the Dukes' only consistent scorer. Lack of scoring balance is one reason Duquesne hasn't been able to put up the big offensive numbers it did last season.

Davidson averages 22.6 points per game, but no other Dukes player averages more than 11 ppg. "We're playing decent," Moran said. "We're not playing good offensively, but we're playing good defense." Moran said one reason for Du- 2uesne's woes on offense is the isappointing play of senior point guard Maurice Demery, a three-year starter. Demery, who scored in double figures consistently as a sophomore and junior, has struggled scoring this season. He has posted double figures in just four games this season.

His overall play has also dropped dramitically. "Demery hasn't gotten back to his sophomore form," Moran said. "He doesn't seem to be focused. He's not distributing the ball well or scoring and playing good defense. He's not playing as well as we think he could play." Said Demery: "I don't know what's going on.

My shots aren't falling. I'll do better. It's going to take some time, but it's going to come." Demery's prediction might turn out to be correct. Things should get much easier for him and Duquesne during the second half of the season. The Dukes have completed most of their rugged non-section schedule, which has included Class AAAA schools like Central Catholic, New Castle (twice) and Shaler, and City League power Perry.

Duquesne, which has only two non-section games remaining on its schedule, has lost just one game to a Class A school a 61-59 defeat against Monessen on Dec. 29 in the Blackhawk Tournament. With the toughest part of their schedule out of way, the Dukes will now be able to concentrate on section play, something they've had an easy time doing the past three seasons. Duquesne has a 30-4 record in section play in that span. The schedule might be getting easier for the Dukes at the right time.

Duquesne could be without its top scorer for quite some time. Davidson injured his right ankle during last Friday's 53-37 win over Greensburg Central Catholic. The extent of his injury was still being evaluated, but Moran said Davidson's ankle was at least sprained and could possibly have some ligament damage. Senior guard Brandon Gibson will replace Davidson in the lineup. injury hurts because we have some big games coming up," Moran said.

"We're going to have to compensate through a team effort. Everyone is going to have to take a step up." The players also believe they're 'capable of playing better basketball. Said Davidson: "We're starting to get it together now. I think we've adjusted pretty good without Price. I thought it was going to be worse than what it was." The Dukes, who entered the week tied with Clairton for first place in section play at 4-0, are expected to qualify the WPIAL playoffs and make a run for their fourth straight WPIAL title.

Even without Price, the Dukes are one of the favorites in Class A. "I don't know if you can consider them slipping," said Monessen Coach Joe Salvino. "Price was the key to their team. He was a good player and his leadership was excellent He's missed, but they have a lot of good athletes on their team. I'm sure they'll be there at the end." Moran said: "The potential is still there to win a fourth title." Sturgess believes the Tigers will get better as the football players become more acclimated to what is happening on the court.

"I think we've been a little sloppy," Sturgess said. "The one loss we have, we should not have. The practices are starting to get better. The football pjayers are starting to learn what to do, and once they get everything down, we'll really start clicking." That should come as bad news to the rest of the WPIAL. The Tigers have a chance to pull off the rare combination of Quad-A titles in both football and basketball in the same school year, but Pacella doesn't want to hear that kind of talk.

"I don't know about that," Pacella said. "We've put those guys to work right off the bat, and right TIGERS FROM PAGE E-6 Miller and 5-foot-10 junior guard Corey Fast. "Those guys definitely bring a winning attitude into the program," Pacella said. "I think that's one of the things that makes this team very tough. When they get in close situations, they're going to play hard, and they're usually going to play well." That was not the case in Mc-Keesport's only loss.

The Tigers held a nine-point lead over Ringgold in the fourth quarter, but fell apart down the stretch. "That was uncharacteristic of this team, not only this year, but based on what we've done in the past," Pacella said. "Those kinds of things generally don't happen to us. When we only had the eight guys on the team, they were tough and would not give in. I expect that now that we have the football players getting back into things, we'll be an even tougher team." Boord, who averages 16.4 points per game, sees brighter days in the future as well.

"It was tough getting adjusted at first, but this team has a lot of talent," Boord said. "All the guys on our team can play. We got everything in that we wanted to work on early, and now the football players are catching up. "We're working real well together as a team. When we work together, we play really well.

