Milwaukee Journal SentinelJSOnline.com/sports

FridayMarch 28, 2008

CSPORTSR Coming Sunday: 2008 Brewers / baseball preview section.

Auto racing: Open-wheel racing begins unified front. 8C

Preps Plus: Area softball preview. 8C

PROM

OTIONS • M & I Bank Phil Wittliff

Bobbleheads (3,500)• Battle of the Badges @ 3:30pm• American Red Cross Blood Drive(East Atrium) 9:00am-2:30pmGivebloodgivelife.org for appointment

• Pat McCurdy (East Atrium)* 4 $16 tickets, hot dogs & sodas ONLY $40(IN ADVANCE ONLY)

• Basic Metals Sieve Hands (3,500)• Foley & Lardner Family Day & Skate*• Both games (4/5 & 4/6) Admirals willwear Heroes jerseys to benefitthe Power Play Foundation

• Claude Scott, The Happy Trumpeteer

• Fan Appreciation Night: All fans receiveU.S. Cellular Team Picture &can win great prizes

• The Toys perform (East Atrium)

April 6 April 11April 5

3030691

It didn’t take long for Oscar Rob-ertson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar(then Lew Alcindor) to produce achampionship.

They did it in their first year to-gether, and in only the third year of

the Milwaukee Bucks franchise,during the 1970-’71 season.

The Big O will be honored tonightat halftime of the Bucks-OrlandoMagic game at the Bradley Center,and nine other former Bucks play-ers are expected to attend as thefranchise’s 40th anniversary team

is saluted as well.In an interview Thursday at the

Pfister Hotel, Robertson recalled hisdays with the Bucks and grabbingthe National Basketball Associationtitle that had eluded him in 10 yearswith the Cincinnati Royals.

“I never thought about a cham-

pionship when I first came here, tobe honest,” the 69-year-old Robert-son said. “The Bucks brought in Mc-Coy McLemore, Bob Boozer. Theyhad Dick Cunningham and broughtin Lucius Allen. When you have abench like that, not many teams aregoing to beat you.

“That is what (Red) Auerbachwould always do; he would alwayshave veterans on his bench. Now theguy down in San Antonio (Gregg Po-povich) is doing that; he has sea-soned vets. That’s what you must

Still the Big 1: Robertson rededication caps season of celebrationBy CHARLES F. GARDNERcgardner@journalsentinel.com

Please see BUCKS, 5C

Phoenix — Desperation seemsto suit Xavier well.

After coming from behind to de-feat 14th-seeded Georgia in thefirst round and holding off a grittyPurdue team in the second, theMusketeers went an even moredramatic route Thursday night,reaching the Elite Eight with atense, 79-75 overtime victory overupset-minded West Virginia.

Xavier was a perfect 3 for 3 onthree-pointers in overtime, in-cluding the decisive bucket thatcame on an inbound play with 2seconds left on the shot clock andthe Musketeers leading by one.

B.J. Raymond, who also hit thethree-pointer to give Xavier itsfirst lead in overtime, was respon-sible for putting away the Moun-taineers, who had overcome an 18-point first-half deficit to reach theextra session.

Senior forward Josh Duncan,the 6-foot-9 inside-outside threat,led the Musketeers with 26 points,hitting 3 three-pointers, despiteplaying the final 12:29 of the gamewith four fouls.

Joe Alexander’s 18 points pacedseventh-seeded West Virginia, butthe Mountaineers couldn’t over-come a 1-for-11 shooting perfor-mance from the three-point line.Xavier hit 11 of its 19 three-point at-tempts.

The Musketeers are consideredthe closest thing to the defendingnational champion Florida teamsbecause of their balanced scoring,with five players averaging doublefigures and a sixth averaging 9.8 agame.

So it was only fitting that thegame’s most crucial buckets we-ren’t scored by the game’s leadingscorer, Duncan, or the team’s best-known player, point guard DrewLavender.

Instead, they came from a playerwho had scored only two points inthe first 43 minutes.

XAVIER 79, WEST VIRGINIA 75

A sparkbehindthe arcMusketeers able tosurvive in overtimeBy ISRAEL GUTIERREZMiami Herald

THURSDAYEAST REGIONALNorth Carolina 68, Washington State 47Louisville 79, Tennessee 60

WEST REGIONALUCLA vs. Western Kentucky, late.

