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——
Friday, March 8,1985/The Battalion/Page 7
'S&Hi
mm ■■Ml
Aggies dreaming of NCAA’s
A&M needs good SWC tourney
to help guarantee an invitation
Texas A&M forward Kenny Brown (right)
eyes the goal as TCU’s Jamie Dixon (23)
eyes Brown in a game earlier this season.
Photo by DEAN SAITO
The Aggies and Horned Frogs will\eye one
another again at 12:08 p.m. today in the first
round of the Southwest Conference Classic.
By BRANDON BERRY
Sports Waiter
The Texas A&M men’s basketball
team is hoping “Big D” stands for
“Big Dreams” as they kickoff the
1985 Southwest Conference Postsea
son Basketball Classic against TCU
in Dallas’ Reunion Arena at 12:08
this afternoon.
“We’ve been dreaming of winning
the'tournament for a long time,”
said A&M junior forward A1 Pull
iam. “1 think we’ve got a real good
chance to win it.”
Should the Aggies get past the
Horned Frogs, they will face the
winner of the Texas Tech-Baylor
game in tomorrow’s semi-finals.
The winner of the tournament re
ceives an automatic bid to the NCAA
National Championship Tourna
ment. •
“1 jrhink we should definitely re
ceive NCAA consideration,” said
A&M Coach Shelby Metcalf . “1 don’t
understand talk that our conference
will only get two teams invited. From
top to bottom, we have one of the
best conferences in the country.
“The easiest thing would be to just
win the tournament and get invited
to the NCAA’s regardless.”
Seven other coaches at seven
other SWC schools have been telling
their teams the same thing — we
have a shot at a sure NCAA invita
tion if we win the SWC] tourney .
Texas Tech, the surprise SWC
regular-season champion with a 12-4
record and the team seeded to meet
A&M in Saturday’s semi-finals, is the
Rodney Daingerfield of the tourna
ment— they get no respect.
“I think Texas Tech is going to
have a tough time winning that tour
nament,” said ESPN sports commen
tator Dick Vitale. “Gerald Myers,
their coach, has done a great job of
preparing his team and having them
at their potential every time out.
“They’re a very intelligent and ex-
erienced team, but they don’t really
ave the talent of SMU or Arkansas,
i don’t think they will Ik* able to w in
against one of the really talented
teams if that team was having a
really hot night.”
SMU, one of the three teams tied
for second-place in the conference
with a 10-6 record, wasn’t expected
to need any “hot nights” to win the
tourney.
The Mustangs were everyone’s
pre-season pick to gallop away with
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the conference roses. And while they
have shown their talept and experi
ence against such non-conference
opponents as Louisville, Kentucky,
Oklahoma and North Carolina, they
frequently looked disjointed and
uninspired against their conference
rivals.
“Don’t let their record fool you,”
Metcalf said. “I don’t know what
their problem is, but you can bet
theyTl have it worked out before
they get into the tournament. If you
listen to talk around, SMU is still the
favorite because of their talent.
“They could still make it to the Fi
nal Four.”
Arkansas, the other team to tie
with the Aggies for second place at
10-6, has been to the Final Four once
in Coach Eddie Sutton’s tenure, but
the Razorbacks are in danger of not
making the tournament for the first
time in 10 years.
Senior 6-foot-11 postman Joe
Kleine has carried the young Hogs
on his shoulders, along with at least
two defenders from the opposing
team. The double-team defenses Ar
kansas faces are made possible by
their guards’ inability to nit the out
side shot.
But the SWC tournament and the
ensuing NCAA tournament don’t
use the 45-second shot clock that the
Razorbacks have been “forced” to
use during the regular season. Sut
ton’s slow-down, patient offense will
likely make the Hogs more of a
threat than when they couldn’t,
sometimes literally, wait all day to
take a high-percentage shot.
T CU, Texas and Houston all fin
ished the year within three games of
second place and they all have win
ning records for the season. They
are all considered long-shots, but
they are also considered “possible
upset-makers.”
Houston, who has been to the Fi
nal Four the past three years, is con
sidered especially dangerous.
“Houston has exceptional talent,”
Metcalf said, “and they’ve been there
before and that’s got to help. Alvin
Franklin is just an exceptional player
and you get the feeling they could
just explode at any time.
“But don’t forget about TCU.
(Coach Jim) “Killer” (Killingsworth)
always has them tough come tourna
ment time and they nave a fine team
this year. It’s not very comforting
knowing we have to play them in the
very first game.”
The Aggies’ schedule in the tour
nament appears to be an advanta
geous one.
They have matched up well
against TCU (winning both games
(his season) and T ech (splitting the
games 1-1), as opposed to the other
half of the draw, with SMU and Ar
kansas in which the Ags are 0-4 this
season.
The troubled Baylor Bears, with
the only losing record in the tourna
ment, round out the field.
How troubled?
During the regular season, the
Bears lost a player with one eye,
John Wheeler, who used his ears
and a tape deck to record,rules viola
tions by Coach Jim Haller.
Haller resigned, effective immedi
ately at the end of the season, and
the entire program has since under
gone a purge of “Biblical” propor
tions. Tne Bears are considered the
only real no-chancer in the tourna
ment.
But the Aggies do have a chance
— a good chance according to Met
calf.
“We have a chance to do some
good things in the tournament and
what we do will have a big say in
whether we get out of town af
terwards,” he said. “The guys have
had a good year and we need to keep
on doing what we’ve been doiijg
that’s been successful.
“Anybody could win it this year.
Just look at what’s been happening
the rest of the year.”
Maybe Baylor should start making
reservations for the NCAA’s.
Swimmers
vying lot
SWC title
Nash's Ags expecting
4th place team finish
By MARY McWHORTER
Reporter
Texas A&M swimming coach Mel
Nash said he expects the men’s swim
team to place fourth in the South
west Conference Men’s Swimming
and Diving Championships held at
Fayetteville, Ark. Thursday through
Saturday.
Nash said that Texas A&M has
several excellent swimmers to com
pete in the championship.
“Chris O’Neil could be a national
champion. He is that good,” Nash
said.
O’Neil has the best time in the
conference this year in the 100-yard
butterfly with a time of 48.76 sec
onds. This qualifies O’Neil for the
NCAA Championships to be held
March 28-30 at the University of
Texas in Austin.
John Heldenfels and Chris Emig
are other Aggies Nash expects to do
well.
Heldenfels has the fifth best time
in the 200-yard butterfly in the con
ference with a 50.22 and can be an
All-American, Nash said.
Emig is the leading Aggie swim
mer with a 52.51 in the 100 yard
backstroke and a 1:52.92 in the 200
yard.
“In all, we are deeper than we
have ever been,” he said. “Our 18th
man on this year’s team would have
probably been our tenth or 11th
man on any other team we’ve had in
the six years I’ve been here.”
Although the team began the sea
son with nine new members out of a
team total of 18, Nash said that it has
the potential to be most talented and
accomplished team that he has ever
had.
The Aggie men finished the 1984
season ranked fourth in the South
west Conference moving up from
fifth place. In ’84, Texas placed first,
Southern Methodist placed second
and Arkansas third.
Nash said he expects the results to
be about the same for the 1985 SWC
Championships.
“I would say that SMU and Texas
will fight it out as always for the team
championship,” Nash said. “Arkan
sas should be considered third and
us fourth.”
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