THE 1978 PAN AMERICAN GAMES : Notes : U.S. Women Counting On Cooper to Help Harness Hortensia

Cynthia Cooper, a guard who played for USC, will be one of the U.S. basketball players charged with the responsibility of playing defense against Brazil’s Hortensia in the Pan American Games’ women’s tournament starting here today.

How good is Hortensia? Well, as U.S. Coach Jody Conradt put it: “I only know of three athletes good enough to be known by first name only--Pele, Reggie and Hortensia.”

Cooper, though, will be no stranger to the Brazilian star. When the United States beat Brazil in the Goodwill Games last year in Moscow, 91-70, Cooper held Hortensia to 20 points--quite a feat considering that Hortensia had 46 points against Cheryl Miller in the Pan Am Games of 1983.

The United States won the gold in Moscow. Brazil won the bronze.

Conradt said that Brazil was her biggest concern here, but that Cuba was also of concern as an unknown. “We haven’t seen them for a while,” she said.

Peru is first on the Americans’ agenda tonight, with Brazil scheduled for Saturday afternoon.

This U.S. team is without two of its star players--Miller, who injured a knee months ago, and Cindy Brown, who hurt her knee just last week.

“We’ve been hurt at the No. 3 position (small forward) but we’ll adjust,” Cooper said. “On a talented team like this, there will be players who step up. Depth is our biggest ally.

“I played on a USC team that had to adjust to playing without Cheryl (after she had graduated), so I know what a big job that is. As one of the oldest players, I’ll have to take on more of a leadership role. And I think I’ll feel a little more pressure to score.

“But nobody replaces a personality like Cheryl. She’s just radiant. She’s so outgoing, and she’s always getting the job done, getting everybody else going. . . . Nobody can do it like she does. Nobody can even try.”

Still, there is a lot of basketball talent on this experienced team, even without Miller. Guard Teresa Edwards and 6-foot 7-inch center Anne Donovan--who was appointed a part-time assistant coach at her alma mater, Old Dominion just last week--were on the gold-medal Olympic team.

Edwards was the first person who came to mind Monday when Conradt was asked who the best player on the team was. “It’s hard to anoint someone like that, but I will say that Teresa Edwards is a dominating player,” Conradt said.

“To sit there, after all these years of watching basketball, and see some of the things she does, you just say, ‘Did I really see that?’ A lot of players fly out of the pack and utilize speed, quickness and speed. But Teresa Edwards is just a blur.”

Cooper’s goal is the ’88 Olympics. Since finishing at USC, she has also played on the ’86 World Championships team. Last fall she played in Spain, and will play in Italy in a semi-pro league this winter, staying sharp for competition with the U.S. team next summer.

That’s a long way from the playground at Locke High School or the sandy court at Venice Beach.

“That’s where I began, with street ball,” Cooper said. “But then so did Michael Jordan and a lot of others.”

Andrew Liberman, executive director of the Santa Monica-based Baseball Diplomacy, Inc., said Tuesday he has received a commitment from Cuban baseball officials to send a team to California next May.

Liberman said that sites and teams have not been selected but that the tour would be similar to the one the Nicaraguan national team made last September, when it played games at UCLA, Cal State Long Beach, College of the Canyons and Cal Berkeley.

He said the Cubans will not send their national team, currently playing in the Pan Am Games here, but rather the championship team from the Cuban league. The Cubans will make the trip in conjunction with a tournament in Mexico.

CBS’ coverage of the opening weekend of the Pan American Games was beaten in the ratings by football, golf and baseball.

The network’s three-hour telecast of the opening ceremonies at Indianapolis Saturday received an average 3.9 rating in 15 major cities.

Two competing telecasts, the PGA championship golf tournament on ABC and major league baseball on NBC, received higher ratings. The third round of the PGA received a 4.4, baseball a 6.7.

On Sunday, CBS’ five-hour Pan Am telecast received a 3.4 rating. That compared with a 10.1 rating for the NFL exhibition game between the games and the Denver Broncos at London on NBC and a 4.8 for the final round of the PGA on ABC.

Linda Levens, CBS’ director of program analysis, said the early Pan Am ratings weren’t surprising because popular events like gymnastics and track and field “have yet to take hold.”

Times staff writer Randy Harvey and the Associated Press contributed to this story.