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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 8, 1979)
THE BATTALION THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 1979 Page 9 the sports | IT action ggies play Lobos tonight LUfi: y,] By MARK PATTERSON Battalion Sports Staff It; has been a strange year of bas- tball for the Texas A&M Aggies, e |>pe that hasn’t been seen in ese parts in a long time. The team started the year win- Fredsiing tournament after pre-season leering’ IHament, slowly climbing in the lational polls and finally breaking itionm nta the Top 10 in January. But nidwav through Southwest Confer- >nce play the threads began to split tndlfhe new suit fell to rags. The Vggits have lost five of their last r Tower iven games, f-year [ The team was given new life fol- owing the loss to Texas Tech in the 10 p.m, ■season tournament last Thurs- iThe squad was invited to par- cipate in the National Invitational akon"! 1 Duffliament, the oldest post-season Roomcksketball tournament in the coun- m 261, MAW I good ol Abetting man would have to be a B— or an Aggie — to bet that exas A&M has a shot at winning e NIT. Not only is there the pos- bility that the Aggies would have ) travel to Lexington to face the nilersity of Kentucky again, hav- ra^eaten the Wildcats in the ■cat Invitational Tournament in |mber, but Texas Tech is also in NIT field. Tech beat the Aggies Rut-of-three times this season. jWfor the Aggies and Raiders to ej for a fourth time both would vejto make it to the finals at Madi- )n Square Garden in New York ■March 21. It’s going to be pretty tough for to win all those games on the ad, Coach Shelby Metcalf said of e kggies’ chances of making it to ew York. Because of the small sea- onalT rtngbapacity of G. Rollie White Col- seum and the lack of a guaranteed icket sales, Texas A&M will be d to play all its tournament on the road. ■eting alj welcome le Unive 1:30 p.Q i 18. :30 p. “This (the New Mexico game to night) will be our 19th game on the road this season,” Metcalf said. “We’re 11-1 at home but 11-7 on the road. “New Mexico is 15-1 at home this year and it was 16-1 at home last year. And they’ve already sold out the place (over 18,000 people). It sure would be nice to play at home or on a neutral court this time of year.” The NIT committee extended the invitation to Texas A&M Sunday and Interim Athletic Director Mar vin Tate accepted the bid. “This is one of those things that you just can’t turn down,” Metcalf explained. “If you turn them down once you’ll never be invited back again. I told Marvin to accept for the team.” The tournament bid caught the Aggies by surprise. Team members went to Houston hoping to go on to the NCAA post-season tournament, but the loss to Tech wiped out all hojpes of a bid. “We sure were surprised by the NIT bid,” said Joey Robinson, the only senior on this year’s team. “When we lost (to Tech) we heard that we wouldn’t be playing any more. Even Coach Metcalf came around and shook hands with all of us and said that he’d see us around campus. We thought we were through. “We found out Sunday night that we got the bid. We just came out to practice Monday and went to work again.” Vernon Smith was one of the Ag gies who had some idea that the team would receive a bid for post season play. Smith and Rynn Wright left for Dallas after the Tech loss and didn’t return to College Station until late Tuesday. “I was told that if we didn’t get into the (NCAA) tournament that we would get a bid to the NIT,” Smith said. “All we had to do was accept the bid when it was offered. But I thought that it would be two or three weeks from now, not hav ing to play Thursday. “But I think we’re definitely ready to play basketball. Why not? There’s nothing else to do. And be sides, the NIT is a step bigger than what we’ve been doing the past few years.” The Aggies have never appeared in the NIT tournament and haven’t been involved in the NCAA tour nament since 1975, when they were defeated in the first round by Cin cinnati 87-79. “ We re just going out and play for the fun of it, ” Dave Goff said of the Aggies’ attitude about the games ahead. “We re really in no shape to play mentally, but we have our pride on the line. We re just going to throw the ball up and see what happens. “It’s probably going to be harder to win two rounds in this tourna ment than in the NCAAs. In the first two rounds of the NCAA, there will be teams getting beat by 20 points or more. But with the teams the NIT got, I think all the games will be close.” The Aggies have no idea what to expect from the New Mexico Lobos. The last time the two teams face each other, in 1972, the Lobos took a 95-73 victory in Albuquerque. All Metcalf knows is that UNM will play five men on the court at once. “I couldn’t even tell you the name of one of their players,” Metcalf said. “I do know that they’ll press us all night and run up and down the court. They’ll play like Navada-Las Vegas — run all night.” Smith doesn’t think too highly of the competition he’ll face tonight. “How good can they be?” Smith questioned. “Hell, I never even hear anything about them. We’ve I got to be better.” That fact will be proven on the court, with tip-off scheduled for 8:30 p.m. CST. The game will be aired back to the Bryan-College Station area on KTAM radio. Don't Get Behind STAY AHEAD WITH SPEED READING I Business & Communication Services CALL TODAY! 846-5794 Rockets lose United Press International N DIEGO — Lloyd Free a game-high 34 points and Smith and rookie Freeman is combined for 44 Wednes- ight to power the San Diego ers to a 138-115 victory over ouston Rockets, ston was backed by Moses e and Robert Reid with 19 each. [omen’s tennis itch cancelled • The TAMU Women’s tennis f batch against Texas originally ppduled for 1:30 today has been ninln Belled. The game will be re- ^■duled later. when accompanied with Play it smooth: just pour Comfort* over ice and have your own rocks concert. Neat! A great performer with cola, 7UP, tonic, orange juice, milk, etc., too! 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