The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, March 24, 1983, Image 13

Texas A&M Newspaper Collection

The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, March 24, 1983, Image 13

Newspaper Page TextTexas A&M The Battalion Sports Thursday, March 24, 1983/The Battalion/Page 13 sa y.'JlrJ >g to t° inalJ !« M iley ready for future sAggie forward looking toward NBA with hope bv Frank L. Christlieb l( u p cg,,,. Battalion Staff l grou It [seems like just yesterday lat-Claude Riley made his first fetorDjanearance in a Texas A&M ■ onhliisk^tball uniform, romistis But believe it or not, the 6-10 also irBud nicknamed the “Crock- t Bucket” has played in 121 of indH 23 At^gie games in the past four ChainaBrs. During his first three la., . .jars on Coach Shelby Metcalfs i Mtir iuad, Riley didn’t miss a game, n as iitt mononucleosis kept him out ebatettf t" 0 before the start of the itelattt : 583 Southwest Conference •t pi :ason. $ milb Riley, whose basketball career ;es. Texas A&M ended two weeks |d when the Aggies lost toTCU ■’^Be league tournament, has , )me a long way since his fresh- T piian season in 1979-80. That k cl;ar, Riley teamed with Vernon mith, Rynn Wright, Rudy ^Hds, David Britton and ' 11 'avid Gof f to bring Texas A&-M ’M.l^Bfth conference title and a Darkling 26-8 record, it aid V Rdey’s next three seasons nion ere ’ * l l ie Aggies never regained leii championship status. And fter averaging 16.3 points and )tV 0.2 rebounds a game in his ,p aS5 tnior year, the Rocket seemed ) have a bit of engine trouble, a | ^ aming back to earth to manage 4.2 points and 9.2 rebounds. But Riley, who expresses a de- tre to pursue basketball furth- r,,says he’s been happy with bis areer at Texas A&M. In an in- irview on Wednesday, Riley liscussed several aspects of his 11 ' out years here and of the 1982- 3 Beason, when the the Aggies f ' inished 17-14 and in third place ilnn'; B. ‘ it the SWC. c • whoi Q. Looking back at the past eason, how would you de- cribe the way things went for he Aggies? na. I would say this was an up- s with i iferetKt nd-down season for us. We lever really got it together con- istently. We’d play two games l-ss beg® really well and then we’d play another couple of games not too well. So it was kind of up and down the whole year — we never could keep a consistent pace going. Q. At times, it seemed like the team looked unbeatable and there were times when things didn’t go so well. Why do you think things didn’t click some times? A. One of the main problems we had was that we weren’t play ing together as a team. We had a lot of talent but we weren’t put ting it all together. That’s not to say that some players were being “One of the main prob lems we had was that we weren’t playing together as a team. We had a lot of talent but we weren't putting it all together. ” — former Texas A&M forward Claude Riley. selfish — that never created a problem. But we could never get our talent grouped as just one team. The times we looked un beatable were when we had all that talent going for us at one time — all five players playing up to their maximum. When we played that way, we looked un- iDeatable, but when we didn’t play that way, we couldn’t quite get it together. Q. During the last three games of the season, the team seemed to be playing better. Did you and the players think going into the tournament that you could keep that going? A. That’s basically what we were talking about. We felt like it took us a long time to finally get it together and that we did that near the end of the season. A lot of things started going for us and we had a lot of confidence going for us, too, because we thought we’d finally gotten where we wanted to be. So we were really looking forward to going into the tournament. Q. And how much of a let down was it to lose to TCU? A. It really does hurt, because it could have given us a chance to keep playing in the NCAA tour nament or in the NIT. But we just didn’t play very well. It makes you feel bad, especially for those guys who are coming back, because you usually want to build up your next season on a real good game. But in that game, we didn’t play very well and that can be kind of crucial. It really did hurt us because we had intentions of going further. Q. Do you think the rumors surrounding Coach Metcalfs job situation affected the team? A. When we first heard the rumors, we all talked about them, but it never got to the point where it was affecting us. The situation didn’t get so bad that Coach Metcalf had to call us together and tell us not to pay attention to the rumors. It just never got that bad. I don’t even know how that rumor really got started. Q. A lot of people thought your performance dropped off this season. How do you regard your play this