TODAYMIDWEST REGIONALKansas vs. Villanova, 8:40 p.m.

SOUTH REGIONALStanford vs. Texas, 6:27 p.m.Memphis vs. Michigan State, 8:57 p.m.

Please see NCAA, 3C

D etroit — Maybe not somuch for NFC North teams,but Ford Field can a formi-

dable place, especially when abasketball court is placed on ariser in the middle of up to 80,000seats.

“Well, I think it’s 12, 13 timesbigger than what we have at Da-vidson,” Jason Richards saidThursday.

Richards is the senior point

guard for DavidsonCollege, enrollment1,700, maybe theHarvard of theSouth that plays itsbasketball games ina 5,838-seat venue.

“I hope you allunderstand, Jason

Richards made the comment ‘12 or13 times bigger,’ instead of sayinghundreds or a thousand times

bigger,” Davidson coach BobMcKillop said. “He was right onthe money. That tells you the Da-vidson intellect.”

It also tells you something aboutwhat Wisconsin might be upagainst here tonight in the Mid-west Regional semifinals. TheWildcats are the darlings of theSweet 16, the sentimental favoritemuch like UW-Milwaukee a fewyears ago. Davidson is so lovable,

and will be so embraced by thecrowd, that Brian Butch was actu-ally asked if he will feel a littleguilty should the Badgers end theWildcats’ season.

“I think people still want David-son to win,” Butch said. “Peopleare still picking Davidson to win,too.”

Now this is turnabout for Wis-

In My Opinion

Though cast as the heavy, UW has no huge advantage

Please see HUNT, 4C

MichaelHunt

D etroit — The ball was notgoing to go through thehoop.

That’s all that was runningthrough Joe Krabbenhoft’s mindas a Kansas State player made hisway through a seemingly clearpath to the hole last weekend. Aneasy basket was about to be scoredand the 6-foot-7 Wisconsin juniorcouldn’t stand to let it happen.

“I reached in and fouled a guy,but I didn’t reach in. I didn’t wantto give up a layup. I just grabbedhim,” Krabbenhoft said. “That’sthe message we want to send toteams, that they’re not going to getanything easy.”

Krabbenhoft might as well havebeen coach Bo Ryan standing infront of the team at practice talk-ing about the virtues of protectingthe rim. But Krabbenhoft isn’t theonly one.

In reaching the Sweet 16 of the

NCAA tournament, the Badgershave not only taken Ryan’s teach-ings to heart but in some respectshave taken on the personality oftheir coach when they’re on thecourt. When third-seeded Wiscon-sin (31-4) faces 10th-seeded David-son (28-6) in the Midwest Regionalsemifinal at 6:10 tonight at FordField, the Badgers will do so with

the same even-keel, heady andhard-nosed approach that hasserved both coach and players sowell.

The Wildcats, who have becomethe darlings of the tournament,are, as Ryan and the Badgers say,what’s next.

“Coach Ryan never looked outat, ‘Well I want to get this job’ or ‘I

want to get that.’ And this groupnever looked ahead and said, ‘Waituntil this game, wait until thatgame,’ ” UW assistant Greg Gardsaid. “It was always the next prac-tice and then when games came, itwas the next 40 minutes.”

To Ryan, the impact a coach hason a player’s development is over-blown. The real credit should go tohis parents and even his highschool coaches and teachers, hesaid.

Although that might be true,Ryan has definitely had an effect.For one thing, whose voice do youthink was screaming in Krabben-hoft’s head to stop that drive?

“My job, 8 years old and on, wasto make sure that nobody everscored a layup on our team, bitty

NCAA TOURNAMENT | WISCONSIN VS. DAVIDSON, 6:10 TONIGHT IN DETROIT, TV: CBS (CH. 58), RADIO: AM-540

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Badgers have bought into coach Bo Ryan’s constant defensive preaching. UW has held its last two NCAA tournament opponents to season lows in scoring.

Voice thatCarries

By MARK STEWARTmstewart@journalsentinel.com

JSOnline.comRead more of Mark Stewart’s UW coverageat blogs.jsonline.com/badgers

Please see UW, 4C

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Friday, March 28, 2008 5CNBA

Tickets available at the Bradley CenterTicket Office, All TicketMaster outlets

or at ticketmaster.com.