We just need to play better defensively and to run our offense a little better. We've got a lot of quickness though, and that makes us tough." Tn-State Sports News Service The list of swimming accomplishments for Pitt's Matt Brady is a long one. He was a four-year high school All-American at Germantown Academy and Shady Side Academy, 1992 Big East champion in the 100 and 200 freestyle, 200 backstroke, 200 individual medley, 400 and 800 freestyle relay and 400 medley relay, 1993 and 1994 Big East Champion in the 400 IM, and school record holder in seven individual and two relay events (200, 500 and 1,000 freestyle, 50 and 200 backstroke, 200 and 400 IM, 800 freestyle relay and 200 medley realy). Brady's six first-place finishes in the 1992 Big East Championships is a conference record. He was the only Pitt swimmer to qualify for the NCAA championships in 1994 and has been invited to the Olympic trials four times.

With a resume such as that, one would think Brady would be hellbent on earning a spot in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. In fact, the only immediate swimming goal Brady has is to be an Ail-American selection for 1995, his final year at Pitt. "I've given a lot of thought to that, too," said Brady, a Penn Hills resident. "That was one of the golden questions for this year. I think that I've come to the conclusion that I'm.

ready to move on with my life. "I qualified to go to the Olynv; pic trials in two different events so-far, but it's about 14 months until; the trials and I'd have to train past; my collegiate eligibility, so I'm not sure. "As much as the sport has given me and it's taught me as many values as I've learned anywhere else I've been doing it for 15-16 years. I love the sport and would never turn my back on it, but it's time to shove off and start some new things. "Thpre's an awful Int.

to life, Training for the Olympics and mating the team is not an end-all, come-all for me. I may change my mind-later on and swimming's a great sport and game, but it's just The three-time All-Academic Big' East selection and 1993 Pitt home-: coming king is looking to embark on a career that will make use of his studies in economics, political sci- ence and French and Russian lan-. guages. "I don't think that my calling or destiny is set," he said. "I've given some thought to attending law school, that was a childhood dream of mine, but I think over the next five or 10 years I'm going to bounce around and do a lot of things.

I think my stopping point will be politics After spending his first two years at Germantown Academy near Phil-; adelphia, Brady transferred to-; Shady Side. Soon-to-be Pitt Coach Chuck Knoles became aquainted with Brady through their involvement with the Team Pittsburgh Aquatic Club and recruited Brady for his first season at Pitt. "One reason I chose Pitt was because I went away from home at a young age," Brady said. "I really lost a lot of the relationship I had with my mom MaryDel, dad Den-, nis and sister Jenni. When I came back I was a feisty teenager.

I was. -having problems dealing with them and they were having problems dealing with me. "Right around the time I was getting ready to make my decision on college, I started to get closer to my family. Some of the anger dissipated and I wasn't interested in going too far away from home. "Second, the University of Pittsburgh is a great academic school.

A lot of people from around here really look down on Pitt as an academic school. "If you leave the Tri-State Area, people consider Pitt one of the public Ivy Leagues. It has great programs and I hadn't known that myself. Chuck Knoles is the person who really pointed that out to me. I felt comfortable with the swimming program and with Chuck when he was recruiting me.

I really thought that I could impact the program and help it along and I hope I've done that." Knoles said he's done that and more. "At the time we were recruiting him, the University of Pittsburgh wasn't even a ranked Knoles said. Though he may "retire" at the; end of this year, Brady plans never; to be too far away from the "I think I'll always be connected to the water in some way," he said. "I've gotten so much out of swimming. I played water polo when I was younger, so I'd like to get back to that.

It's a lot of fun and it'll keep me in the pool." WOMEN'S COLLEGE BASKETBALL Ailing Calhoun, Penn State struggle to win now it's working for us. But we have a long way to go. The football players are just starting to come on right now." Short believes the Tigers can pull off the sweep. "We can be better," Short said. "We have a good team, but we're not all in the groove yet.

Once we get everything going, we'll be in good shape." Sturgess is more direct in his assessement of McKeesport's chances. "I think we're definitely capable of winning the WPIAL," Sturgess said. "We have depth, quickness and speed. And with Brandon, his presence on the court just intimidates people. We're going to get better.

