Texas A&M
The Battalion
ports
February 7, 1983 Page 11
‘Phi Slamma Jamma’
rushes A&M, 86-66
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Aggie assistant coach John Thornton, left, gives
some instructions to the team during the Aggies’
86-66 loss to the Houston Cougars Saturday. At right,
staff photo by David Fisher
Akeem Olajuwon goes up for an offensive rebound
against Texas A&M’s Tyren Naulls. The Aggies
evened their record at 11-11 with the loss to UH.
by John Wagner
Sports Editor
Of the two teams that battled it out in G. Rollie
White Coliseum Saturday, one was a talented
team, a hard-working team, an exciting team with
exciting players.
The other team was the Houston Cougars.
The Cougars, you see, are not of this world. At
least, they don’t play like it. It isn’t fair to compare
those frat brothers of the fast break — Phi Slam-
See Cougars page 13
ma Jamma, as UH fans like to call them — with
teams of a more earthly persuasion.
It also isn’t fair to say the Aggies didn’t play well
in their 86-66 loss to the Cougars — that isn’t so.
It’s just that UH is so far above the rest of the
conference that nobody stands a chance with
them.
Except for the Aggies. Or, the Aggies did stand
a chance. If there was a team that could beat
Houston, the experts were saying, the Aggies
could. And if there was a place Houston could be
beaten, it was the coliseum. In front of that rabid
student section, and in the midst of all that noise,
the Cougars didn’t stand a chance, right?
Wrong. The experts forgot that these Cougars
are not your ordinary team. They didn’t even
flinch when the crowd got after them. They are
not of this planet. They belong in the N BA. Some
body call the Southwest Conference office and ask
for disaster aid — the Cougars are on a roll.
The Aggies, who have traveled halfway around
the world and all the way across the country in
search of the perfect basketball team this season,
found it — at a school just 90 miles away. And
although they did it begrudgingly, they praised
the Cougars for the job they did.
“Houston is the best team we’ve played so far,”
forward Claude Riley said. “They execute so well
on offense and defense. They’re just the best team
we’ve seen.”
The Cougars, however, didn’t do anything that
surprised Riley, he said.
“They played just like I expected them to play,”
Riley said. “It’s just that we made a lot of mistakes
and they seemed to score after every mistake. If
we could have eliminated our turnovers, it would
’ve been a different ball game.”
Turnovers, however, didn’t appear to be the
Aggies’ problem. They committed only 10, and
UH turned the ball over eight times. Their prob
lem, at least at the beginning of the game, was
more like a mountain named Olajuwon. Or
Akeem the Dream. Or Jelly Bean. Or human shot
blocking device.
Whatever you want to call him, UH center*
Akeem Abdul Olajuwon almost single-handedly
kept the Aggies from scoring in the first half,
blocking four shots and getting his hands on sev
eral others. Still, the Aggies decided they would,
live — or die — by taking the ball inside on the
Cougars. It is a mission that several have tried this
season, and all have failed. The Aggies did too.
“Everybody’s been trying to go inside on them,”
Aggie coach Shelby Metcalf said, “but they’re just
awesome inside. Still, we thought that was our best
shot.”
“They just all play so well together,” Metcalf
said. “If you try to stop one man, they’re gonna get
you with somebody else.”
Metcalf was impressed with the Coogs’ defense,
also.
“They played a box-and-one defense, and they
did a good job on Claude. I thought that was a
good way to play Texas A&M. If you played a
box-and-one on them, you’d have to start nine
people — four in the box and one on each of their
starters.”
The Aggies, who were outrebounded 42-35,
just couldn’t keep up with UH’s inside game. The
Cougars dominated Texas A&M under the
boards, forcing the Aggies to move outside to
score.
Several times in the game the Aggies drove the
lane, or went for what appeared to be an easy
layup, but were denied the hoop because of the
Cougar defense.
“The difference in the ball game was the
boards,” Metcalf said. “We just can’t board with
them. They’re a tremendous rebounding ball
club. That was the big thing.”
The Aggies, forced to shoot outside, brought in
long-range bombers Kenny Brown and Doug
Lee. Brown was ineffective, however, hitting only
3 of 13 shots. Lee was 4 of 7 from the field and 1 of
2 from the line for nine points.
The Cougars’ starting lineup of Clyde Drexler,
Michael Young, Larry Micheaux, Alvin Franklin
and Olajuwon had 69 of UH’s total points. Drex
ler and Young each had 20, and Olajuwon
finished with 16. Benny Anders came off the
See AGGIES page 12
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