/ Page 2B THE BATTALION TUESDAY. JANUARY IS 198(1 Qf U^LAS- TE5&9 AM (SAMe ya»or A&M risks unbeaten record on the road against SMU By TONY GALLUCHI Sports Editor Texas A&M takes its once-tested, unblemished SWC record of 3-0 to Dallas tonight for the first of four tough road games in the quest of the school’s 10th basketball champion ship. The Aggies have always had trou ble winning in Dallas. In fact they haven’t in four years. This year promises to be no easier as the Mus tangs of coach Sonny Allen return all but one starter from last year and add two of the most looked at newcomers in the Southwest Conference in JC- transfer Ollie Hoops and freshman Dave Piehler. • “That’s an important ballgame for us,” said Aggie head coach Shelby Metcalf. “Arkansas sure kept the pressure on yesterday (beating Texas 55-50 in Austin). “We re gonna put Rynn (Wright) on (Brad) Branson. Branson’s 6-10 but he’s also very strong and Rynn can stand there and muscle with him. If Rynn gets into foul trouble then we have two options — we can either put Rudy (Woods) on him or we can use Claude (Riley). “Then they have Harris (Richard), he’s a sound, all-around player. We ll start Rudy on him. And of course Billy Allen gives us fits and that’s a problem for us because he’s so quick and he’s got good size. Goff will start on him. Tyrone (Ladson) will be able to give us some relief there. If we have both Tyrone and Goff on 6-4 (Phil) Hale. Britton will start out on Hale. At the other for ward they’ve started Hoops and Piehler and (Gordon) Welch has played there. Vernon (Smith) will start the game on Johnnie James, the one they started there last night. They got quite a few people they bring in to change their lineup. “It’s so easy to get up there and get to running with them. They’ll work the zone press on you. We’ve just got to be patient with them. The zone is something the Aggies have been seeing more of lately. “It’s not gonna cause us trouble. Minnesota had a better zone but, the thing is, sometimes they (SMOj a tendency to give a feeling t open and you’ll be a littlefurti# than a good percentage shot main problem will he stoppingl break and the second thing ish ling the press. Whip those t\so| and you have a good chance oft ing them. “If we can just get that gooJtj on the boards we can put somet; back in. LaSalle Thompson (li had 25 points up there (againsti and I know he’s not as active the boards as Rudy.’’ Game time is 7:10 p.m. Lemons says Hogs will win title Get your money's worth from your books! Many textbooks will be dropped from use after this semester and will lose most of their value BUT LOUPOT WILL BUY THEM FROM YOU NOW AT PREMIUM PRICES IF YOU BUY YOUR BOOKS FOR THIS SEMESTER FROM HIM! ffiLOUPOT'SlP REMEMBER — LOU NOW OFFERS FREE PARKING BE HIND HIS STORE FOR ALL HIS CUSTOMERS. Northgate — At the corner across from the Post Office There are two teams currently tied for the lead in the Southwest Confer ence and Texas coach Abe Lemons has already cast his vote for which one he thinks is going to stay there. “I think Arkansas is going to be first in the conference,’ said Lemons. “They are just a better ball club than we are. I don’t know how you can sum it up better than that. ” Lemons’ opinion came following Arkansas’ 55-50 victory oyer Texas in Austin — the second straight year the Razorbacks have defeated the Longhorns in the Super Drum. The victory boosted Arkansas into a first-place tie with Texas A&M at 3-0 with Texas Tech a half step back at 3-1. Every other team in the con ference has at least two league losses. Arkansas, employing a rarely-used zone defense, hit its customary 50 percent from the field while limiting Texas to only 39 percent. “This was the worst I’ve ever seen Texas shoot, said Arkansas’ Alan V 0 <9.0 \VV