The Post-Star from Glens Falls, New York • 24

C2 The Post-Star, Cens Fails, N.Y., Fncay. May 31, 1996 SPORTS onics 118-o3 Utah downs Supers Utah will be seeking to become just the sixth team in NBA history to come back from a 3-1 deficit. Sitting back and watching are the Chicago Bulls, who won't play the winner until next Wednesday night By then, the storyline out of the West will be Malone and Stockton reaching the pinnacle of their careers or the Sonics having avoided a third straight playoff humiliation. As harsh as that seems for Seattle, it certainly would be the case even though the Sonics have made it this far. Just a few nights ago, they were selling Bulls-Sonics tickets at Key Arena and expecting the imminent arrival of Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman and the rest of the Bulls.

Big-jrnoney offer doesn't lure Pitkio Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY The NBA Finals will have to wait once again. The Utah Jazz aren't finished making the Seattle SuperSonics look miserable. In the most important home game in frar history, the 1 right iJhVfiU start took control from the Thursday night and came up with yet another blowout to force the first Game 7 of this year's NBA playoffs. The final score was 1 18-83, the latest in a long line of postseason routs at the Delta Center. Karl Malone had 32 points, 10 Rick Pitino hugs his wife after winning i i Sports Wire Mavericks will hire Bulls' Cleamons DALLAS Chicago Bulls assistant Jim Cleamons will be hired Friday as coach of the Dallas Mavericks, the team said Thursday.

Mavericks spokesman Kevin Sullivan said, "Jim Cleamons will be named as head coach tomorrow at noon. That's about all I can say at this point." Earlier, majority owner Ross Perot Jr. indicated the process was coming to a close. "We're through interviewing for head coach," majority owner Ross Perot Jr. said Thursday during an interview with Dallas-Fort Worth television station KXAS during a basketball clinic sponsored by the team.

"I think we're down to the people we want; we just need to get it worked out." 76ers might want Calipari of UMass PHILADELPHIA The Philadelphia 76ers have spoken with an attorney for Massachusetts coach John Calipari about their head coaching vacancy, according to a university spokesman. UMass spokesman Bill Strickland said Thursday that someone from the 76ers had spoken to Craig Fenech, a Parsippany, N.J.-based attorney who represents Calipari. Calipari has reportedly interviewed for NBA coaching jobs in the past, including Miami and Boston. Strickland said he had no further details and directed other questions to Fenech, who is in Arizona attending a convention. Fenech did not immediately return a call.

Calipari's secretary at the UMass basketball office said the coach was not returning media phone calls. Brad Greenberg, the 76ers' general manager, refused to say whether he'd talked to Calipari or anyone representing him. Cal freshman won't be in draft BERKELEY, Calif. California freshman forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim, saying he wants "to stay a kid," announced Thursday he has withdrawn his name from next month's NBA draft and will return to school. Abdur-Rahim, 19, the Pac-10's leading scorer and freshman of the year, said he had mixed feelings about entering the NBA draft when he first made his first announcement May 7.

He sobbed when he announced that he would go pro, in part to help his family financially. "My heart wasn't really in that decision. I'm just really relieved right now," he said Thursday. compiled from wire reports I i i rebounds and se en assists, Jeff Homacek as as dead-eye as usual with 23 points and even John Stockton coaxed a good game out of his bartered body with series-highs of 14 points and 12 assists. "The odds were against us," Malone said.

"Nobody expected us to win up there, but we did. It shows a lot of character about this team." Utah shot over 60 percent, led by as many as 36 and forced 23 turnovers from a Seattle team that's averaging more than 20 per game in the series. The fans were as loud as ever and even picked on Gary Payton by derisively chanting his name. At the end, they sent their team off the floor with the last in an almost endless line of standing ovations. Game 7 will be Sunday at Seattle, and Associated Press the NCAA tournament in March.

organization to dissolve," SEC executive associate commissioner Mark Womack said. Womack declined to say whether there were dissenting votes by the SEC presidents. The SEC intends to present the matter at the CFA's meeting this weekend in Dallas. Womack said the recommendation was to phase out the organization over the next year. The CFA was created to give big-time football powers a stronger voice in the NCAA.

It also put together a television package but has gotten out of that business compiled from By Mike Embry Associated Press LEXINGTON, Ky. Rick Pitino listened to his heart and turned his back on a fortune. The Kentucky coach on Thursday declined a five-year offer estimated at up to $30 million to become coach, general manager and part-owner of the New Jersey Nets. "My wife gave me some simple advice: 'Listen to your said Pitino, who guided the Wildcats to a national championship this past season. "I realized now that my heart is with the players of Kentucky." Pitino, who grew up in the New York area and left the NBA's New York Knicks in 1989 to coach at Kentucky, makes about $1 million a year in Kentucky in salary and other deals like sneakers, speaker's fees, basketball camps and television.

