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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 1979)
1 oncrief shut off as Hogs lose THE BATTALION Page 11 THURSDAY. JANUARY 18. 1978 -owboys, ithj nt - He was ^ of the Ye ill-time record :h l’ 325 yardsH By SEAN PETTY |llt he Still ItyjH Battalion Staff he first Via\f 0 |B)iuing the nationally televised Arkansas-North Carolina basketball nit excuses, I game Sunday, former Marquette nit 1 don t wanipoach Al McGuire boldly stated that d a lot of earl) (both teams would be in the NCAA s, not only ^tolrnament at the end of the year, earn. After tt,;' Someone forgot to tell McGuire on Nov. 5), 0! that the Razorbacks would have to the guys gotiJiect and defeat the Texas Aggies I think our t oefnrc returning to the post-season ring the seco^ournament. Hit was a typical Aggie-Razorback )cker room basketball game,” said Arkansas coach (Tom pead coach Eddie Sutton. “We got )ver us oranytm n box in the first half because we made us undHldn’t put down the easy shots. ' e to go out Ipc shot seven out of 23 in the first happen if and were only down by eight at ' the playoffs,palflime." iion. I thinkRazorbacks shot a cool 30 lackadaisical,, percent in the first half but warmed up in the second half shooting 63.3 percent from the field. “A good part of the low scoring and poor shooting percentage was the A&M defense. They played very good in the first half,” he said. It seemed that the Aggies had six and seven men on the court at a time. The major factor in the game was shutting down the Razorback s All-America candidate, Sidney Moncrief. Moncrief is the moving force and leader of the young Hog team and when he is stopped, the Razorbacks are stopped. He is the leading scorer for Arkansas and he had a 24.3 point-a-game average going into the game with the Ag gies. The Aggies swarming, aggres sive defense held him to 10 points. Moncrief was also the leading re am! although Miami, we pi*, he second hal led it all arourt )st a game sine viewpoint By MARK PATTERSON Battalion Staff juarterback 1 the tactics us« condary disni; use in their la ) meeting. ' for a lot of said Stauba! came on e it hurt usap hird-down are. I to pass on around. It mar in to run thee t difficult for mi. They wen d. Last of the ‘triplets’ will be remembered Sidney Moncrief. The name has commanded respect throughout the Southwest Con- were reallyfc erence for the past three seasons. The player has become a basket- legend in the hills of Arkansas. It was he, along with teammates Marvin Delph and Ron Brewer, io propelled the Razorbacks into the NCAA semi-finals last season, losing to Kentucky 64-59. Followers of Razorback basketball said the 978 team was the best ever assembled at Arkansas. It was hard to rgue the point. ; new rules i 1 to those ne their old defer® But this season the Razorbacks are struggling. Though the team step with therftai ted the y'ear hot, jumping off to a 10-0 start, the Hogs have ties backingl‘Adropped three straight games. Two have come in conference play, to ow they’re <k i the Texas Longhorns last Friday night and to the Texas Aggies VVed- r can’t keepr|nesday night. The Hogs are 2-2 in conference play, rules hurt alts that. allow us a lit! day.” IT HASN’T BEEN AN EASY YEAR FOR MONCRIEF. One oh lions reason is the absence of Delph and Brewer. The other two ■triplets”, as the three came to he known, were lost after last season. Brewer pursued his professional basketball career with the Portland nded his clukHrail Blazers. Delph nixed the pro’s offers and opted to join Athletes i in Action. ow exactly wh lade,” he said] ootball team! day by the is we can. Ifs use, mayb lon’t do anytll isents Moncrief was left to piece together what remained of last season’s conference co-champion. It’s been a struggle. In a game against Memphis State three weeks ago Moncrief injured his left knee. For the past five games the knee has hurt both Moncrief jnd the club. The injury was never more evident than against the .ggies Wednesday night. Moncrief was held to 10 points in the contest while pulling down four rebounds, far below his 24.3-point scoring average and 11.3 rebounding average. Coach Eddie Sutton said after the Razorback loss he had never seen Moncrief play that kind of a game. IN THE FIRST HALF AGAINST THE AGGIES the senior guard was held to six points, takng only three shots from the field. He blames himself on the poor performance. E “I can only blame myself, no one else, Moncrief said after the game. “I didn t have the initiative to go and get the basketball. I should have forced myself into the offense more. 1 "I just had one of those nights that no matter how I shot the ball it . wouldn’t fall. But I felt good out there. Wecame in ready to play. But i unlike last year (a 80-79 Arkansas victory in G. Rollie White) when k * A&M had to play catch-up, we had to tonight. We’ve had to in our last three games and it’s cost us each time. HURSDAtr Last season