BASKETBALL : Harrick, Parks Get Together Amicably

His West team finished the Festival with one victory in four tries. He left without a medal. His final appearance featured a four-for-10 shooting effort.

Yet Duke-bound Cherokee Parks of Huntington Beach Marina High said his Festival experience had its moments.

For instance, he met with Coach Lon Kruger shortly after Tuesday’s bronze-medal game, in which the South beat the West, 104-94, and accepted an invitation to join the USA Junior World Championship roster. Twelve players will be selected from the tryout and will travel to Edmonton, Canada, for the July 26-Aug. 4 competition.

Parks also received a surprise visit from Jim Harrick. The UCLA coach, who was disappointed by Parks’ decision to attend Duke and the way that decision was handled--Harrick said UCLA deserved more than a phone call--hadn’t spoken to the star center since last fall. They chatted for several minutes and exchanged handshakes and a few smiles. If there was any ill will remaining from the recruiting wars, Harrick and Parks didn’t show it.

Parks, who had 15 points, six rebounds, four blocks and three assists in 34 minutes, said he didn’t know what to expect from the four-day tournament.

“I just came to play and get back in the groove,” he said.

Alabama’s Wimp Sanderson, who coached the South, said he had mixed feelings about professional players in Olympic basketball. Earlier this week, USA Basketball officials said the 12-man Olympic roster probably would include only two collegiate players and possibly only one.

“One side of me says we need to win and play the best people,” Sanderson said. “The other side says we need the college players.”

Asked which side he leans to, Sanderson said, “I’m a college coach. I guess I might be hopeful that several college kids would make (the Olympic team). That’s what I’ve done for 31 years.”

Despite entering the game with an 0-3 record, the women’s West team still managed to leave with a bronze medal, thanks to a 69-60 victory over the East.

“It’s pretty obvious we didn’t have the talent that some of the other teams had,” said West guard Christy Hedgpeth of Stanford.

No matter. Hedgpeth wasn’t about to part with her medal, even if it wasn’t gold.

“They’re cool,” she said. “We’ll just say it’s a little tarnished.”

How sensitive were Festival officials about the sparse crowds at Pauley Pavilion? Sensitive enough that the Festival administrator in charge of the postgame medals presentation asked ESPN if it planned to broadcast the ceremony.

The reason for the inquiry? The Festival official wanted to make sure ESPN cameras were pointed toward the side of Pauley that included the fewest empty seats.

Dick Bavetta has spent 16 years as an NBA referee, his most recent assignment being Game 4 of the championship series between the Lakers and the Chicago Bulls at the Forum.

Monday, he worked a women’s game for the first time in 20 years.

If means that Bavetta, in his 12th year as a referee for the Federation International de Basketball (FIBA), is in line for the Olympics, especially with NBA players at Barcelona in 1992, so much the better.

“Anything that includes the United States I’m certainly excited about,” he said. “Whether this is a prelude to the Olympics, I have no idea. That is not my decision to make. But if and when they ask me someday, I’d be honored.”

Of his approach to these games, Bavetta said: “It was really fun. In my mind, I absolutely do not differentiate between the men’s games and the women’s, because they don’t.”

Anita Scott of Southern Illinois may have had the most beneficial four days of any of the women’s players, earning a spot on the junior national team based largely on her play at the Festival.

The U.S. junior team, which begins practice Thursday at UC Irvine, opens with two games against their Canadian counterparts Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 4 p.m. at the Bren Center. Other players on the U.S. team are three Tennessee players--Lisa Harrison, Dana Johnson and Peggy Evans--and two from Maryland--Jessie Hicks and Katrina Colleton. The rest of the roster is Yconda Hill of Northern Illinois, Michelle Marciniak of Notre Dame, Hedgpeth of Stanford, Rebecca Lobo of Connecticut, Karen Jennings of Nebraska and Heidi Gillingham of Vanderbilt.

The women’s all-tournament team, led by most valuable player Evans: Hicks, Hill, Jennings and Johnson.

The men’s all-tournament team, led by most valuable player Glenn Robinson of Purdue: Dickey Simkins of Providence, Joey Brown of Georgetown, Eric Piatkowski of Nebraska, Wesley Person of Auburn, and Benjamin Davis of Kansas.