But he was seriously tempted by the Nets' offer. He interviewed with Nets' CEO Joseph Taub and president Michael Rowe last Friday in Cincinnati, then went on a golfing trip with a Kentucky alumni group this week in Ireland. While the alumni headed to a Killarney pub Wednesday night, Pitino and his wife Joanne stayed in their hotel room to consider the Nets' offer. "We stayed up all last night," he told The Associated Press. "We were quite confused, as conferences began to sign their own TV contracts.

"The CFA was never really intended to be a television entity when it was first formed," Womack said. "It was there to serve institutions with like problems and trying to work within the NCAA structure to get legislation passed." The NCAA is moving toward realignment that would give Division I-A schools virtual autonomy, making a separate organization unnecessary, he said. The SEC presidents also voted to soften On wire reports Then, as game 5 wound down and went into overtime, everybody but Payton became tentative and erTor-prone. On Thursday, the breakdown came full circle no on was beyond blame. Utah scored the first 12 points of the game, turned it into a laugher early in the fourth quarter and withstood every brief run or burst of momentum the Sonics managed.

The Jazz, 8-1 at home in the postseason but just 2-6 on the road, handed the Sonics their second consecutive loss for the first time since November. But to make it to; the finals for the first time in franchise history, they'll have to win in a building where the Sonics have lost only five times all season. The Jazz seemed to get an immediate boost from the energy of the fans, opening their 12-0 lead on four jumpers. trying to play out in our heads all the mental aspects of the choice to be made." He said after getting the advice from his wife, "The decision became easy. It was the only conclusion I could come to." Pitino also rejected a suggestion that he might consider an offer from another NBA team.

"I honestly believe I'll be here in Kentucky for the duration," he said. Many Kentuckians believed that Pitino would leave, particularly after finally getting his national title this year. And Pitino played that to the hilt. As he boarded the bus for Ballybunion golf course Thursday morning, he told his 36 companions: "Some of you may not like the news I'm about to tell you." As the golfers held their breath, Pitino continued. "You're stuck with me for another year," he said.

"Then we all hugged," he added as he told the story over the telephone. "It was an extremely emotional moment." Some of Pitino's associates in Kentucky had been more optimistic. "Certainly, there are a lot of reasons for him to stay here at the University of Kentucky," said UK sports information director Tony Neely. "He seems to be very, very happy here. He's indicated that on many occasions, and I think that probably played a big role in his decision to stay." the financial penalty on schools penalized by the NCAA and to)accept a limited number of athletes who tail to meet NCAA academic The SEC formerly prohibited schools barred from postseason play or television for violating NCAA rules from sharing in revenues the conference receives from those sources.

The new policy will allow those members to get a half share of conference money if they do not commit further violations for five years. the Mn Boot Dot Baseball Los Angeles Dodgers at New York Mets (WWOR), 7:30 p.m. RODEO Bullrlders Only. From Tacoma, Wash. (R) (MSG) 69 12:00 pm 58603 SOCCER Seattle Sounders at Rochester Rhinos.

(R)(MSG) S3 QD 3:00 am 699604 TENNIS French Open Third Round. (Live) (CC) (USA) S3 OS 10:00 am 530257 TRACK AND FIELD NAIA Championships. From Marietta. Ga. (R)(SCNY) 03 (22) 12:00 pm 620493 WRESTLING Extreme Championship Wrestling (MSG) G3 QD 2:00 am 126492 On the Radio "The Fabulous Sports Babe" Talk Show, WBZA AM-1230.

11 a.m. -2 p.m. Big Board Radio Sports. Host-Rodger Wyland, WBZA-1230 AM, pm. NASCAR, Ned Jarretfa World of Racing.

WSTL 1410-AM, 8 50 a.m. NASCAR, Winston Cup Today with Mark Garrow, WSTL 1410-AM, 5:30 p.m. NASCAR Today with Alan Bentwlck, WZZM, 93 5-FM, 5 50 m. NASCAR, Busch Pole Updates, WSTL 1410-AM, 2 p.m. SEC decision could mean the end of CFA Associated Press DESTIN, Fla.

In a decision that could hasten the end of the College Football Association, the Southeastern Conference on Thursday said the CFA has outlived its usefulness and wants it to disband. The Atlantic Coast Conference already has recommended ending the CFA, and the SEC vote could be the final blow. "With the restructuring of the NCAA and other organizations that are out there to carry out certain tasks the time has come for that it Pen Today's Fact High-Scoring Winners Most points scored by the winning team In an NBA Final game: Winning Team (points). Opp. Celtics (148) Celtics (142) Lakers 76ers(141).

S.F. Warriors Lakers (141) Celtics Source: Sporting News acknowledged that there are going to be foul-ups anyway. Torch is subject of proposal BUFFALO The leader of the Seneca Nation of Indians says he wants to have the Olympic torch extinguished as it crosses into his tribe's territory next month. Seneca President Dennis Bowen said Thursday that snuffing the torch then rekindling it with a blaze from Indian territory would bring attention to the struggles of indigenous people throughout the world. "We welcome the torch to our territory," Bowen said, "We'd like to educate the world about sovereignty.

