Basketball

LONDON - Manu Ginobili is a balding, 35-year-old father of twins, and the rest of Argentina's "Generacion Dorada" (Golden Generation) is getting up there in basketball years, as well. Their average age is 32. Despite the receding hairlines, they still play and celebrate with the same youthful exuberance they showed back in 2002, when they toppled Team USA at the world championships, and again in 2004, when they upset the NBA-led Americans in the Athens Olympics semifinal. LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Carmelo Anthony were on that U.S. team.

As a field-event performer in track, Cherokee senior Jess Woodard has gained a national reputation for all her accomplishments. And while it is impressive enough that she won the shot put and placed second in the discus at the New Balance Nationals this summer in Greensboro, N.C., or that she has twice won the discus title at the NJSIAA Meet of Champion, Woodard's work in her so-called second sport tells a great deal about her competitive nature...

Matt Blundin apparently will not attend Penn State, Stanford or Notre Dame on a football scholarship. Indeed, the multitalented Ridley High athlete has decided not to play football in college at all, opting for basketball instead, Ridley athletic director Jack Cleghorn said yesterday. Cleghorn said he was notified of the decision by the Blundin family earlier in the day. Blundin, a 6-foot-7, 210-pound all-state quarterback, had scheduled a news conference for last month, saying that he would indicate at that time whether he would play football at Penn State, Notre Dame or Stanford.

ROBERT "JAY" McKEE was no angel, but he flew like he had wings. He got the name "Elevator Man" as a troubled teen, playing basketball in a summer league at Chew Playground after a 15-month stint at Glen Mills reform school. The moniker stuck at South Philadelphia High, where he wowed crowds as a 6-foot-2 forward with an insane vertical leap. Dude could dunk. Ask his mom. "He leaps out of the gym," said Elicia McKee. "Elevator going up . . . " That's why there was a soggy basketball sitting in a milk crate Tuesday afternoon at 12th and Bainbridge streets, where McKee was gunned down hours earlier.

Floyd Preito carried Constitution as far as he could, but a first-half deficit proved too much to overcome as the Generals lost to Holy Cross, 75-61, in a PIAA Class AA state boys' basketball quarterfinal Saturday at Parkland High School in Allentown. Preito scored 28 points and was the lone General in double digits. The junior guard took advantage of his foul shots, draining 9 of 11. Constitution (18-10) couldn't recover after a first half in which it trailed Holy Cross (26-5), 36-20.

Central High named Frank Greco the head coach of its defending Public League champion girls' basketball team, athletic director Dave Jones announced yesterday. Greco, 47, will leave his position as the school's head boys' basketball coach, a job he has had for the last 16 1/2 seasons. The school will continue to interview applicants for that position through Friday, Jones said. "Coaching the girls' team will be a new challenge and something that I'm looking forward to," said Greco, whose daughter, Tina, a sophomore, plays on the team with returning standouts Lauren Clark, Becky Richmond and Lillian Brenner.

Jonathan Taylor has been named the new boys' basketball coach at Pennsauken after a successful season as the girls' basketball coach at Camden. A 2000 Pennsauken graduate, Taylor replaced Cetshwayo Byrd, who wasn't rehired, according to athletic director Billy Wright. In his only season at Camden, Taylor guided the Panthers to a 20-7 record. The Panthers advanced to the semifinals of the South Jersey Group 2 tournament before losing to eventual champion Haddonfield, 50-42 "This is a great opportunity for me to come home," Taylor said.

William H. "Big Daddy" Murphy, 84, a congenial tavern owner and longtime basketball officiator, died of heart failure Friday, March 18, at home in Roxborough. Mr. Murphy purchased a bar in Roxborough in 1968, and Murphy's Tavern became a popular gathering place for neighbors and sports figures, including former Dodgers manager Tony Lasorda and high school and college basketball coach Speedy Morris. Don Tollefson, who hosts a pregame TV show for the Eagles, discovered the bar in 1975 soon after moving from California to Philadelphia to be a reporter for WPVI-TV.

Sherri Retif, who spent the last four seasons as the girls' basketball head coach at Sun Valley High, was named to that position yesterday at Germantown Academy. Retif takes over for Jim Buckley, a 16-year veteran who compiled a 240-89 record. Buckley resigned in April and will be a part-time assistant for the Philadelphia Pharmacy women's basketball team next season. "She has a real strong background in terms of education and basketball," Germantown Academy athletic director Jim Fenerty said.