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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 12, 1978)
Page 10 THE BATTALION TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 197B Rockets miss Lucas By GARY TAYLOR United Press International HOUSTON — The Houston Rockets loss of guard John Lucas as compensation for signing free agent Rick Barry is becoming the biggest pro sports blunder in this town since the Houston Astros traded Joe Morgan, Cesar Geronimo and others to the Cincinnati Reds. It’s too early to evaluate the deal for Rick,’ Rockets president and general manager Ray Patterson said. But less than 24 hours before he spoke quietly about the Rockets’ current backslide, the team’s plush offices rang with the sounds of shouting matches between Patter son and third-year Rockets coach Tom Nissalke over a narrow loss. 'My relationship with Tom is the same as it’s always been,” Patterson said. “We ve known each other for 30 years. Even though I know his strengths and he knows mine, we both start talking at the same time and the loudest one wins.” The Rockets are hurting withoul the ball-h andling and play-making of Lucas, who was awarded to Gol den State by the NBA commissionei as compensation for Houston sign ing the Warriors’ Barry in June This season Nissalke has tried foui players at the lead-guard position, “It’s a matter of finding the right combination that can sustain us for 48 minutes,” Patterson said. The Rockets record after a mid week loss to Washington was 0-12. The team of deadeye outside shoot ers Rudy Tomjanovich, Calvin Murphy, Mike Newlin and Barry has been awesome in a few of those games. But they show no consis tency and no stability one-eighth of the way into the NBA season. Barry has been moved from posi tion to position. He is scoring 15.8 points per game, handing out an av- eage of 7.3 assists and grabbing four rebounds a game. He was hampered C ommentary SELL YOUR BOOKS UNIVERSITY BOOKSTORE NOItTHOATE CULPEPPER PLAZA by an ankle sprain in the first three weeks of the season. Lucas is averaging 19.7 points, 10.9 assists and 3.3 rebounds. Following a game in which he had hit one of nine field goals, Barry sat patiently on his locker room stool and answered questions until every reporter had left. Patterson engineered the signing of Barry to a two-year, $1 million contract after the former ABA and NBA all-star bacame disaffected with the Golden State management. “We went for broke,” Patterson said. “We wanted to eat our cake, too. And away we go, we thought. We didn’t get that.” The criticism is tough for Patter son to take because in recent years he had NBA people watching his deft moves. He traded for hard-to- handle center Moses Malone and WE BUY BOOKS EVERY DAY! And remember we give 20% more in trade for used books. LOUPOT’S BOOKSTORE Northgate - Across from the Post Office 1700 Feet From The Villa Maria Exchange On Farm Rd. 2818 MOOD’S OF MUSIC ^ Ladies: Free Men: $2.00 pitcher beer $1.75 -BEST IN LIVE COUNTRY WESTERN ENTERTAINMENT" HOURS Thurs., Fri. 7:00-12:00 Sat., 8:00-1:00 9 OUT OF 10 PUPPIES PREFER THE BATTALION §,fm Are you dissatisfied with i£tive prices t * * * * * * * * * * Fast efficient * * Wash, dry and fold Dry cleaning Starch and iron Self service washateria Open 24 hours/day FREE self service steam pressing * * 3702 S. College has make him a star attraction. He drafted Lucas, an unheralded guard, as the first selection in the 1976 college draft and Lucas im mediately took the Rockets to the NBA playoff semifinal round. Before the start of this season, however, NBA Comissioner Lawr ence O’Brien ruled that Houston must give Golden State starting guard Lucas as compensation. “Yes, we knew when we went after Rick that we might have to give up John,” Patterson said. “I’m not so sure that we would be a better ballclub right now with the front line we had before Rick.” Meanwhile, Lucas’s Warriors had beaten Houston twice and were 13-11 at midweek. “John is doing a good job for them,” the club president said, "but I’ll make you a little side bet that we win as many games as Golden State.” Barry says the compensation price was too high. “Frankly, I was upset. Because of the difference in our ages John Lucas can give the Warriors 10 more years than I can. To have John Lucas passing the ball to me, that was one of the big reasons why I came to Houston,” Barry said. Lucas, 25, appears durable. Barry, 34, says he does not plan to play next season. The big winner of the Rockets poor play may be the image of the baseball franchise in town. A repu tation of front office mistakes under a previous management group re mains attached to the Astros six years after the infamous trade in which they acquired Lee May, Tommy Helms and Jimmy Stewart for Morgan, Geronimo, Jack Billin- gham, Dennis Menke and Ed Armbrister. But that reputation could be pushed farther back in the file by the Rockets’ possible mis take. The shuffling caused by Lucas’s loss has unsettled several Rockets veterans as well as the management personnel. Immediately after the Rockets blew a 9-point fourth quarter lead Wednesday night, Patterson broke his personal rule of never going into team’s locker room. In the past he has not wanted to seem to interfere with his coaches’ decision. In a loud voice, Patterson asked Nissalke to come to his office. Thirty minutes later the two emerged to find a group of reporters waiting. Nissalke dodged questions. Patterson asked that reporters call back the next day. dp (V70 TAKE A BREAK PROM FINALS AND HELP *H£ AGG/ES BE At PRAIRIE VIEW lUESDWlY RIGHT / t MJlPPy wnTHbnr you t 'a' * rv ’ '• «*• Vii.T '*,< I\ -A the bait IS YEARS OLD Timer, irder v Horned Frogs playing catch- United Press International This is the seventh in a series of' articles profiling Texas A is-M's 1979 Southwest Conference basketball opponents. FORT WORTH — The two teams that have the farthest to go to catch up with the improving image of Southwest Conference basketball are Rice and TCU. Rice coach Mike Schuler says his team is on its way and so does TCU’s Tim Sommerville. “I’m glad last year is over,” said the Horned Frogs coach,. “We will be a much improved team from last year. There is no way to compare. “I’m pleased with our freshman. They are exciting. We are going to build a program with freshman.” The TCU squad will have only two seniors and one junior on it and among the more highlight thought of first-year players at TCU are 6-4 Ed Wineinger of Indianapolis, 6-4 Mark Nickens of Washington D.C., and 6-6 John Manshury of In dianapolis — all of whom started in a warmup game against a team from Finland. Sophomore Larry Frevert and senior Steve Scales will be the other starters. “Wineinger may be the best shooter this school has had in some years,” said Sommerville. “Last year there were times when we reached our level and could not play any better (despite a 4-22 record). “This year I think we can improve every game because we have talent to improve upon.” Sommerville plans to use this new talent to do some different things at TCU. “Instead of walking the ball down the floor we intend to run it,” he said. “We walked it down the floor last year in hopes of cutting down on our mistakes and we turned it over 26 times a game. In the Finland game we had 16 turnovers. We looked basically for guards when we recruited and we are going to be 20,000 per cent better in our guard play.” merville admitted. “We i some confidence I hope. It’s J| C1 work on your mistakes whr ^ ie 60 points behind. “ And when we win it i look like a better coach.” Sommerville said that tht thing that he asked from hiss last year was to lead the fe grabbing loose halls andfloorh Sommerville decided that his youthful club was going to have to have some confidence builders so he has managed to put such teams on his schedule as St. Edwards, Santa Fe, Trinity, Wayland Baptist, Califomia-San Diego, Roosevelt and Robert Morris (twice). “Our schedule is easier,’’ Som- “We did that, he said, will do it again this year ft thing is that this year wed more talent. “When we played Finland* more people in the stands tla| did for most of our home j year. And when they left theilj smile on their face. TCU presently holds as record of 2-4. 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