Saturday, March 14, 1987 THE STARS AND STRIPES •*'**" Page 23commentaryPoisoned pen makes USAREUR picksSORRY.Sorry Baumholder; sorry Hanau; sorry Frankfurt;sorry Garlsdedt; sorry SHAPE; sorry Neu Ulm.I have 10 go with Wiesbaden, Schweinfurt andMannheim taking Ihcir respective command's mcn'tbasketball titles. Now before you hool and holler,remcmtaerone thing; I sim not Bul-ky Fax.With that disclaimer out of the way, these teamsshouldn't have to worry about suffering from thedreaded Fox Pox, You know the disease, where «noted Stars:and Stripes columnist picks a (cam towin, only to see them tail badly.Last Friday, before Wiesbaden came from behindto defeat Frankfurt at Drake Casern. Eddie Sullon,Ihe Eagle*' young coach, bemoaned the lack of hypehis leant had received in this column.In two words, hereVllw hype; Troy Russell, TheIcs' forward, without a doubt ihe but player in_ AREUR this year, is hyped out on the basketballcourt; hyped when he wraps those big hands around theball; hjpcd when he start* nij twisting, turning moves tothe basket from around the threc-poi nt line; and hypedwhen he slams the ball home,WITH RUSSELL the Eagles change from a medi-ocre team featuring Fast Eddie Hall and Dial TallJohn McCall that can stay with most teams to anexcellent team that can beat other teams in their owngyro. That's what happened in Frankfurt.Russell, hurting hit leg in the first half on the ice rinkat the Drake Casern Bam, had just five points at thehalf as the Falcons look a 36-31 lead. But Russell cameback to pour in IS points after intermission before foul-ing out with two minutes kit and the Eagles lied TheEaglet did a double-gut check in those last two minutesana, helped by some sloppy Frankfurt ballhandling, stillpulled out a lough gO-7ff victory on the road,So what about Frankfurt, Hanau and Raumholdcr?Unlike last year, when the learns with the Sequoias{Heilbronn, Hanau) roosted high in the USAREURforest, this has been a year when quickness is the fastestway through the forest There aren't any big teams outthere, and none quicker than Russell and the Eagles.tim. beHANAU SORELY MISSES Ihe cool inside play ofRobert Est«, playing far the All-Amy team this weekin the Armed Forces Championships, not to mention &guard or two that can run the offense or shoot off thewing. Once you get past The real Rock of Baumholder,Clyde Harp, the Bears are an average team, with orwithout George Valentine's heart.And 1 Just have this feeling, as I did that Fridaynighl at Drake, that Frankfurt will find a way to lose.The only thing that may save the Falcons' face is ifLuke Fenchcr, the 32-year-old forward, catches fireand bulldozes the boards through the- playoffs. Hespent much of the second half on the bench againstWiesbaden, but the Falcons need the grayhcard inthere to hang tough. They're a different team withouthis experience on the floor.In VII Corps, there are two teams with near equalability, near equal coaching, near equal everything.They are Scbwcinfur! and Neu Ulm. 1 favor Schwcin-fun1 like the Magicians' speed, a key in the no-defense100-98 ballgames that typify Army ball. J.C Castillo'slearn came Trom 19 poinls down at half in a hurry tocut down a taller Heilbronn quintet at BadonerhofCasern Gym earlier this year, The Magicians' pressdocs that to teams. It keeps Schwemfurt in games, thenbreaks the backs and eventually the hearts of oppo-nent*,IF I AM MAKING a mistake, it will be in VIICorps. Bill Hawkins1 Neu Ulm squad proved alsocould come from behind. It did so lost week againstBamberg to avenge one of only two defeats this year.But Hawkins, with one of the taller teams inUSAREUR, needs continued strong work on theboards from Marvin Ford and Elijah Catdwell tosupplement the scoring of Charles Nash in the back-court. If he docsh'i get it, teams will be able to con-centrate on shutting (town Nash, and look for theHawks lo start nesting early this year.In 21st Support Comd, Mannheim returned to theglory years with Thomas Benson coaching again. WithWarren Evans and Peter Alleyne on the front line, itlooks like Benson will turn Mannheim back into 21 siSupport Comd'sown Titlctown, Dcutschland-slylc.The last time Benson couched the Mustangs, theycame away with the 21st Support Comd title in1977-78, Look for it to happen again, especially withAll-Army candidate Evans and "The Rejcclali/er"Alteyne leading Ihe way. The Mustangs played to-gether as a team better than anyone else I've seenthis year. There was even (gasp!) a gl impsc of defensewith the Mustangs on the court,WHY NOT SHAPE and Oarlstedt from upNorth? They've spent all year bashing each others'brains out. They'll burn out by tourney time.Now for the blind pick at the position tournamentin Italy. USAREUlOs Larry Parker says Berlin isimpressive, bul the feeling here is 7lh Army TrainingComd will take it.Every year it's Heidelberg or Berlin gelling thehype, but East year Doug Urner coached the stuffingout of SETAF and they came away with (he positiontitle. Coaching can do that to a team.SETAF will suffer, Papa Bear may or may notcoach this year, Heidelberg has had an up and downyear; and I nave (he feeling Berlin is not going to liveup to Parker's praise.7th Army Training Comd gets the nod on a referralfrom Schweinfurt's Castillo. The Schwcinfurt mentorclaimed Amberg, which helps