the Hogs were able to play their brand of basketball, a Tinesse game that forced their opponents into play at Arkansas tempo. But the smooth hall handlers are gone, and this year’s team must iepend on muscle to produce. ;Y 15-18 ripion jetor t ? “I’M FORCED TO HANDLE THE BALL MOBE this year be cause this team is so young, ” Moncrief, one of the two seniors on the team, explained. “With our size (nine players 6-foot-5 and over) we have the power to go inside we really didn’t have last year. I “But there is no way you can say this year’s team is better than last year’s. We re young. We haven’t been together long enough to know h„w everyone plays. We have the potential to he good. It will come with time. But time is the one thing Sidney Moncrief is running out of at the yjniversity of Arkansas. He’s in his last season of basketball under ddie Sutton. After this year it’s on to the pros for the last “triplet". But the 7,667 people who watched the Razorbacks play the Aggies Wednesday night saw one of the best that has ever played Southwest Conference basketball at work. The art of Sidney Moncrief will be missed. And remembered. > H! ERS D r the %cath(lo((eq&Aoe.******* Hrtppy Alffe— Tuestay fTMtf&my elVlCHEgBeeR ,3o ysoa 18,1 fteE AtoSfdi bounder in the Southwest Confer ence with 11.3 a game before the Aggies allowed him only four re bounds the whole night. “I have never seen Sidney Moncrief play like that since he’s been at Arkansas,” Sutton said. “He fumbled the ball, missed shots he would usually make and even missed a couple of dunks. “I talked with (assistant coach Bob) Cleeland right after the game about Sidney’s play and we just can’t figure it out. And he just can’t jump with that hurt knee. " “It’s not that I couldn’t jump, I just didn’t,” a dejected Moncrief said. “I just didn’t concentrate when I missed those dunks. One of them I was so open I looked down court and saw someone coming and blew it.” It took 6-9 freshman, Scott Hast ings, who came out of the Razorback locker room smoking after halftime to keep the Hogs in the game. After attempting only one shot in the first half and missing that one, Hastings opened up in the second half for 20 points while the Hogs battled the Aggies down to the wire and be yond. “I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, Hastings said. “There were a lot of holes in their zone so we just kept breaking inside for easv shots.” “We forced the Aggies out of their defense at the beginning of the sec ond half,” Sutton said. “But then Shelby went back to the 2-1-2 zone and took away our inside shot. ‘The last three teams played ran a zone defense and we lost all three games,” he said. “We aren’t a good outside shooting team and our main attack is inside. We can’t afford to give up the easy bas kets dr miss free throws. “Hastings is learning how to play major college basketball very fast,” he said of the freshman. “He has matured a lot quicker than we thought. I guess he was a little timid about shooting in the first half but he certainly kept us in the game in the second half. While the Hogs have had their problems shooting from outside, it was just that, a 27-foot jumper at the buzzer by freshman Tony Brown that sent the game into overtime. “We felt we would win the game after Brown sank that shot at the end of the game, Sutton said. "But when Sidney missed that first shot after we had won the jump at the beginning of the overtime, I knew we were in trouble. The Hogs were in trouble to stay as the Aggies regained their compo sure and scored 12 points to Arkan sas’s seven in the five minute over time period. “Although we lost the game, it helped everyone’s confidence, Hastings said. “We are maturing to gether. Besides, we were picked to finish fourth in the conference and knows we are cham- we ve everyone pionship contenders now. We just need to play 40 minutes instead of 20,’ he said, “we ll be ready by the conference tourna ment. Everyone, including Al McGuire, knows that Arkansas is a cham pionship contender. But before the Hogs prepare their travel plans for the NCAA tournament, they better make sure the Aggies don’t have the same trip in mind. j BIBLE FOR CREDIT I Bible courses for university credit will be offered this semester at the A&M Church of Christ on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from 3:30 to 4:45. The courses are accredited by Abilene Christian University and are transferable to other universities. The courses offered are: Old Testament Survey (Bible 2323) which includes a study of Genesis through Esther. New Testament Survey (Bible 1302) which includes a study of Acts through Revelation. Registration will be accepted Thursday, January 18, at 3:30, or Tuesday, January 23, at 3:30, which will be the first class meeting. The charge for course credit is $10 — no charge for auditing. At last! An athletic store that specializes in specialized equipment. 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