414-227-0550www.milwaukeeadmirals.com

All games broadcast onSPORTS RADIO 1250 AM WSSP

Sunday,Mar. 30thADMIRALS vsHOUSTON AEROSBradley Center - 4:00pm

• 3rd Annual Charitable Donationgame to benefit the MACC Fund:$3 UPPER LEVEL SEATING

• Admirals Cap Day (5,000), courtesy ofthe Milwaukee Brewers

• Speakeasyperforms in theEast Atrium

3030792

Player FG% 3% FT% AST ST R PTSRedd. . . . . . . . 44.8 36.5 82.8 3.5 1.0 4.4 23.3Williams . . . . 48.1 39.3 85.4 6.4 1.2 3.7 17.8Bogut . . . . . . . 50.3 0.0 57.2 2.6 0.8 9.5 13.9Vllnva . . . . . . 42.8 26.7 79.0 0.9 0.3 5.8 10.7Mason . . . . . . 49.4 — 62.8 2.1 0.7 4.6 9.3Yi . . . . . . . . . . . 42.4 28.6 82.8 0.9 0.5 5.2 8.6Bell . . . . . . . . . 38.1 34.1 80.5 3.1 0.8 2.5 7.6Simmons . . . 39.9 32.6 73.2 1.2 0.7 3.3 6.8Ivey . . . . . . . . . 39.9 34.1 71.7 2.2 0.6 1.7 5.5Sessions . . . . 33.3 — 72.7 1.4 0.4 0.6 2.8Gadzuric . . . 44.2 — 52.7 0.2 0.4 2.7 3.1Storey . . . . . . 41.8 0.0 40.0 0.7 0.2 1.6 2.5Voskuhl . . . . 45.5 — 84.0 0.3 0.2 1.9 2.1Ruffin . . . . . . . 55.6 — 38.8 0.4 0.5 3.6 2.0BUCKS . . . . . 44.7 34.1 73.4 21.0 6.5 41.2 95.9OPP. . . . . . . . . 47.5 38.1 76.5 22.8 7.7 40.5 102.5

BUCKS STATISTICS

Player FG% 3% FT% AST ST R PTSHoward. . . . . 59.7 0.0 59.2 1.3 1.0 14.5 21.2Turkoglu . . . 45.3 40.7 83.4 4.9 0.9 5.9 19.6Lewis . . . . . . . 45.3 40.2 84.9 2.4 1.1 5.4 18.4Nelson. . . . . . 45.9 39.1 83.6 5.7 0.9 3.5 10.9Bogans . . . . . 41.7 37.2 74.5 1.2 0.7 3.2 9.1Evans . . . . . . . 47.4 38.0 71.1 1.1 0.6 2.9 8.3Dooling . . . . . 47.5 35.2 85.4 1.8 0.5 1.3 8.3Arroyo . . . . . . 45.5 35.2 84.0 3.3 0.4 1.8 7.0Cook . . . . . . . . 37.0 37.3 89.5 0.5 0.3 2.1 4.5Redick . . . . . . 41.3 32.3 80.0 0.4 0.1 0.5 3.4Outlaw . . . . . 66.7 — — 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.0Foyle. . . . . . . . 44.7 — 51.6 0.2 0.2 2.5 1.8Garrity. . . . . . 36.2 22.7 50.0 0.4 0.2 1.3 1.7Gortat . . . . . . 50.0 — — 0.0 0.0 1.0 1.5Augustine . . 56.5 — 50.0 0.1 0.2 1.0 1.3MAGIC . . . . . 47.3 38.6 72.5 20.4 6.2 42.1 104.5OPP. . . . . . . . . 45.1 36.1 75.5 21.7 7.1 41.0 99.9

MAGIC STATISTICS

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Central DivisionW L Pct GB L10 Str Home Away Conf

(2) x-Detroit. . . . . 51 21 .708 — 6-4 W-1 29-6 22-15 31-13(4) Cleveland . . . . 40 32 .556 11 5-5 L-2 24-11 16-21 23-19Indiana . . . . . . . . . 29 43 .403 22 5-5 L-2 16-19 13-24 17-25Chicago . . . . . . . . 28 43 .394 221⁄2 3-7 L-1 17-18 11-25 19-22Milwaukee . . . . . 24 46 .343 26 2-8 L-2 18-17 6-29 16-25

