# 1997 Utah Starzz season

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 | Soviet Union | CSKA Moscow (Russia) |
| Lady Hardmon | United States | Georgia |

### WNBA elite draft

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

### WNBA draft

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

### Transactions

| Date | Transaction |
| January 22, 1997 | Drafted Elena Baranova and Lady Hardmon in the 1997 WNBA Allocation Draft |
| 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

1997 game log Total: 7–21 (Home: 5–10; Road: 2–12) :
June: 1–3 (Home: 1–2; Road: 0–1)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
1
June 21
Sacramento
L 60–70
Tammi Reiss (14)
Baranova Palmer Reiss (7)
Lady Hardmon (6)
Delta Center
0–1
2
June 23
Los Angeles
W 102–89
Wendy Palmer (28)
Elena Baranova (10)
Baranova Reiss (5)
Delta Center
1–1
3
June 26
@ Cleveland
L 63–74
Wendy Palmer (15)
Wendy Palmer (12)
Baranova Palmer Williams (4)
Gund Arena
1–2
4
June 28
Houston
L 58–76
Wendy Palmer (14)
Baranova Carter (6)
Booker Palmer (4)
Delta Center
1–3 :
July
: 3–10 (Home: 1–4; Road: 2–6)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
5
July 2
@ Sacramento
L 73–68 (OT)
Wendy Palmer (18)
Wendy Palmer (11)
Kim Williams (5)
ARCO Arena
2–3
6
July 3
Phoenix
L 55–77
Wendy Palmer (19)
Elena Baranova (12)
Hicks Williams (2)
Delta Center
2–4
7
July 5
New York
L 53–66
Lady Hardmon (14)
Wendy Palmer (10)
Kim Williams (4)
Delta Center
2–5
8
July 7
Sacramento
L 69–79
Wendy Palmer (20)
Wendy Palmer (6)
Lady Hardmon (5)
Delta Center
2–6
9
July 11
@ Los Angeles
L 68–75
Wendy Palmer (17)
Elena Baranova (8)
Baranova Williams
Great Western Forum
2–7
10
July 12
Phoenix
W 52–51
Wendy Palmer (15)
Wendy Palmer (10)
Lady Hardmon (6)
Delta Center
3–7
11
July 14
@ Houston
L 56–79
Lady Hardmon (14)
Elena Baranova (13)
Kim Williams (10)
The Summit
3–8
12
July 16
@ Charlotte
L 63–75
Palmer Williams (17)
Tammi Reiss (7)
Reiss Williams (5)
Charlotte Coliseum
3–9
13
July 17
@ New York
L 54–80
Hardmon Palmer (14)
Lady Hardmon (6)
Kim Williams (4)
Madison Square Garden
3–10
14
July 21
@ Cleveland
L 68–95
Elena Baranova (25)
Elena Baranova (7)
Baranova Williams (4)
Gund Arena
3–11
15
July 22
@ New York
W 78–71
Elena Baranova (23)
Wendy Palmer (10)
Reiss Williams (4)
Madison Square Garden
4–11
16
July 26
Cleveland
L 66–77
Elena Baranova (26)
Elena Baranova (9)
Tammi Reiss (5)
Delta Center
4–12
17
July 30
@ Los Angeles
L 69–91
Tammi Reiss (15)
Wendy Palmer (8)
Dena Head (7)
Great Western Forum
4–13 :
August
: 3–8 (Home: 3–3; Road: 0–5)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
18
August 2
Houston
W 74–63
Elena Baranova (17)
Elena Baranova (12)
Hardmon Head Koss (3)
Delta Center
5–13
19
August 4
Charlotte
W 73–70
Baranova Reiss (17)
Wendy Palmer (9)
Tammi Reiss (8)
Delta Center
6–13
20
August 6
@ Phoenix
L 46–78
Elena Baranova (16)
Baranova Palmer (5)
Tammi Reiss (5)
America West Arena
6–14
21
August 8
@ Sacramento
L 78–93
Wendy Palmer (25)
Wendy Palmer (9)
Hardmon Reiss (4)
ARCO Arena
6–15
22
August 11
Cleveland
L 59–74
Tammi Reiss (12)
Wendy Palmer (11)
Lady Hardmon (5)
Delta Center
6–16
23
August 12
@ Houston
L 56–76
Wendy Palmer (18)
Wendy Palmer (11)
Lady Hardmon (4)
The Summit
6–17
24
August 16
Los Angeles
L 64–74
Wendy Palmer (27)
Wendy Palmer (13)
Tammi Reiss (4)
Delta Center
6–18
25
August 17
@ Phoenix
L 63–71 (OT)
Wendy Palmer (21)
Greta Koss (11)
Tammi Reiss (4)
America West Arena
6–19
26
August 19
New York
W 81–75
Wendy Palmer (19)
Wendy Palmer (9)
Dena Head (4)
Delta Center
7–19
27
August 21
Charlotte
L 56–66
Wendy Palmer (20)
Wendy Palmer (14)
Baranova Head Palmer Reiss (3)
Delta Center
7–20
28
August 24
@ Charlotte
L 52–70
Jessie Hicks (13)
Elena Baranova (10)
Elena Baranova (4)
Charlotte Coliseum
7–21 :
1997 season schedule :

### Season standings

| Western Conference | W | L | PCT | Conf. | GB |
| Phoenix Mercury $^x$ | 16 | 12 | .571 | 9–3 | – |
| Los Angeles Sparks $^o$ | 14 | 14 | .500 | 8–4 | 2.0 |
| Sacramento Monarchs $^o$ | 10 | 18 | .357 | 4–8 | 6.0 |
| Utah Starzz $^o$ | 7 | 21 | .250 | 3–9 | 9.0 |

## 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 Hardmon | 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.

## 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