Make The Team

LOS ANGELES -- In a week in which Harold Miner set USC's career scoring record, got four stitches in his tongue and endured a 3-for-18 shooting performance against the University of Washington, Miner also found himself being included in some pretty select company.The long-range-shooting Miner, who is averaging 26.4, suddenly has emerged as a candidate for the U.S. Olympic basketball team for this summer in Barcelona, Spain. Detroit Pistons coach Chuck Daly, who will coach the team, included Miner on his short list -- six names -- of players he thinks would fit in well in the one or two spots that will go to college players.

Ripken Stadium will celebrate another "first" tonight when the USA Baseball national team and the Japanese Collegiate All-Stars clash at 7 p.m. in the series opener of their 31st annual series. The five-game, five-site tour against Japan is the first step for the American team en route to the FISU World Championships in Messina, Italy, beginning on Aug. 3. Currently composed of collegiate freshmen and sophomores, the USA squad served as the nation's representative in the Olympic Games until 2000 when manager Tom Lasorda added minor-league pros to a roster that won the gold medal in Sydney, Australia.

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- The Chicago Bulls did a pretty good job of dismantling the Detroit Pistons in their four-game sweep of the National Basketball Association's Eastern Conference finals, and now the remainder of the task is left to Detroit general manager Jack McCloskey and his coaching staff.McCloskey cried when the Pistons left the court Monday afternoon. He cried for the end of a powerful, if not critically acclaimed, reign by the Detroit team and because he, more than anyone, knows the extent of the changes to come.

Liberty senior left fielder Kayla Coughlin has rebounded from a disappointing junior season, leading the team with a .474 batting average. The tri-captain played a key role in the Lions' first victory of the season last week, as she had two hits and scored a run in the 6-5 win over Westminster in nine innings. Coughlin is the team's leadoff hitter, has not made an error this season and has played three seasons of summer league softball for the Freedom Firebirds, who were coached by Dick Smith, her Liberty coach.

Afour-year starting guard and a team captain for Southern, Brittany Wiseman makes the offense go and has a penchant for taking care of the basketball. She has helped the team get off to a 9-2 start. Her clutch jumper with 20 seconds left gave the Bulldogs a 45-44 win over Annapolis last Friday. The victory was a county-career record 416th for coach Linda Kilpatrick. What does Coach Kilpatrick's milestone mean to you and the team? It means that we've been helping her set the all-time record.

A funny thing happened to the Blast en route to the playoffs last season - it didn't make them. Now, the team has refueled and is aiming to return to its customary position atop the Major Indoor Soccer League, beginning tonight when the defending champion Philadelphia KiXX visit 1st Mariner Arena for the kickoff of the league's season. "As an organization, we take it personally that we didn't make it," general manager Kevin Healey said. "We've reloaded a bit, and we're ready to make our mark."

In another uneven and sometimes ugly offensive showing by the Ravens, one of the team's only constants during training camp was at the top of the statistical sheet again. Daniel Wilcox, who is making a strong bid to make the team as the third tight end, continued one of the few feel-good stories of a preseason marked more by speculation about players not here (Deion Sanders, Chris McAlister) and inconsistency from the quarterbacks (Kyle Boller, Kordell Stewart). Wilcox salvaged an otherwise woeful showing by Stewart in the Ravens' 26-17 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Friday night.

Danny Copeland has abandoned his dream of playing running back in the NFL, but he hasn't given up the idea of running to daylight."The most fun you can have in football is running with the ball," said Copeland, a Washington Redskins' safety. "It doesn't matter where it comes from, whether it's a kick or a pass."Copeland signed with the Redskins last April as a Plan B free agent primarily because they offered him a chance to play running back. The grand experiment was short-lived, however.

The U.S. women's hockey team has a record this season as unblemished as the surface at the E Center, where the gold medal will be decided at the Winter Games. The squad beat Canada, 3-2, on Tuesday in Vancouver, British Columbia, before a partisan crowd of 6,354, completing an eight-game sweep of its chief rival that began in October. By dominating Canada, the United States has taken some of the drama out of an anticipated rematch of the gold-medal opponents in 1998 in Nagano, where Canada lost, 3-1. Not only have the U.S. women beaten their toughest challenger, they also have bested every collegiate, amateur and foreign team on their barnstorming national tour, posting a 20-0 record.

Tired of spoiled athletes dominating the headlines? Then you want to hear about Cedric Peerman. Peerman is the University of Virginia running back who was taken by the Ravens in the sixth round of the NFL draft. He has been at the team's minicamp in Owings Mills this week, busting his butt in every drill, accelerating up and down the field like he's turbo-charged. When the 2 1/2 -hour practices are over, he puts in an extra 25 minutes of agility work on a back field. Then, tired and hungry, he comes off the field and patiently does an interview, looking the reporter in the eye and answering each question thoughtfully.