Atlantic DivisionW L Pct GB L10 Str Home Away Conf

(1) y-Boston . . . . 56 15 .789 — 7-3 W-1 30-6 26-9 32-10(6) Philadelphia . 37 35 .514 191⁄2 8-2 W-3 21-15 16-20 22-21(7) Toronto . . . . . 36 35 .507 20 3-7 W-1 21-14 15-21 24-18New Jersey . . . . . 31 41 .431 251⁄2 5-5 W-2 19-18 12-23 23-20New York . . . . . . . 19 51 .271 361⁄2 1-9 L-5 12-24 7-27 16-26

Southeast DivisionW L Pct GB L10 Str Home Away Conf

(3) x-Orlando . . . 46 27 .630 — 6-4 L-2 23-14 23-13 32-13(5) Washington. . 37 34 .521 8 7-3 W-1 21-15 16-19 24-20(8) Atlanta. . . . . . 31 40 .437 14 6-4 W-1 22-13 9-27 19-23Charlotte . . . . . . . 26 45 .366 19 4-6 W-1 19-17 7-28 16-28Miami . . . . . . . . . . 13 59 .181 321⁄2 2-8 L-2 7-29 6-30 6-38

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Southwest DivisionW L Pct GB L10 Str Home Away Conf

(1) New Orleans . 49 21 .700 — 8-2 W-5 27-10 22-11 31-14(3) Houston . . . . . 49 23 .681 1 7-3 W-2 28-10 21-13 27-15(4) San Antonio. . 49 23 .681 1 6-4 W-5 29-6 20-17 26-16(7) Dallas . . . . . . . 45 27 .625 5 6-4 L-1 30-7 15-20 27-15Memphis . . . . . . . 18 53 .254 311⁄2 3-7 L-2 13-23 5-30 9-35

Northwest DivisionW L Pct GB L10 Str Home Away Conf

(5) Utah . . . . . . . . . 47 25 .653 — 7-3 W-2 31-4 16-21 27-16Denver . . . . . . . . . . 44 28 .611 3 7-3 W-4 29-7 15-21 25-17Portland . . . . . . . . . 38 34 .528 9 6-4 W-1 25-10 13-24 23-20Minnesota . . . . . . . 18 52 .257 28 6-4 L-1 13-23 5-29 12-33Seattle . . . . . . . . . . 17 55 .236 30 1-9 L-1 11-24 6-31 9-34

Pacific DivisionW L Pct GB L10 Str Home Away Conf

(2) L.A. Lakers. . . . 49 22 .690 — 6-4 W-1 24-9 25-13 30-13(6) Phoenix . . . . . . 47 24 .662 2 7-3 L-2 26-10 21-14 25-18(8) Golden State . . 43 27 .614 51⁄2 6-4 L-1 23-12 20-15 23-17Sacramento . . . . . . 32 39 .451 17 5-5 W-1 22-12 10-27 15-27L.A. Clippers . . . . . 21 50 .296 28 1-9 L-9 12-24 9-26 11-30y-clinched division; x-clinched playoff berth. Playoff seeding in parentheses.

STANDINGS

WEDNESDAYAtlanta 115, Milwaukee 96Boston 117, Phoenix 97New York 103, Miami 96 (OT)Toronto 89, Detroit 82Philadelphia 121, Chicago 99New Orleans 100, Cleveland 99New Jersey 124, Indiana 117Houston 97, Minnesota 86San Antonio 97, L.A. Clippers 88Sacramento 107, Memphis 106 (OT)Washington 104, Seattle 99Charlotte 108, L.A. Lakers 95

THURSDAYDenver 118, Dallas 105Detroit 85, Miami 69Portland at Golden State, late

TODAYOrlando at Milwaukee, 7:30New York at Toronto, 6New Jersey at Indiana, 6Phoenix at Philadelphia, 6Chicago at Atlanta, 6:30New Orleans at Boston, 6:30Minnesota at San Antonio, 7:30L.A. Clippers at Utah, 8Washington at Sacramento, 9Charlotte at Seattle, 9:30Memphis at L.A. Lakers, 9:30

UP NEXTTeams: Milwaukee Bucks (24-46)

vs. Orlando Magic (46-27).When: 7:30 tonight.Where: Bradley Center.Broadcasts: TV — FSN Wisconsin

cable. Radio — AM-1250.About the Magic: Orlando can set a

franchise record for road victories in aseason by beating the Bucks. TheMagic is 23-13 on the road and onlyBoston (26) and the Lakers (25) havemore road victories. Orlando, whichset a team record for consecutiveroad victories by winning its firstseven this season, was 15-26 on theroad last season.

