The previous year's dismal finish came with one highlight: the team won the draft lottery and the rights to power forward Elton Brand.

On Tuesday, as the spring 2001 haute couture collections appeared to be sliding toward a dismal finish, Mr. Lagerfeld presented the finest Chanel show in several years.

Nadal had a dismal finish to last year, but he is coming into this Australian Open with an adjusted racket, one in which the head weighs an extra ounce or two.

After another dismal finish in the 500, Burdick made up for it at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Perhaps the spate of injuries that marked the final month of the regular season and contributed to the season's dismal finish wiped out the underpinnings of their confidence.

The previous two dismal finishes followed off-seasons of high expectations.

- Senator Bill Bradley In October 1967, an unassuming, self-assured forward from Princeton reported for his first season with the New York Knicks, who were coming off a dismal fourth-place finish.

Losers of a school-record nine straight conference games, it continues to look like a team heading for dismal finish.

When it was all over, the dismal finish finally got to Rangers Coach Colin Campbell.

The Liberal Democratic candidate, Yasushi Akashi, a former United Nations diplomat, had a dismal fourth-place finish.