1997 Utah Starzz season explained

The 1997 WNBA season was the inaugural season for the Utah Starzz. The Starzz were partially named after the old ABA team, the Utah Stars, but with the zz at the end like the Utah Jazz. The franchise held the distinction of having the worst record in the WNBA in 1997.

Transactions

WNBA allocation draft

Player	Nationality	School/Team/Country
Elena Baranova		CSKA Moscow (Russia)
Lady Grooms		Georgia

WNBA elite draft

See also: WNBA elite draft.

Round	Pick	Player	Nationality	School/Team/Country
1	1	Dena Head		Tennessee
2	9	Wendy Palmer		Virginia

WNBA draft

See also: 1997 WNBA draft.

Round	Pick	Player	Nationality	School/Team/Country
1	5	Tammi Reiss		Virginia
2	12	Jessie Hicks		Maryland
3	21	Raegan Scott		Colorado
4	28	Kim Williams		DePaul

Transactions

Date	Transaction
January 22, 1997	Drafted Elena Baranova and Lady Grooms in the 1997 WNBA Allocation Draft^[1]
February 27, 1997	Drafted Dena Head and Wendy Palmer in the 1997 WNBA Elite Draft
April 19, 1997	Hired Denise Taylor as Head Coach
April 28, 1997	Drafted Tammi Reiss, Jessie Hicks, Raegan Scott and Kim Williams in the 1997 WNBA Draft
June 20, 1997	Waived Megan Compain

Schedule

Regular season

|- style="background:#fcc;"| 1| June 21| Sacramento| L 60–70| Tammi Reiss (14)| Baranova
Palmer
Reiss (7)| Lady Grooms (6)| Delta Center| 0–1|- style="background:#bbffbb;"| 2| June 23| Los Angeles| W 102–89| Wendy Palmer (28)| Elena Baranova (10)| Baranova
Reiss (5)| Delta Center| 1–1|- style="background:#fcc;"| 3| June 26| @ Cleveland| L 63–74| Wendy Palmer (15)| Wendy Palmer (12)| Baranova
Palmer
Williams (4)| Gund Arena| 1–2|- style="background:#fcc;"| 4| June 28| Houston| L 58–76| Wendy Palmer (14)| Baranova
Carter (6)| Booker
Palmer (4)| Delta Center| 1–3|- style="background:#bbffbb;"| 5| July 2| @ Sacramento| L 73–68 (OT)| Wendy Palmer (18)| Wendy Palmer (11)| Kim Williams (5)| ARCO Arena| 2–3|- style="background:#fcc;"| 6| July 3| Phoenix| L 55–77| Wendy Palmer (19)| Elena Baranova (12)| Hicks
Williams (2)| Delta Center| 2–4|- style="background:#fcc;"| 7| July 5| New York| L 53–66| Lady Grooms (14)| Wendy Palmer (10)| Kim Williams (4)| Delta Center| 2–5|- style="background:#fcc;"| 8| July 7| Sacramento| L 69–79| Wendy Palmer (20)| Wendy Palmer (6)| Lady Grooms (5)| Delta Center| 2–6|- style="background:#fcc;"| 9| July 11| @ Los Angeles| L 68–75| Wendy Palmer (17)| Elena Baranova (8)| Baranova
Williams| Great Western Forum| 2–7|- style="background:#bbffbb;"| 10| July 12| Phoenix| W 52–51| Wendy Palmer (15)| Wendy Palmer (10)| Lady Grooms (6)| Delta Center| 3–7|- style="background:#fcc;"| 11| July 14| @ Houston| L 56–79| Lady Grooms (14)| Elena Baranova (13)| Kim Williams (10)| The Summit| 3–8|- style="background:#fcc;"| 12| July 16| @ Charlotte| L 63–75| Palmer
Williams (17)| Tammi Reiss (7)| Reiss
Williams (5)| Charlotte Coliseum| 3–9|- style="background:#fcc;"| 13| July 17| @ New York| L 54–80| Grooms
Palmer (14)| Lady Grooms (6)| Kim Williams (4)| Madison Square Garden| 3–10|- style="background:#fcc;"| 14| July 21| @ Cleveland| L 68–95| Elena Baranova (25)| Elena Baranova (7)| Baranova
Williams (4)| Gund Arena| 3–11|- style="background:#bbffbb;"| 15| July 22| @ New York| W 78–71| Elena Baranova (23)| Wendy Palmer (10)| Reiss
Williams (4)| Madison Square Garden| 4–11|- style="background:#fcc;"| 16| July 26| Cleveland| L 66–77| Elena Baranova (26)| Elena Baranova (9)| Tammi Reiss (5)| Delta Center| 4–12 |- style="background:#fcc;"| 17| July 30| @ Los Angeles| L 69–91| Tammi Reiss (15)| Wendy Palmer (8)| Dena Head (7)| Great Western Forum| 4–13 |- style="background:#bbffbb;"| 18| August 2| Houston| W 74–63| Elena Baranova (17)| Elena Baranova (12)| Grooms
Head
Koss (3)| Delta Center| 5–13|- style="background:#bbffbb;"| 19| August 4| Charlotte| W 73–70| Baranova
Reiss (17)| Wendy Palmer (9)| Tammi Reiss (8)| Delta Center| 6–13 |- style="background:#fcc;"| 20| August 6| @ Phoenix| L 46–78| Elena Baranova (16)| Baranova
Palmer (5)| Tammi Reiss (5)| America West Arena| 6–14 |- style="background:#fcc;"| 21| August 8| @ Sacramento| L 78–93| Wendy Palmer (25)| Wendy Palmer (9)| Grooms
Reiss (4)| ARCO Arena| 6–15|- style="background:#fcc;"| 22| August 11| Cleveland| L 59–74| Tammi Reiss (12)| Wendy Palmer (11)| Lady Grooms (5)| Delta Center| 6–16|- style="background:#fcc;"| 23| August 12| @ Houston| L 56–76| Wendy Palmer (18)| Wendy Palmer (11)| Lady Grooms (4)| The Summit| 6–17|- style="background:#fcc;"| 24| August 16| Los Angeles| L 64–74| Wendy Palmer (27)| Wendy Palmer (13)| Tammi Reiss (4)| Delta Center| 6–18|- style="background:#fcc;"| 25| August 17| @ Phoenix| L 63–71 (OT)| Wendy Palmer (21)| Greta Koss (11)| Tammi Reiss (4)| America West Arena| 6–19|- style="background:#bbffbb;"| 26| August 19| New York| W 81–75| Wendy Palmer (19)| Wendy Palmer (9)| Dena Head (4)| Delta Center| 7–19|- style="background:#fcc;"| 27| August 21| Charlotte| L 56–66| Wendy Palmer (20)| Wendy Palmer (14)| Baranova
Head
Palmer
Reiss (3)| Delta Center| 7–20|- style="background:#fcc;"| 28| August 24| @ Charlotte| L 52–70| Jessie Hicks (13)| Elena Baranova (10)| Elena Baranova (4)| Charlotte Coliseum| 7–21