PLAYER TO WATCHDWIGHT HOWARD, MagicHe threw down the Superman dunk

that was one of the highlights ofall-star weekend. Howard leads theleague in rebounding (14.5) and isfifth in blocked shots (2.3). He fin-ished with 24 points and 21 reboundsTuesday in a loss to San Antonio, hiseighth 20-20 game of the season.

LINEUPSPROBABLE MAGIC STARTERSPlayer Ht. FromG-Jameer Nelson 6-0 St. Joseph’sG-Maurice Evans 6-5 TexasF-Rashard Lewis 6-10 Alief, TexasF-Hedo Turkoglu 6-10 TurkeyC-Dwight Howard 6-11 Atlanta

Coach: Stan Van Gundy (firstseason; fourth overall, 158-100).Injury report: Tony Battie (left

shoulder) is out. Turkoglu (right wrist)is questionable. Nelson (jaw) isprobable.

PROBABLE BUCKS STARTERSPlayer Ht. FromG-Mo Williams 6-1 AlabamaG-Michael Redd 6-6 Ohio StateF-Desmond Mason 6-5 Okla. StateF-Charlie Villanueva 6-11 ConnecticutC-Andrew Bogut 7-0 Utah

Coach: Larry Krystkowiak (secondseason, 29-59).Injury report: Charlie Bell (right

knee) is out. Bogut (nasal bruise) isprobable.

THE SERIESThe Bucks are 1-1 against the Magic

this season. This is these teams’ finalmeeting of the season.

NUMBERS GAME

8-8 The Bucks’ record againstteams from the Southeast Division.

104.5 Orlando’s per gamescoring average, sixth in the league.

38.3 Orlando’s three-pointshooting percentage, third in theleague.

COMING UPSaturday: 7:30 p.m. at the United

Center. Bucks vs. Chicago Bulls. TV —FSN Wisconsin cable. Radio —AM-620.Tuesday: 7 p.m. at the Bradley

Center. Bucks vs. New York Knicks. TV— FSN Wisconsin cable. Radio —AM-620.Wednesday: 6 p.m. at Verizon

Center. Bucks vs. Washington Wiz-ards. TV — FSN Wisconsin cable.Radio — AM-620.

Tom Enlund

GAME PREVIEWBUCKS VS. MAGIC

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Dwight Howard leads the leaguein rebounding (14.5).

Through Tuesday

SCORING G FG FT PTS AVGJames, Clev. . . . 66 715 493 2025 30.7Bryant, LAL . . . . 72 688 539 2035 28.3Iverson, Den. . . 71 620 571 1892 26.6Anthony, Den. . 66 616 403 1682 25.5Stdmire, Phoe. 68 605 472 1687 24.8Wade,Mia. . . . . 51 439 354 1254 24.6Nowitzki, Dall.. 69 556 448 1625 23.6Redd,Mil.. . . . . . 60 463 360 1397 23.3Martin, Sac. . . . 53 357 422 1231 23.2Jefferson, N.J. . 72 544 499 1656 23.0Maggette, LAC 61 407 483 1362 22.3Davis, G.S. . . . . . 70 564 282 1559 22.3Bosh, Tor. . . . . . 56 422 395 1243 22.2

FIELD GOALS FG FGA PCTBiedrins, G.S. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273 439 .622Chndler, N.O. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314 522 .602Howard, Orl. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531 889 .597O’Neal, Phoe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 466 .590Childress, Atl. . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 480 .590Stoudemire, Phoe. . . . . . . . 605 1036 .584

REBOUNDS G OFF DEF TOT AVGHoward, Orl.. . 73 261 797 1058 14.5Camby, Den.. . 68 205 716 921 13.5Chndler, N.O. . 67 287 530 817 12.2Duncan, S.A.. . 68 215 569 784 11.5Jffrson,Minn. 70 279 528 807 11.5Boozer, Utah . 71 179 584 763 10.7Okafor, Char. . 71 232 531 763 10.7Odom, LAL. . . . 67 173 537 710 10.6Jmson,Wash. 71 200 535 735 10.4Marion,Mia.. . 63 136 507 643 10.2

