Battaliod/J
March 41
Texas A&M
The Battalion
March 4, 1983/Pa.ge 7
Sports
at the I
etsdre $$[ t
|Coogs race past Hogs
to clinch SWC crown
LIKE BFf(
K I S.
I repair ,
r a.ni.i n ,lM United Press International
^■AYETTEVILLK. Ark. —
l licre were only a few Arkan-
faithful left in Barnhill
' ^rfnaThursday iiighi, 15 mi-
' auti s alter their Ra/orbac ks
SHlPiDvl dac been whipped at home
'hrist ii k.| or the lirst time in more than
A&M < >iW0 years.
'V streeri^HLosing was had enougli,
suddenly right in I ront ol
I I uandi j| u . , Larry Micheaux —
,H “'^Houston's (i-9 senior forward
M,n • —had the allront to start ( ut-
ting down the nets.
That's something that pisi
isn t done in Kavettev die.
him.'' memheis ol
tin crowd veiled to a poliee-
who was standing neat-
bv. “Don’t let him dot hat. I le
>e formal.i tari 1 do that."
he Agihrbflh 111 the nets i ame (low n at
le, $8 a B i nhill and the Houston
Coagars — already the No. 1
tea it in the country — moved
Hannther notch in the world
of basketball respec tahlitv.
■ "Houston deserves to i ut
week -loiir nets down," said At kansas
schedtiK (i) Eddie Sutton. "II we
evi r win a i hampionshij) at
lb uston. I’d hope the\ would
let us do the same.”
Hln a high-pressure duel be
tween the two highest ranked
teams in the history of the
ow Southwest Conference, the
Houston Cougars downed the
smug: Tlri N< . 4 Arkansas Razorbacks,
lizopod 71 (iO, surviving foul prob-
count ofilems and two enemv rallies in
the second hall.
S Ihe win clinched the
league championship for
$ Houston, its fit st sinee joining
the SWC eight years ago,
i.iimiI the Cougars winning
speak to 19 games and
i Sfyle ■osted their overall record to
yOllF ll' "as the lirst time llous-
. tan had ever won in Fayette-
it OfSli v ie.
■ Arkansas, meanwhile, had
, al 28-game home winning
lasis freak snapped and lost on
.A.,Ml
Soph Benny Anders came
off bench to lead Coogs
their own court for only the
seventh time in nine years.
The Razorbacks have lost
twice this season against 24
wins and both setbacks have
been at the hands of Houston.
“Houston has a great bas
ketball team,” Sutton said.
“Neither team played as well
as we're capable of playing,
but that happens sometimes
in a big game like this.
With Benny Anders scor
ing 12 of his team-high 18
points in the first half, Hous
ton jumped to a lead of 34-27
at the break. Both teams had
players in foul trouble (three
for Houston and two for
Arkansas would eventually
foul out), but the Cougars had
dominated. Now it was just a
question of whether they
could hang on.
They did, thanks to rally
killing streaks ignited by
Clyde Drexler, Michael
Young and Akeem Olajuwon.
Arkansas first closed its de
ficit to two points at 47-45 with
11:36 to play on two ol center
Joe kleine's 20 points.
But Drexler and Olajuwon
both hit three-point plays to
vault the Cougars back in
front by eight.
Then, with 5:47 to go, out
side shooter John Snively con
nected to bring the Razor-
backs to within one at 57-56.
With enough noise rever
berating in the arena to cause
pain, Young cooly dribbled to
the baseline, lofted a 13-
footer and scored for Hous
ton. Olajuwon then slammed
home two dunk shots and
Drexler hit a bucket to in
crease the lead to nine points
and deal the final blow to the
Hogs.
“Our fans were super,” said
Sutton. “II we had played as
well as our fans performed,
we would have won. But you
aren’t going to win many
championship games shoot
ing 43 percent (to 57 percent
for Houston).
Young scored 14 for Hous
ton. Olajuwon 15 and Drexler
13 while Arkansas' Darrell
Walker, playing his final game
at home, managed 18 and
kept the Razorbacks in the
game in the first half.
“I don’t know about our na
tional ranking,” said Houston
coach Guy Lewis. “But I do
know we’re No. 1 in the
Southwest Conference now.
I’m appreciate about being
voted No. 1 in the nation, but
we won’t know who’s No. 1
until April 4 (at the NCAA
championship game).
“Winning here tonight won
the Southwest Conference
championship for us and
that's a big thrill. Arkansas has
a fine basketball team. I hope
we meet in Albuquerque in
April.”
But the two teams figure to
meet well before (lien.
