Search for the Starzz: Utah's squad scattered

"I even made a sacrifice on New Year's Eve," Williams added with a laugh, "and gave up chocolate and soda for the whole season. Chocolate is my favorite, so I gave up something I love the most.

"It was really hard at Easter because I love those little Cadbury eggs, but I made it through."

Her adopted twins, Sydney and Turasi, will probably be more upset than their mom when she finally leaves the game. "They might, just because they will miss seeing all the girls, especially since we don't have a franchise in Utah where we could go up after the games and say hi to everybody.

"They'll miss a lot of the girls. They're very close to my teammates. Turasi loves Diana Taurasi (a star on the Phoenix Mercury), and they love Sue Bird (Seattle) and Margo (Dydek) and Marie (Ferdinand).

"They'll miss them, especially Sydney. She talks about it a lot. She misses some of the players that aren't on the (Indiana) team from last year," Williams said, adding her kids are playing soccer and swimming in Indiana this summer.

Sydney and Turasi will accompany Williams on one Fever road trip this summer, going to Los Angeles and Phoenix, where they will be able to see family members.

Because Ferdinand injured an elbow partway through last season, Goodson was the only San Antonio player to start all 34 games in 2004. She averaged 10.9 points, grabbed a career-high 6.9 rebounds and 1.8 assists and then signed with Houston as an unrestricted free agent in the off-season.

Dydek was a draft-day acquisition for the Sun, which traded a pick for her, hoping the shot blocker can bring Connecticut over the top. It felt it was championship material last season.

Baranova is in her third season with New York. The Russian spent three with Utah, one with Miami and did not play in 2002.

Rasmussen played one game for Utah after spending the 2000 training camp here but caught on with Miami and became a starter with Indiana in 2003, was a backup in 2004 and is starting again since being traded to Houston.

Ivanyi has spent most of her career in Europe and helped her club to the European Final Four last winter. She was with the Starzz in 1999-2000.

E-mail: lham@desnews.com

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