I don't have any doubt about that." not to mention the 1-2 Big Ten start, constitutes Penn State's worst start since leaving the gate 7-4 overall in 1991-92. Yet this is its first league mark in its fpur Big Ten seasons. Remember, this is the team that started 18-0 last season, 15-1 the season before that, 11-0 in 1990-91 and 12-2 in 1989-90. Penn State is accustomed to rousing success. "We expected to start off much better," Calhoun said.

"But our time to peak is yet to come." Maybe that peak will be reached because of her newfound hook shot different doing it in the driveway from doing it against and the leadership of the junior captains, Calhoun and Tina Nicholson. On a team with four seniors, they were picked to guide their teammates, motivate them, point them to the promised land of postseason play. A year ago, as a sophomore, Calhoun used to deliver motivational talks during the last practice before game day. Said she, "It would be something goofy. Like Ohio State, I would say something about the Buckeyes.

Whatever popped into my mind." Now Nicholson delivers the pitch. Yet Portland gives considerable credit to captain Kim. "The kids really respond to her," the coach said. "She reads me real well and knows when I'm happy and when I've had it. I think that's why the team elected her.

She's real disciplined and very mature." And Portland figures Calhoun will respond to the benching, will become more of an offensive force. Penn Hills grad fights injury, lack' of offense By Chuck Finder Post-Gazette Sports Writer She hobbles around State College because of a strained ligament on the side of her left foot. She lost her starting center job even before the injury because of her lack of offense. She and her women's basketball teammates already have suffered as many defeats as all of last season. Welcome to captain Kim Calhoun's world of Pain State.

"I'm not real happy," the Penn Hills High graduate said this week. The foot injury, sustained Dec. 29, prevented her from playing against Michigan State Dec. 30 and limited her to a season-low 12 minutes at Minnesota Jan. 6.

Calhoun hopes to play tomorrow, Friday the 13th, against Northwestern. If not then, maybe Sunday against Michigan. But will she start for Penn State? "The reason she was taken out of the lineup was just not enough presence, said Coach Rene Portland. "We need her to attempt double-figure shots. She was only getting her hands on the ball offensively three, four times a game.

We haven't seen her respond to that yet because of the injury." Portland made the move after a Dec. 28 loss at Ohio State, when the Buckeyes' centers romped and "where our post players were just invisible," Portland said. She prefers her centers invincible. But, then, the next day, the 6-foot-3 Calhoun got hurt. "I just came down on my foot wrong," Calhoun said.

"I just stopped for a second, then I kept going. "I was planning on playing that Michigan State game the day after, but I couldn't put pressure on it at all." Calhoun played out of necessity six days later during the loss at Minnesota, blocking three shots, scoring six points, gathering two rebounds. Spurred by the benching, she took six shots only four times during this 9-3 Penn State start has she attempted more. But she began to limp badly, so, Portland said, "we yanked her real quick." She has rested some this week, undergone rehabilitation daily. The defense needs work, said the junior who leads the team with 2.3 blocked shots per game (the other dozen combine for 2.5) and ranked 13th nationally while leading the Big Ten Conference last season with 2.5 per game.

The offense must improve. "I should be doing a lot better, scoring," said Calhoun, who averages 7.5 points and 5.7 rebounds per game. "I'm not looking for my shot as much as I should, as much as Portland wants me to. I don't know why I'm not." Portland added, "Everything's working in Kim's favor to work back in the lineup and get the job done. But she has to get her game back and pick up her confidnece to be the player we all know she is." Calhoun started the season with 11 points and a team-high 11 rebounds against Rutgers Nov.

27. Kim Calhoun Big part of PSU's inside game The next three games, she attempted a mere three, four and eight shots, in order. Then again, she made three, three and four of them to give her a 66.7 shooting percentage during that span. The next game, Dec. 9 against Richmond, she had a career-high 16 points on 5-for-10 shooting and 13 rebounds.

It took her the next three games to match that, the first coming against top-ranked Tennesse in a 78-74 loss. The numbers picked up slightly against No. 19 George Washington (6 points on 3-for-7 shooting). Then came the Ohio State loss. The three defeats in 12 games, '1.