If Houston and Arkansas
win their semifinals games in
the SWC tournament, they
will tangle again in Dallas on
March 12.
i checks
ash Onl)
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4
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Aggies, Tech to square off
Tech’s Bubba Jennings
a Raider to look up to
staf f photo bv David F isher
Roger Bock, shown here against Texas, and the
Aggies will face Bubba Jennings and the Texas
Tech Red Raiders Saturday at 12:10. The Aggies
can clinch third place in the SWC with a win.
by Frank L. Christlieb
Battalion Staff
During his high school career,
people made a habit of looking
up to Bubba Jennings.
No, people didn’t look up at
Jennings, who at 5-feet-10-
inches seems a bit of a midget on
a basketball court. Instead,
opponet *" of his team at Clovis
(N.M.) High School overlooked
small size and slight build to look
up to Jennings.
And now, basketball players
at Texas Tech University look
up to Bubba Jennings, who in
three years at the school has
established himself as the team
leader. After playing a full
freshman season and being red-
shirted last year because of a
broken foot sustained in the
third game, Jennings has be
come Coach Gerald Myers’ on-
court commanding officer.
“My role is more of a leader
ship role, because I’m one of the
older players on the team,” Jen
nings said in a long-distance in
terview Thursday. “I try to get
us into our offense and to get
things set up. I try to show the
players what to do in different
situations. I guess the team looks
up to me and (junior forward)
David Reynolds because we’ve
been here the longest and we’re
used to Coach Myers’ system.”
During his senior year at Clo
vis High, Jennings averaged
33.8 points a game, hit 61 per
cent from the field and 87 per
cent from the free throw line.
The Clovis Wildcats had a 77-9
record and won the state cham
pionship once with Jennings,
who was named to the Basket
ball Weekly all-America squad
as a senior.
At Texas lech, the .success
ratio hasn’t been quite the same.
The Red Raiders have a 27-32
record with Jennings. But
coaches around the conference
say the sophomore may be one
of the better all-around point
guards in the league.
With a 10-18 overall record
and only Saturday’s home date
with Texas A&M remaining, the
Red Raiders will complete their
first losing season since 1968-69.
Since the arrival of Gerald
Myers as the new coach in 1970,
the team has won 217 games and
lost 133.
I lie Red Raiders have sur
vived player dismissals, injuries
and a dwindled roster that in
cludes just eight players to enter
Saturday’s 12:10 p.m. game in
Lubbock Municipal Coliseum
with a not-so-embarrassing 7-8
Southwest Conference record.
Jennings, the team’s leading
scorer at 14.9 points a game, says
it’s been an up-and-down season
for him and his teammates.
“When we started the season,
we thought we’d have a pretty
good team and that we’d win
quite a few games,” he said. “But
then we started losing some
games, we had the player dismis
sals, some people got injured
and then we continued to lose.
People were getting down on us
and it didn’t look like things
were going to get better.
“But we came around and
started playing better during the
conference season. Everyone
began to pull together and real
ize their roles on the team, so we
started winning some games.”
A few days before the start of
the. league race in January,
Myers sent starters Joe
Washington, Charles Johnson
and Dwight Phillips to the show
ers, kicking them off the team
for disciplinary reasons that in
volved after-hours visitation by
some female students.
F.ven with those three players,
Texas Tech had a horrible 2-10
record in pre-conference
games. The Red Raiders lost
their first two conference games
to SMU and I CLI, but since that
time, they’ve gone 6-6 in the
conference.
A surprising statistic reveals
that Texas l ech had a 2-10 re
cord with Johnson, Washington
and Phillips and so far, the Raid
ers have an 8-8 without those
three players. Granted, the Red
Raiders-lost to teams like North
Carolina, Alabama, Pepperdine
and Arizona State (twice) during
pre-conference games, but
they’ve had to play opponents
just as tough in the SWC.
The Aggies, in third place in
the SWC, have a 16-13 overall
record and a 9-6 league record.
ECU, which lost to SMU
Wednesday night, has com
pleted its season at 9-7.
For the Aggies to finish the
season with sole possession of
third place and a bye to the SWC
tournament quarterfinals in
Dallas, they must defeat Texas
Tech. If the Aggies lose and
SMU, 8-7 in the SWC, defeats
See JENNINGS page 10
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Aviators
Make it with us
and the sky’s
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The Marine Corps has SUMMER COMMISSIONING PROGRAM OPENINGS available for undergraduates to
participate in a program leading to a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps. There are:
**No obligations until graduation
**$100.00 per month financial assistance
**No committments, haircuts, uniforms or required courses during the school year
**Free flying lessons during your senior year (for aviators)
**A guarantee of Flight School if qualified (regardless of year in school)
For an interview, sign up at the Student Placement Office. Interviews will be conducted March 7th thru 10th. A
representative will be located in the Student Center. (NOTE: You must be a U.S. citizen, under the age of 27, holding a
grade point average of 2.0 or better “in any major”, and in good physical condition).
Marines
Maybe you can be one of us.The few.The proud.The Marines.