*
Page 14 THE BATTALIuin
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1979
Aggies open against Lamar
Ladies begin state tournament play
By BETH YOUNG
Battalion Reporter ,
The Texas A&M Aggie Ladies
basketball team set a goal for itself at
the beginning of the 1978-79 season.
That goal, according to Coach
Wanda Bender, was to make it to
the regional basketball tournament
and be one of the top four women’s
basketball teams in Texas.
The Aggie Ladies will have the
chance to achieve their goal this
weekend at the TAIAW State Tour-
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nament in Nacogdoches at Stephen
F. Austin State University.
“Teams were selected to play in
this tournament on the basis of their
win-loss record,” Bender said, “and
a committee seeded the teams on
what they feel like their records jus
tified.”
“It will be a 16-team, double
elimination tournament,“Bender
said. “Out of the 16 teams, half of
them are seeded according to their
season’s record and the other eight
teams are placed by a draw.’
The Aggie Ladies, who are 24-14,
were not among the seeded teams
and Bender said that they did not
draw well.
“We needed to be in the upper
bracket, bottom half,” she said, “be
cause there we would only have had
to defeat one difficult opponent to
be guaranteed fifth place and only
have to play four games. Where we
are, we’ll have to face four difficult
opponents and play five ball
games.”
The University of Texas is seeded
No. 1 in the tournament but Texas
A&M will not play the Longhorns
because they’re in a different brac
ket. However, A&M does have fifth
ranked North Texas State Univer
sity and third ranked Wayland in its
bracket as well as second ranked
Stephen F. Austin and seventh
ranked Lamar, which A&M will
play in the first round today at 11
a. m.
“The hardest team we’ll face after
we beat Lamar is SFA,” Bender
commented.
Bender said she feels it will be
hard for the team to achieve its goal
of being No. 4 in the state because
of the way A&M is placed in the
tournament.
“We ll have to beat SFA to do it,”
she said. “Realistically, we could
achieve our ultimate goal and gain a
berth in regionals.”
This is Bender’s second year to
take the Aggie Ladies to the state
tournament. Last year the Ags came
out tied for seventh place.
“I feel like if we’re playing good
ball up to our capabilities like the
last two games, we’ll come out fifth
out of 16,’ Bender said. “That would
give us a berth in the regionals
tournament which is at Oral Roberts
University in Tulsa, Ok., March
8-10.”
Bender said that she has been
working the team on man-for-man
defense, individual shooting, break
ing a press and improving its own
press.
“I thind we maybe could have
worked on man-for-man earlier in
the season,” she said, “and played
more man-for-man as well.”
Bender said that the Aggie Ladies
lost a lot of games that they should
have won this season due to injuries
and sickness.
“I feel that on any given night we
should be 34-4,” she said. “Only two
teams are capable of beating us
anywhere on any night and they are
the University of Texas at Austin
and the University of Nevada-Las
Vegas.”
Bender described this weekend’s
tournament as the most grueling
test of the season.
“We have to play five hard ball
games in three days if we make it to
the finals,” she said. “The girls are
ready. That will be our advantage.
The players are up at their peak and
we should go into this tournament
on a high note.”
The Aggie Ladies are ready.
Junior guard Von Bunn said that
she is looking forward to the tour
nament.
“We’ve played good in our last
two games and we re not going to let
Lamar beat us,” she said. “I think
we re going to surprise everybody.”
Senior Margaret Byrne also feels
that the Aggies will do well.
“I’m really looking forward to it,”
Byrne said. “We’ve been playing
good ball lately.”
Freshman Kelley Sullivan said,
“It’s going to be tough because we
have to play a lot of games but our
enthusiasm is good. I think we can
get into the top five.”
Bender said the starters for the
first game will be Bunn, Byrne, Sul
livan, Susan Kimbro and Peggy
Pope.
“I always substitute freely,” the
Aggie coach said, “but not as freely
in this touranment.”
She said that Lisa Hughes, Cindy
Gough and Julia Crawford will defi
nitely see a lot of action. The Aggie
Ladies will be playing without their
third leading scorer, Pat Werner,
who is out due to foot surgery last
week.
Bender said that the Aggies plan
to go to Nacogdoches and play the
best basketball they’ve played all
year.
“I will expect the maximum ulti
mate effort they’re able to give in
five games," Bender said. “If I get
that effort out of these Aggie Ladies,
we will achieve our goal. ”
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Southern Methodist University
rounded up one of the top recruiting
classes in the nation Wednesday and
the Mustangs’ overjoyed coach, Ron
Meyer, said his club had become a
contender for the 1979 Southwest
Conference championship.
SMU, which pulled off the re
cruiting coup of the year last week
in signing the state’s top two pros
pects and a dozen more players of
high regard, re-signed every one of
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them to a national letter of intent
Wednesday.