fill the Trainers' squad,played his Magicians tougher than anybody else thiswar. That's pretty big praise, bul of course, that wasbefore Wiesbaden tricked the Magicians last weekend.1 could be wrong on all of these. Al least I've neverbeen accused of having the Fox Pox effect on teams.Of course, there's always a chance the Boivin Poi-son will rear its ugly head.Bruins endBlues' streakat 7 gamesFront press diipatcAnBOSTON — Ray Bourque scoredtwice in the first 10 minutes and assistedon another first-period goal as the Bos-ton Bruins held on for a 3-4 NHL victorythat (topped the St. Louis Bluet' seven-nhl roundupgame unbeaten streak Thursday night.The Bruins built a 5*1 lead before St.Louis scored three goals in a 4:06 spanlate in the second period and early in thethird.Boston had won just one of its pre-vious five games, while St. Louis hadfour victories and three ties in its lastseven games.Bourque's first goal, 34 seconds intothe game, came on a low 1 5-foot shotthat neat goalie Greg Millen to the gloveside.The defenseman scored again on apower play at 9:20 of the opening periodfor his 18th goal of the season and 600thpoint of his NHL career. Tom McCarthypassed the puck from the slot back toBourque at Ihe blue line and he fired itpast Millen. who lost for the first [imc inhis last eight starts.in other games Thursday:Pengulna 6, Nordiques 3PITTSBURGH — Dan Frawlcyscored early in the third period andMario Lcmicux established a career-highfor goals with a hai trick that raised hisseason total to 51 as Pittsburgh defeatedQuebec.Pittsburgh rallied from a 3-1 deficitSMU releases namesof 9 banned boostersRay BOUFQIK... two key goalslate in the second period. Frawley scoredthe tie-breaking goal early in the thirdperiod and Lemieux became the fifthplayer in the 20-year history of the Pen-guins to get SO goals when he hit theempty net with 1:09 left.Lemieux scored another empty netgoal with 32 seconds left.Rjnaers 6, Flyers IPHILADELPHIA — Tomas Sand-stram and Don Maloncy scored twogoals each to help New York turn backPhiladelphia.The Rangers, who are in third place inthe NHL's Patrick Division, arc 4-1 thisyear against the division-lending Flyers.They defeated the Flyers in last season'sPatrick Division semifinals.Marcel Dionne scored on the powerplay for the final New York goal at19:36. It was his 25th goal of the seasonand first since being traded to the Rang-ers on Tuesday by Los Angeles,DALLAS (AP) — Southern MethodistUniversity, complying with an order toshow why its football program shouldnot be penalized further, made publicThursday the names of nine boostersbanned in April 1985,Last month, Ihe NCAA suspendedSMU's football program for 1987 be-cause of a slush fund run by one boosterthat paid a total of $61,000 to 13 players— even after the school was placed on itssixth probation m August 1985.The report released Thursday was inresponse to an NCAA order to "showcause" why the school should not be sub-ject to further penalty if it did not takeadditional action against the nine boost-ers banned in 1985.SMU repeatedly had refused to makepublic the names of the nine boosters,four of whom had received lifetime bansfrom associating with the university'sathletic department,The other five were banned from twoto five years for allegedly offering in-ducements, including money and enter-tainment, to student-athletes.Thursday's report said the universitymade permanent a three-year ban in thecase of one booster, Dallas investor JohnS. Applcton, but left the other penaltiesunchanged.The report did not directly name thebooster who the NCAA said ran the slushfund thai led lo the Feb. 25 "death pen-alty" sanctions. But the report said theuniversity found no evidence to contra-dict stories in the Dallas Times Herald(hat flic booster was Sherwood Bloutil. aformer SMU football player and Dullasdeveloper.Blount was one of the four boosterspermanently banned from involvementwith the university's athletic departmentin 1985.The oiher seven named in the reportwere Dallas-area businessmen Ken An-drews and George Owen, sports agentRonnie Horowitz, banker William F.Stevens, former SMU football playerGeorge Wilmoi. and Corpus Chnstibusinessman Jack Ryan and his son.Reid.The report indicated that only Blount,Appleton and Owen committed furtherviolations after being banned.Appleton. who originally was disasso-ciated for paying for a student-athlete'sauto repairs, entertained an assistantfootball coach at his summer home inWisconsin in the summer of 1985, thereport said.Appleton told the Fort Worth-StarTelegram that he paid $40010 an athletein 1984, but said he had done nothing inviolation of NCAA rules since."I have endowed a scholarship, and ifthis is their attitude. I am going to askfor it lo be returned," he said.Horowitz and Stevens did not returncalls Thursday from the AssociatedPress, and Blounl declined lo comment,Andrews, Owen and Wilmoi could notbe reached,Reid Kyan noli'd that his probationexpires next month."The frustrating thing was that 1 nevergot a di.incL- to give my side of things loSMU, or lo the NCAA," Reid Ryan said."They wanted me banned for life andthey've never even come down here loask me about al! ihcsc things they accus-ed me of.""I'd ralhi'r not nuke any commentsuntil I've siudiLt] it." Jack Kyan saidwhen reached at his office.