Season standings

Statistics

Regular Season

Player	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Wendy Palmer	28	28	33.4	.374	.250	.676	8.0	1.7	1.7	0.2	15.8
Elena Baranova	28	27	32.6	.390	.377	.694	7.4	2.2	1.5	2.3	12.2
Tammi Reiss	28	26	29.7	.312	.297	.764	2.8	3.1	0.8	0.1	7.7
Lady Grooms	28	24	24.7	.347	.100	.655	3.0	2.4	0.8	0.1	5.5
Kim Williams	28	10	21.7	.384	.265	.774	2.9	2.1	1.4	0.3	8.1
Greta Koss	13	10	20.6	.517	.667	.750	2.8	0.8	0.7	0.3	3.4
Dena Head	27	4	17.4	.390	.313	.884	2.3	1.7	0.5	0.3	5.7
Deborah Carter	18	7	15.9	.385	.143	.714	2.7	0.4	0.7	0.1	3.9
Karen Booker	26	4	12.3	.333	.000	.568	3.1	0.9	0.9	0.6	2.3
Jessie Hicks	26	0	10.1	.463	.000	.563	1.4	0.4	0.5	0.4	3.2
Reagan Scott	8	0	5.4	.385	N/A	1.000	0.9	0.1	0.1	0.4	1.5
Megan Compain	5	0	3.8	.286	,250	N/A	1.0	0.4	0.8	0.2	1.0

^‡Waived/Released during the season
^†Traded during the season
^≠Acquired during the season

Elena Baranova ranked third in the WNBA in total rebounds with 207
Dena Head ranked fifth in the WNBA in Free Throw Pct with .844
Wendy Palmer ranked second in the WNBA in total rebounds with 225.
Wendy Palmer ranked sixth in the WNBA in field goals with 157.
Wendy Palmer ranked fourth in the WNBA in points with 443 points.
Wendy Palmer ranked ninth in the WNBA in minutes per game with 33.4
Wendy Palmer ranked fourth in the WNBA in points per game with 15.8
Tammi Reiss ranked tenth in the WNBA in assists with 87.^[2]

Awards and honors

Elena Baranova: Led WNBA, Blocks, 63
Elena Baranova: Led WNBA, Blocks per game, 2.2
Elena Baranova, Ranked second in the WNBA (tied), Defensive Rebounds, 151
Wanda Guyton: Ranked second in WNBA (tied), Offensive Rebounds, 76
Wendy Palmer: Led WNBA, Field Goal Attempts, 420
Wendy Palmer: Ranked second in the WNBA, Free Throws, 117

External links

Starzz on Basketball Reference

Notes and References

Web site: 1997 Utah Starzz Transactions . 2024-05-28 . Basketball-Reference.com . en.
Web site: 1997 WNBA Season Summary.