The Mustangs even managed to
outfight Oklahoma for the services
of one of the state’s top linemen,
Scott Gibson of Duncanville, who
had previously signed with the
Sooners.
Meyer personally signed the cor
nerstones of the recruiting crop —
running backs Eric Dickerson of
Sealy and Craig James of Houston.
Dickerson, perhaps the most
widely recruited ball carrier in the
country, signed with Meyer at 8:15
a.m. Wednesday and two hours
later James signed on with the Mus
tangs.
“We had our plow in some pretty
hard ground when we first came
here,” said Meyer. “But because of
some tremendous dedication and
some pieces falling together we re
just making progress in leaps and
bounds.
“This group really gives us good
credibility with people. We’re going
to be young, but we will be uninhi
bited.
“This group is going to get us into
position to be able to mount a
bonafide challenge for the confer
ence title this year.
“This is a heck of a day as a coach
ing staff for us and as a university.”
The work done by Meyer and his
SO YOU WANT TO BE A
CASINO GIRI
Well, you’d better trot up to the RHA office (216 MSC) by
5:00 p.m. Friday and turn in your application so you will
be eligible for the drawing Monday, February 26. All
females may enter — the only requirement being a
big smile and of course, no hot date on Friday, April
20 — the night of CASINO 79!! So don’t delay girls —
do something out of the ordinary — something alot of
fun — apply to be involved with CASINO 79 today (or at
least by Friday, February 23.)
band of assistants overshadowed the
efforts of the rest of the Southwest
Conference schools, although every
team in the league signed athletes
off the various blue chip lists.
Texas A&M and Texas Tech,
however, lost players they had
signed to SWC scholarship agree
ments last week. Running back
Royce Coleman, who had signed
with the Red Raiders, decided on
Oklahoma instead and defensive
back Donnie Fisher, highly re
cruited out of Port Arthur Lincoln,
jilted Texas A&M in favor of UCLA.
The rest of the state’s leading high
school players backed up their
commitments by signing national
scholarship agreements Wednes
day.
Quarterback Rick Mdvor of Fort
Stockton, tight end Dewey Turner
of Lubbock Estacado and wide re
ceiver Herkie Walls of Garland —
the top players signed by Texas —
stayed in the Longhorns fold.
Tech was able to keep quarter
back Mark James of Gregory-
Portland and lineman Matt Harlien
of Corpus Christi King. Texas
A&M, which had hoped to sign
Dickerson last week, counted wide
receiver Eference Murphy of
Texarkana as its leading prospect.
Arkansas fought off Notre Dame
for the services of lineman Billy Ray
Smith of Plano and Baylor came up
with an outstanding quarterbacking
duo of Rick Money of Dallas and Vic
Vines of Odessa Permina.
TCU also had perhaps its best re
cruiting crop in a decade, highligh
ted by the signing of quarterback
Reuben Jones from Tulsa. Jones had
been heavily recruited by Okla
homa, but the Sooners told him
they wanted him as a running back.
Jones, a quick-footed option quar
terback who also threw for 1,400
yards last year, wanted a chance to
be a signal caller in college. Both
Arkansas and TCU recruiters said
they would give him the opportu
nity to play quarterback and after
visiting Fayetteville last week Jones
signed with TCU Wednesday.
The Horned Frogs recruited coast
to coast, signing players from
California, Georgia and Pennsyl
vania.
Oklahoma’s annual invasion into
Texas was limited to only a few gains
this year. Dickerson was the Soon
ers’ chief target and they lost Gibson
to SMU.
In addition to the gains they made
last week, SMU beefed up its for
ward wall by signing Brian
O’Meara, a 6-6, 250-pound lineman
from Cleveland.
Texas A&M signees
Charlie Lowe, wr, 6-3, 190, Beaumont Forest
Park; Columbus Harris, rb, 5-11, 190, Bryan;
Mack Moore, lineman, 6-4, 245, Farraday, La.
(San Francisco City College); David Scott, wr,
6-0, 180, wr, Kilgore JC; Van Barnett, rb, 6-2,
185, West Orange Jeff Farrar, rb, 6-1, 190,
Grapevine; Kenny Ingram, lb, 6-2, 205, Cor
pus Christi Carroll; Raymond Jackson, line
man, 6-5, 255, Wharton; Don Jones, lineman,
6-3, 190, Nacogdoches, Buzzy Lane, rb, 5-11,
190, For Worth Wyatt; Mark McQueen, qb,
6-0, 185, Temple; Charles Milstead, db, 5-11,
175, Houston Lee; Eference Murphy, wr,
5-10, 173, Texarkana; Bobby Strogen, lb, 6-2,
230, Haughton, La.; Elvis Walker, rb, 5-9, 18,
Temple; Chuck Williams, lineman, 64, 245,
Gregory-Portland; Will Wright, lineman, 6-2,
218, Dallas Roosevelt.
