Team Meeting

Miami, Washington unable to get togetherMiami did an about-face and agreed to play in the 1992 Kickoff Classic. But a contest pitting last season's two national college football champions fell apart when Washington declined, a source told The Associated Press yesterday. The source, who asked not to be identified, said there was never an agreement between the schools to play in the season opener at Giants Stadium in late August.Miami, which finished first in The Associated Press' media poll, originally told the organizers of the game it was not interested.

When Georgia Tech lost by 16 points to Georgia, the Yellow Jackets called a team meeting to clear the air.When they lost by two to little Mount St. Mary's on Monday,coach Bobby Cremins gave them the day off -- and dismissed the loss as the price of three games in six days."

When the Seattle SuperSonics signed center Jim McIlvaine last summer to a seven-year, $35 million contract, star forward Shawn Kemp pouted.One would think that by now Kemp would have shaken off his displeasure and begun to play with the pride he displayed during last season's NBA Finals when he had a breakout performance against the Chicago Bulls.Apparently, Kemp hasn't shaken off his displeasure.Last weekend he missed a team flight, and then missed a practice. This week he was late for a team meeting.

A players-only meeting, some serious offensive tinkering and the emergence of midfielders Brian Hess (McDonogh), Pat Corbett and Alex Drake has led Lehigh to a 12-4 finish. It's placed them in a position to do what they failed to do last year — win the first NCAA tournament game in program history. "The seniors met; then we had a team meeting. I always knew we had the talent and the guys on the field capable of getting the job done. Guys had to believe in themselves. We needed to call guys out and we needed more out of guys; we've done that," attackman David DiMaria said of the team meeting after Lehigh's 6-4 loss to Massachusetts on March 20. "We thought we arrived last year, and the plan was to remain," coach Kevin Cassese said.

TORONTO -- Olie Kolzig's knee wasn't the only thing dislocated on the Washington Capitals after last night's 7-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. There are plenty of problems on this club, winless five games into the NHL season."

ST. LOUIS -- Team meetings in the middle of the summer usually don't amount to much, forgotten in the blur of games that follow. But when you call a team meeting before what could be your team's last game of the season, and your team is the defending world champion, that carries a little more significance.Or does it?Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox called a meeting before last night's 14-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium, and his team finally played up to the level -- and above -- most expected from it going into this best-of-seven National League Championship Series.

Billy Reybold, a 6-foot-5, 210-pound junior, has played a big role in the Gators' turnaround season, averaging 15 points and nearly eight rebounds a game in his second varsity season. After going 5-13 last season, Reservoir took a 10-12 mark into this week's regional playoffs. Along with basketball, Reybold has played tight end and defensive end on Reservior's varsity football team the past two years and has been a lacrosse midfielder since his freshman year. He has a 4.0 grade point average with an interest in math and computer science.

NEW YORK -- It's still over.The New York Yankees held another team meeting yesterday, then went out and suffered another in a long series of discouraging losses. The slump goes on. The division title -- which manager Joe Torre so gracefully conceded last weekend -- isn't even a consideration anymore.Now it's just a matter of making sure that the Yankees don't self-destruct and blow their comfortable wild-card lead."It's like looking for a job," Torre said yesterday. "People keep saying no until eventually somebody says yes. The only thing you can do about it is to keep grinding and keep going out there."

The usual comedic routine was missing from Kevin Millar's act yesterday. He was nothing but serious, an appropriate tone when a team has lost 13 of its past 15 games and its manager must read about his job security almost on a daily basis. Better to hold the laughter. After a 6-4 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks at Camden Yards that completed another sweep and dropped the Orioles a season-worst 11 games below .500, fueling more speculation that manager Sam Perlozzo could be fired this week, Millar chastised reporters for being too jovial in an otherwise-quiet clubhouse and revealed his plans to call a players-only meeting tomorrow in San Diego.

Washington -- When Art Monk talks, the Washington Redskins listen.They certainly did when he called a team meeting the night before a game late last year when the team was struggling."