ASSISTS G AST AVGPaul, N.O.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 773 11.4Nash, Phoe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 783 11.2Williams, Utah . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 748 10.4Kidd, Dall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 696 10.1Calderon, Tor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 594 8.4Davis, G.S.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 546 7.8James, Clev. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 485 7.3Iverson, Den.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 515 7.3

LEADERS

St. Francis — Andrew Bo-gut’s bloody collision withAtlanta Hawks forwardMar-vin Williams is not expectedto keep the MilwaukeeBucks center out of the line-up this weekend.

That was the word Thurs-day from Bucks coach LarryKrystkowiak after Bogut hadto leave in the fourth quar-ter of the Bucks’ lossWednesday night at Atlan-ta. Bogut, going up to graban inbounds pass from thebaseline, was hit on the noseby Williams.

Although no foul wascalled, Bogut went to thefloor and had to be toweledoff by trainer Andre Daniel toclean up the blood.

Bogut had X-rays takenon Thursday but no resultswere available.

“That was a rough one,”Krystkowiak said of the col-lision. “He would have had adunk on the play.

“I don’t suspect there willbe any problem with that(playing) at all. He was in-terested in staying in lastnight, if it wouldn’t havebeen bleeding so much. He’snot going to miss anything.”

Bogut led the Bucks with27 points and nine reboundsin their 115-96 loss to theHawks, Milwaukee’s sev-enth consecutive road de-feat.A great recovery: Bucks

equipment manager DwayneWilson was back with theteam Thursday at the Cous-ins Center, and he felt fortu-nate to be there.

Wilson suffered a strokeon March 17 as he drove intowork and was paralyzed onhis right side, and was hos-pitalized until Saturday.

“I ended up pulling overon Kilbourn and Van Bur-en,” Wilson said. “I fell outof the car.”

Fortunately, Wilson’sgirlfriend, Courtney Moran,was in the car and was ableto call for assistance.

Wilson was given a newmedication that helped hisrecovery.

“It worked, the Lord, thedrip (medicine), the doc-tors, and everything in-volved there, it worked per-fect,” Wilson said. “I had anirregular heartbeat and ele-vated blood pressure.

“I actually feel better nowthan I did before. It’s proba-bly all the sleep and every-thing I’ve got over the lastweek or so.”

The Bucks’ players greet-ed Wilson on Thursday, andhe said he also receivedcalls from Dallas Mavericksowner Mark Cuban and Mav-ericks forward Dirk Nowitiz-ki. Wilson served as equip-ment manager for the Mav-ericks from 1999 through2004. He is in his third sea-son with the Bucks.

“I heard from a lot of peo-ple, so that was nice,” Wil-son said. “For me, just beingable to walk in here was abig issue.”Taking a look: Krystkowi-

ak said he would try to getmore playing time for rook-ies Yi Jianlian and Ramon Ses-sions in the final 12 games,starting tonight against Or-lando.

“We have 12 games in 20days, and everybody is go-ing to be called upon,”Krystkowiak said.

Yi has played in the lastfour games after returningfrom a right wrist injury.

“I think he’s finding hisway,” Krystkowiak said ofthe 7-foot forward. “He’sspending a lot more time inthe post and working onsome moves down therewith his balance.

“It’s maybe being less in ahurry. He’s not always onbalance and not always tak-ing real strong shots. It’sjust getting a lower center ofgravity so he’s able to ex-plode a little bit.”

BUCKS NOTES

Bogut plansto play onX-rays taken oncenter’s noseBy CHARLES F. GARDNERcgardner@journalsentinel.com

Nuggets 118, Mavericks 105Carmelo Anthony scored

32 points and sparked the de-cisive run for Denver, whichwon its fourth straight andmoved into a tie with GoldenState for the eighth playoffspot in the West, one game be-hind Dallas. The Warriorsplayed later Thursday night.