RAP ON YOUR ROOMMATE!!
Enter “The Roommate Game”
to be played at the All Night Fair — Feb. 23
SIGN UP NOW IN RM. 216 MSC
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Call 845-1515
Game sponsored by SVS (Student Volunteer Services)
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viewpoint
By DAVID BOCGAN .
Battalion Sports Editor
Metcalf and Ags
wave banners high
One day last fall, someone went to the athletic departments
chest, took four maroon banners out of the mothballs and hung then |
on the south wall of G. Rollie White Coliseum.
The four faded flags commemorate Texas A&M’s SouthwestCoi.
ference basketball championships in 1964, 1969, 1975 and 1918,|
These are the four SWC titles claimed by Shelby Metcalf ini
16-year coaching career at Texas A&M.
Now maybe the cleaning, pressing and displaying of the ensi[»|
was just a make-work task assigned to keep people in the depart™
busy. Or perhaps the banners were taking up too much storage spactl
Or possibly this was Metcalf s way of saying to the omnipresent
omnipotent Aggie alumni, “Hey, look gang! I know wehadali
season last year, finishing 12-15 and all. But, see, I really havepn-|
duced winners. And things are going to get better, honest.”
WELL, YOU CAN PUT AWAY the ladder, hoys. You Won’S
hanging a new SWC championship banner this year. But one thingiij
almost certain; things are going to get better for the Texas,
basketball team.
As a matter of fact, things aren’t too bad for the Aggies rightni
Metcalfs young team finished a respectable third in the conferetf
behind a Texas team composed of seniors and an Arkansas senior A
composed a team. If not for three halves of had basketball
second half of the SWC season, the* Aggies would have a bye to Ik
semifinals of the post-season tournament instead of to the quarto!
nals. And they just might have had to make room for a fifth banner
THE AGGIES STARTING LINE-UP throughout mostofthesei
son consisted of junior Dave Goff, whose basketball smarts is
having a coach on the court; sophomore Tyrone Ladson, a transfo
who sat out last year gaining eligibility; sophomores Rynn Wri|
Vernon Smith, the Dallas Duo who were more fierce on the Mint
than rush hour traffic is on the Central Expressway and freshma
Rudy Woods, whose hard work and youthful enthusiasm eamedkii
an instant starting role. (The fact that he stood 6-foot-ll alongsidek
Converse didn’t hurt any, either.)
Add to that the bench help from David Britton and Albert Cultm
and later in the season from Steve Sylestine and Joey Robinson, aid
by golly if the Aggies didn’t have a team that could play 40 minutes:!
fairly decent basketball.
Metcalfs men won two holiday classics. They defeated San Fro
cisco, Nevada-Las Vegas and Kentucky on their way to an ll-2pte
conference record. They were beaten twice in the first half of SW
play, by SMU and Texas. It didn’t seem to matter that the A|
lacked a consistent outside shooter and a penetrating guard,
game was inside and underneath, where the big men hung out
only five games remaining in the season, the youthful Texas Aggia
were 9-2 and tied for first place in the SWC with the Longhorns,
spit
'f
BUT THERE COMES A TIME when experience wins out on
youthful enthusiasm. That time came for the Texas Aggies wta
Arkansas, Texas and Texas Tech discovered that there is a way
defense Rudy Woods, short of handcuffs. Sagging defenses, coup!
with A&M’s prior first half performances, dropped the Aggies(bi
first to fourth in the conference. They finished the season witha22
record, 11-5 and third place in the conference.
Now the Aggies set their sights on the SWC post-season tournt
ment. If they hope to scale the rough wall to the championship inti*
Summit, they must defeat Texas Tech (provided the Raiders bei
TCU Saturday), Arkansas and Texas (provided the Longhorns«
their semifinal contest). The odds of that happening are not in
favor, despite the fact that 1978 tournament champion HoustonJt
feated the same three teams in last year’s tourney.
Nevertheless, a tournament championship, an NCAA hid or
NIT invitation all remain as possibilities in Texas A&M s immedil
future.
JP
Texas A&M'
bis frequent
last season,
hoping for
And there is no doubt that the Texas Aggies are a teamoftlii|
future. Wright and Smith will be around for two more seasons. Lm
for Woods under the basket for three more years, provided he iso
lured away by the pros. And Metcalf is working hard to findacos-|
plement to his awesome front line — a shooting guard.
Indeed, the next few years should be banner seasons for i
basketball.
WHEN YOU BUY A CALCULATOR, THINK ABOUT
WHO’S GOING TO TAKE CARE OF IT.
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