That would be done by extinguishing the Olympic flame and relighting it with the flame of sovereignty." The Olympic torch began its relay journey in Los Angeles on April 27. It will have zig-zagged 15,000 miles across the United States by the time it reaches Atlanta in July. On June 1 1, the torch is scheduled to cross into New York from The Scnecas will be waiting with a bucket of water at the Cattaraugus Reservation, about 30 miles southwest of Buffalo, which is along the planned route. But Bowen said no one from the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games called to ask if the torch could be carried across Seneca territory. He contacted torch relay organizers last week but said he husn't heard from anyone in a position to negotiate with the tribe.

The fact that no one reached out to the tribe is typical of many Americans' ignorance of Indian peoples, Bowen said. Today TRACK AND FIELD State Qualifiers at Johnstown Olympic tickets are in the mail ATLANTA For the next two weeks, the Olympic dream team will be wearing brown uniforms instead of basketball shorts. United Parcel Service begins delivering 3.8 million Olympic tickets today. That should add to the growing Olympic excitement but may frustrate those who aren't home when the brown UPS truck pulls up. The delivery of tickets should be complete by June 10, Olympic organizers said Thursday.

The first tickets will be shipped today to customers in three Atlanta suburbs Alpharetta, Roswell and Marietta that had an especially heavy volume of ticket orders. The rest of Georgia will receive tickets beginning Saturday, and The Post-Star Invites Its readers to write, call, express their opinions or contact our editors about possible stories at any time. The Post-Star is located at the comer of Lawrence and Cooper Streets in Glens Falls. The sports department can be reached Bt 792-3131 or 1-800-724-2543. Ken Tingley is the sports editor nnd he can be reached at Ext.

3276. Greg Brownell is the assistant sports editor and can be reached at Ext. 3277. All letters to the sports editor should be addressed to Ken Tingley, Sports Department, P.O. Box 2157, Glens Falls, N.Y..

12801 raiii AUTO RACING Checkered Flag Series. (Taped) (SCNY) G3 S3 8:00 pm 115306 BASEBALL NCAA World Series Alabama vs. Oklahoma State. (Live) (ESPN) HJ (3) 4:00 pm 592509 Chicago Cubs at Florida Marlins. (In Stereo Live) (WGN) CD 7:00 pm 139035 Atlanta Braves at Cincinnati Reds.

(Live) (CC) (WTBS) PI LB 7:30 pm 788986 Los Angeles Dodgers at New York Mets. (Live) (WWOR) Cfl 7:30 pm 774122 New York Yankees at Oakland Athletics. (In Stereo Live) (MSG) S3 10:00 pm 267257 NCAA World Series Clemson vs. Miami. (Same-day Tape) (ESPN) GJ (HI 12:30 am 409159 BICYCLING Hawaiian Mountain Tour.

From Honolulu. (R) (In Stereo) (MSG) S3 (E) 8:00 pm 20886 BOATING Windermere Cup. From Seattle (R) (MSG) S3 Q7 6:00 pm 58667 BOWLING ABC Masters Tournament. (R) (MSG) ES 07) 1:00 pm 77054 DRAG RACING NHRA Pennzoll Nationals. (R) (SCNY) G3 3 2 7:00 pm 410798 GOLF Memorial Tournament Second Round.

(Live) (ESPN) 63 10:00 am 203696 S. Women's Open Championship Second Round. (Live) (ESPN) EQ Q4 12:00 pm 497899 Tailback Classic Featuring NFL stars, from Dallav (Tapod) (In Stereo) (MSG) 03 (17) 7.05 pm 97037035 CGA Tour Dan Marino Classic. (R) (SCNY) 63 52 9:00 pm 515162 nationwide distribution starts Monday. In all, there are 3 1 1 ,000 orders to fill.

It has been more than a year since Olympic tickets went on sale, guaranteeing that many buyers may have moved since placing their order. The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games has sent two letters to each buyer to confirm addresses, but officials 1 MWV 'f n' "TFf To Report high chool scoroi Coaches should call The Post-Star sports department as soon as possible after an athletic contest ends and punch in Ext. 3208, 3258 or 3291. To report rocroation results, golf cor or bowling scores! They should be mailed to The Post-Star at P.O. Box 2157, Glens Falls, N.Y., 12801 or faxed to 761-1255.

r' rf. "Outspoken" A To submit nws or Information regarding outdoors coverage! Please call Assistant Sports Editor Greg Brownell at Ext. 3277. "7Vni is like gelling your heart lorn out. l)Hrnit Ilnl forward Darren McCarly, after Wednemlay'H 4-1 loss to Colorado Associated Press Clemson's Rodney Williams (31) tries to bat a ball in the air as he horses around with fellow pitcher Billy Koch (27) during a workout prior to the College World Series..