MAVERICKS Min FG-A FT-A R A PF PtsJoHoward . . . . . 43:01 12-24 5-8 5 2 3 30Allen . . . . . . . . . . . 27:57 3-4 0-0 4 2 6 6Dampier . . . . . . . 30:52 2-5 1-2 9 0 3 5Kidd . . . . . . . . . . . 41:41 6-11 4-5 4 15 1 19Stackhouse . . . 30:47 8-15 1-3 8 6 2 18Terry. . . . . . . . . . . 27:52 5-12 3-4 0 3 1 14Bass . . . . . . . . . . . 10:30 0-1 0-0 4 0 1 0JuHoward . . . . . 11:43 2-3 2-3 2 1 2 6Wright . . . . . . . . . 9:39 3-3 1-1 3 1 2 7Lue. . . . . . . . . . . . . 4:03 0-1 0-0 0 0 1 0Jones . . . . . . . . . . 1:55 0-2 0-0 0 0 1 0Totals ............... 240:00 41-81 17-26 39 30 23 105

NUGGETS Min FG-A FT-A R A PF PtsAnthony . . . . . . . 36:44 11-20 10-14 10 8 4 32Martin . . . . . . . . . 36:10 4-10 0-0 6 1 4 8Camby. . . . . . . . . 35:59 5-8 3-4 6 7 3 13Carter . . . . . . . . . 22:57 3-8 0-0 4 3 2 7Iverson . . . . . . . . 44:04 11-21 6-6 3 5 1 31Smith . . . . . . . . . . 26:36 5-11 2-2 4 5 2 13Najera . . . . . . . . . 18:57 2-5 2-2 3 2 3 7Kleiza. . . . . . . . . . 15:40 2-5 2-2 5 0 2 7Nene. . . . . . . . . . . 1:17 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0Atkins . . . . . . . . . 1:17 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0Diawara . . . . . . . 0:20 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0Totals ............... 240:01 43-88 25-30 41 31 21 118

DALLAS ..................................... 39 31 16 19 — 105DENVER..................................... 28 32 34 24 — 118

DALLAS — Percentages: FG .506, FT .654.Three-point goals: 6-23, .261 (Kidd 3-5, Jo.Ho-ward 1-5, Stackhouse 1-5, Terry 1-7, Jones 0-1).Team rebounds: 10. Team turnovers: 17 (23PTS). Blocked shots: 1 (Dampier). Turnovers:17 (Kidd 6, Allen 5, Stackhouse 3, Jo.Howard 2,Dampier). Steals: 8 (Kidd 5, Terry 2, Stack-house). Technical fouls: Defensive three sec-ond, 4:00 second; Defensive three second, 7:24third; Coach Johnson, 3:17 third; Howard, 3:17third.DENVER — Percentages: FG .489, FT .833.

Three-point goals: 7-19, .368 (Iverson 3-3,Klei-za 1-2, Carter 1-3, Najera 1-3, Smith 1-5, Camby0-1, Anthony 0-2). Team rebounds: 9. Teamturnovers: 9 (14 PTS). Blocked shots: 3 (Cam-by, Carter, Najera). Turnovers: 9 (Anthony 3,Iverson 2, Martin 2, Camby, Smith). Steals: 8(Carter 3, Anthony 2, Camby, Iverson, Smith).Technical fouls: Defensive three second, 5:12first.A—18,247. T — 2:28.

have, so when they get in thegame they don’t mess upanything. When the Bucksbrought these guys in, it wasa blessing.”

The Bucks acquired Rob-ertson in an April 1970 tradefor Flynn Robinson andCharlie Paulk, clearly asteal of a deal.

Robertson appeared in 288games over four seasonswith the Bucks, and he andAbdul-Jabbar nearly wonanother title in 1974, fallingto Boston in seven games inthe league finals. That wasRobertson’s final series as apro.

“Kareem had to undergo atransformation,” Robertsonrecalled. “They started play-ing rough; they started tobeat up on him. At first, hedidn’t understand why.

“I told him, ‘Becauseyou’re a great player.’ I said,‘If you were not great, theywouldn’t touch you.’

“He needed a little weight,and he needed to learn topass off the pivot. He becamea great passer and he put onthe weight. Boy, he had anunstoppable hook shot afterthat.”

Robertson is taking sometime now to tell his story,and it is a remarkable jour-ney from Crispus AttucksHigh School in Indianapolisto the University of Cincin-nati to the Royals and theBucks. He recently wrote afirst-person account in TheNew York Times, recallinghis 56-point game at Madi-son Square Garden in 1958,when the Bearcats playedSeton Hall.

