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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 1983)
18, Cullat Texas A8cM Battalion Sports Innuorw Q 1000 Dono 0 January 18, 1983 Page 9 tover ^ ERI/J6' M ■ ut of the blocks lUTSA’s young athletic department sprinting to the front of pack ioi 5 note: I his is the first of /apart series on the develop- nlof the University of Texas ia| Antonio’s athletic depart- nt, and the men who are paig to shape the future of "SA athletics. impor *4 I by John P. Lopez Battalion Staff |n ANTONIO — Don head basketball coach at Iniversity of Texas at San in K y° u lt {bnio, doesn’t know much, on t met:: knows all about X's anti with a ft cl the basketball court — his said. AiHiB ()list . cu tjve trips to the na- ks vourco&l tournament while head iveatherisi ^ at Eastern Illinois proves money, ancgBut Eddy doesn’t know ey is moreM team which didn’t even ther,tkni|| basketball two years ago eyouaret uj/./n’r have a halftime lead :n.you harel^t the Arkansas Razor- ting their ks —especially on the Hogs’ > ahead 1 ne court. ■ alsodoesn’t know that his Essennan, m shouldn’t be able to beat t Stanford ZO na, a team that lost to months it |§\ hy on ly three points. And am, stSrt doesn’t know that his wet- k d Exem| iind-the-ears Roadrunners put Rank nildn’t barely lose at the buz- to such teams as Baylor, the gives yo.jyersity of Texas at El Paso figure (Mwouston Baptist, i,” Retelnys* Eddy’s Road runners goingmy ,e done just that — in only “n a whoi ir'second year of existence, le feats become even more prcssive if financial and re- jilng limitations are taken ■onsideration. ■- But when talking to Eddy, T Bets the impression that no- ■ in the world can keep the ■runners from winning a tional championship within ■ears. Tight budgets, sleep- snights, long practice sessions ■countless recruiting trips ■ seem to bother the Road- VINGf ei s head man as he bubbles ■ excitement and anticipa- ■ about his team like the Id father of a newborn in- ■dy, however, isn’t living in c* antasy world. He knows that 0 most of his players were not heavily recruited by Division I schools and he knows that there isn’t a lot of depth on his roster, but the Roadrunners are getting better every time they step onto the hardwood. And that’s exact ly what he wants. “I think we’re right on sche dule,” Eddy said, in an interview that took place on the UTSA campus. “You always dream and hope for miracles, but you’d just astound the athletic world if you beat a big school. “I think realistically we’re in pretty good shape because we’re able to play just about any team in the country right down to the wire. That’s a great accomplish ment for a team barely two years old.” Eddy said the foundation for a winning team has already been laid. “We are already a big-league defensive team,” he said. “Right now we can play defense as well as anybody in the country — whether it be Kentucky or UCLA — we can horse ’em de fensively. But our offense is not like that. It’s not as developed. “I don’t put a lot of stock in numbers, but I think that if we’re anywhere close to .500 this year we’ll be right on schedule, because we’re playing a lot of good opponents.” Eddy said next year just might be the Roadrunners time to come of age, even though it will only be their third season. “I honestly feel that next year we’ll be truly competitive. I don’t know what we’ll yield record- wise, but we’ll be able to walk out on the court and have a chance against just about any team. “And we’ll still have a tough schedule. It might even be tougher than what we have this year. We’ll play just about every team we’re going to play this year (Arkansas, Baylor, Texas Tech, TCU and UTEP, among others) and also play USC and Cal-Fullerton. And the year af ter that we’re going to play in the Great Alaska Shootout, which is Don Eddy, head coach of the UTSA Roadrunners, talks to his team during a timeout in a game against the University of Texas at El Paso. Eddy staff photo by John P. Lopez and athletic director Rudy Davalos have built UTSA’s program from the ground up, and both are pleased and excited about UTSA’s athletic progress. always a tough tournament.” Whether or not Eddy’s confi dence does yield better results for UTSA in the future, the Roadrunner head coach gave up a lot in leaving Eastern Illinois. Eddy was 22^7 in his last season at Eastern Illinois, and he came to a school that didn’t have a mascot, a school song, a fight song or a cheerleader — much less anybody over 6-5 that could play basketball. “I think everyone needs a constant challenge professional ly,” he said, “and the challenge was gradually eluding me up at Eastern Illinois because we were doing well and we were an estab lished program. “And also it (coming to UTSA) gave me the opportunity to do something that very few people have had the chance to do. We’re building from abso lute scratch. And of course I wanted to move my family into a nice climate in a metropolitan area. I never dreamed I would live in Texas but it so happens that I got to come to the nicest part. I’ve been all over the coun try and to me this is it. San Anto nio is the best.” Eddy has other reasons for liking San Antonio. “When I first came down here to visit,” Eddy said, “the road around the gym here was a dirt road. You look around at first and say, ‘I don’t know if I can sell this or not (to a recruit).’ But when you examine the situation you find a lot of good things. “One is that San Antonio is the 1 Oth largest city in the coun try and it did not have any major college athletics until the time we started playing. The (NBA San Antonio) Spurs were the only major-league team in the city. It was a major market that had not been saturated athletic ally. “Also, it is a beautiful city to live in. The economics are great, the weather is great and poten tially a recruit has a situation where he can have immediate career opportunities after he finishes playing basketball. San Antonio is a major metropolitan area with a lot of career oppor tunities available for someone just out of college. At some places where you go to school, the community is a lot smaller which makes it difficult to stay there after you’re through.” But before UTSA’s players hit the real world, Eddy is con cerned with his team’s perform ance on the court. Recruiting an athlete that can perform both in class and under the hoop, however, can be difficult. And it becomes especially difficult when there are many other established schools a prospective player can attend. “The quality of your talent is the most important aspect and problem when trying to build a program,” Eddy said. “It’s diffi cult to recruit at the level of some of the better teams in the country. Our first year, the play ers we recruited were consi dered to be Division Il-type players. We really didn’t have anybody on the team that was recruited heavily by Division I schools. But this year we im proved significantly in the com petitive market for recruits. “What we do is try to recruit athletes that have a lot of im provement potential. There are some players that come out of high school that are pretty close to their peak. So we’ve spent a lot of time trying to get the athletes that are good to start with, but at the same time are going to get better. I like coachable, physical ly talented athletes that might have their basketball talent par tially latent.” One of the better players that Eddy and his staff have landed in the Roadrunner fold is Der rick Gervin, a 6-8 forward from Detroit, Mich. Gervin was re cruited by such teams as DePauI, Michigan and Texas and is the younger brother of four-time NBA scoring champion George Gervin. “Derrick Gervin has done well and is going to be a fine player,” Eddy said, “but he is still not any where near his brother. But from the time we recruited him to now there has been a tremen dous progression on his part. He’s a lot like all of us. He’s not where he wants to be yet, but he’s a lot further than he used to be.” 1 FREE INTRODUCTORY CLASS OFFERED JAN 21 - JAN 27 OF AEROBIC EXERCISE perception off. you'll crav- .. and You'll jating ie a 8 thing- lose n off and staff rter Morning Classes - 9:00 & 10:30 AM Evening Classes - 2:00, 3:00, 4:15, 5:30 6:30, 7:45 (except on Fri.) 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