And he has re-released hisautobiography, “The Big O:My Life, My Times, My

Game.”“I just think

the book ex-plains a lot ofsocial issuesgoing on inAmerica,things that Iwas confront-ed with,” Rob-ertson said.

“My great-great grandfatherwas a freed slave. It tellsabout life, coming off a farmand going into Indianapolis,what it was like.”

After graduating collegein 1960, Robertson playedwith the U.S. Olympic bas-ketball team that won a goldmedal in Rome. Among histeammates were future NBArival Jerry West, Terry Dis-chinger and Walt Bellamy.

“We needed Bellamy towin,” Robertson said. “Wecould not have won withouthim. He could run and jumpand block shots.

“It was an experience Ididn’t think that much aboutuntil much later. Most of theguys came from the samebackground: no money.They were kids that justwanted to play basketball.”

Robertson went fromOlympic gold to further ac-colades in the pros. He aver-aged a triple-double in1961-’62 (30.8 points, 12.5 re-bounds and 11.4 assists) withCincinnati, and he wasnamed the league’s mostvaluable player in 1963-’64.

He has been credited withdefining the point guard po-sition, but he doesn’t neces-sarily buy that interpreta-tion.

“I brought my own style tothe game,” Robertson said.“To me, I was just a guard.Now it’s different.

“Everybody that plays de-fines the position a little bitor sets his own style, espe-cially if you’re successful. Ifyou’re not successful, youdon’t define anything. MagicJohnson or Chris Paul orSteve Nash have been suc-cessful, and that’s the realkey, to be honest.”

The 20-player Bucks anni-versary team will be hon-ored tonight.

Eleven players are to be inattendance, including cur-rent Bucks guard MichaelRedd, Robertson and formerBucks players Vin Baker,Junior Bridgeman, TerryCummings, Glenn Robin-son, Bob Dandridge,Marques Johnson, JonMcGlocklin, Ricky Pierceand Brian Winters.

Other members of thesquad are Abdul-Jabbar, Sid-ney Moncrief, Ray Allen,Sam Cassell, Paul Pressey,Jack Sikma, Bob Lanier,Quinn Buckner and AlvinRobertson.

From page 1

BUCKS

Big Owriteshis story

fortstobringtheexcitementofthe NBA to our loyal and pas-sionate fans across Europe,”NBA commissioner DavidStern said.

The Heat and Nets will playeach other in London and Par-is, while the Hornets and Wiz-ards meet in Berlin and Barce-lona, Spain.

Unlike in previous years,however, the NBA teams willnot play local teams on thetour.

The NBA is coming back toEurope for another tour nextseason.

The Miami Heat, New Jer-sey Nets, New Orleans Hor-nets and Washington Wizardswill play two exhibitiongames each on the Octobertrip to prepare for the 2008-’09season.

“Ourthirdconsecutiveyearof the NBA Europe Live is an-other step in our ongoing ef-

The first game between theHeat and Nets will be in Parisat the Bercy arena on Oct. 9.TheywillmeetagainonOct.12at the O2 Arena in London.TheHornetsandWizardsthenplay each other on Oct. 14 inBerlin at the O2 World, fol-lowed by another game be-tween the two on Oct. 17 at thePalauSantJordiinBarcelona.Request dismissed: A judge

dismissed a request for a re-straining order filed by for-

mer NBA referee Tim Do-naghy’s estranged wife be-cause she did not attend ascheduled court hearing inBradenton, Fla.

Records show Kimberly Do-naghydid not appear at a hear-ing after requesting protec-tion against her husband lastweek. Tim Donaghy’s attor-ney, Edward Sobel, told a judgeduring the hearing that theDonaghys shared an Eastermeal on Sunday.

NOTES

Four exhibition games are set for EuropeAssociated Press

Robertson

JSOnline.comRead Charles F. Gardner’s updatesat blogs.jsonline.com/bucks

Pistons 85, Heat 69Rookie Arron Afflalo had

career highs of 15 points andseven rebounds as Detroitclinched the Central Divisiontitle. The Pistons, who camein having lost three of four,were missing all-star guardRichard Hamilton (hip) forthe third straight game.