year? A. I think that at the begin ning of the season, I was playing outstanding. I was doing a lot of great things. After the Alaska Shootout (in November), I started feeling myself not per forming the way I wanted to. I had it in my mind to do it, but physically I wasn’t able to do it. That’s when I felt myself becom ing sick. I knew something was wrong then, because I couldn’t do what I wanted to do. Q. Did your sickness affect your play a great deal? mind l in set sdl The best thing that ever happened ^ to beef... jngftf >|U$1 17:0 PECIAL ,d Ste jl 3rav) toes a 1 * eotM ,le n- dand^ Tea and chicken and, now, CATFISH! Hoffbrau is more than a steak house and, just to prove it, we’ve added a new item to our menu —crisp, light Southern fried catfish. It’s cooked by our special recipe that, once you taste it, you’ll want to know what our secret is! Anytime for lunch or dinner, Hoffbrau has menu items to suit your taste. And remember, Hoffbrau has hearty lunch specials which come with all the fixin’s. ■LUNCH SPECIALS Fried Catfish $5.00 Chopped Sirloin $3.75 7 oz. Ribeye $5.25 Chicken Fried Steak $3.95 Shish-ka-bob , $4.95 10 oz. Boneless Chicken Breast $4.50 All served with our famous Salad, Fried Potatoes and Bread. Lunch specials are served all day on Sunday. 10% discount to senior citizens. • Carry-outs available. VENli ( VDI^ ith lance ' eSS ol d ■ w Banquet facilities are available. Hours: Monday-Saturday 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. 317 So. College 260-9172 A. It affected me a lot. It took away all my strength and it took me a long time to come back. Early in the conference season, there were a lot of rebounds I couldn’t get and I couldn’t move as fast as I wanted to on defense. It created a lot of problems for me but I just had to stay in there and deal with them. Q. Speaking of rebounding, is that what really motivates you? A. That really does. I’d rather have more rebounds than points. They motivate me be cause they’re based more on in dividual effort. You have to get into position for them, because every rebound that hits the rim doesn’t come right to you. When I’m rebounding, I’m fired up, because that motivates me to either go down and play offense or defense, whether it’s an offensive or a defensive re bound. Q. Is there any certain year that you regard as your best with the Aggies? A. My coming in as a fresh man and playing with Rynn “I've got to say that we really did look ahead. When we first realized we were going to the tournament, right away we looked to Arkansas because we wanted to beat them. ” — Riley. (Wright) and Vernon (Smith) was an inspiration for me, be cause they’re one of the reasons I came. Being on a champion ship team and going into the NCAA playoffs really matured me a lot and prepared me for the next seasons too. So I feel that my freshman and junior years were my best ones. My If you haven’t tried Hoffbrau lately, you haven’t tried Hoffbrau. FREE BEER sophomore year, I was just trying to do the best I could. Q. Did you learn from your sophomore year, when the team had a losing streak and then came back to win seven of the last eight games? A. I learned that you just keep hanging in there and keep a positive attitude. We kept that and turned it around in the second half. Q. Have you had profession al scouts approach you during the last year? A. Most of the time they’ll call me instead of making personal contact. If Coach Metcalf hap pens to know them personally, then they’ll contact him and if he feels like I should know what they have to say, he’ll tell me. But I never had too much prob lem with them hassling me here, even though 1 was contacted a lot during the season. Q. And what has come out of all that? A. Well, I feel real good about Claude Riley having a future in basketball. Some of the scouts feel like I have the ability to play in some all-star games. And there some agents who are in terested. It makes you feel good to know they think you have a chance of making it, because they want to represent you. When you have scouts contact you saying that you can play in the NBA if you accomplish cer tain things, it makes you feel that you can make it. So right now, I feel that Claude Riley does have a future in the NBA. I am feel ing really confident, because to ward the latter part of the season I started picking up tremen dously. The scouts who had seen my performance earlier saw that I was playing much better at the end and hopefully they’ll want to give me a chance to really prove myself. I’vejust got to play the kind of game Claude Riley can play, whatever it takes. See RILEY page 15 Claude Riley’s A&M basketball statistics 1979- 80 5.2 pts., 3.4 reb. 46.5% FG, 78.2% FT 1980- 81 10.6 pts., 6.2 reb. 46.9% FG, 63% FT 1981- 82 16.3 pts., 10.2 reb. 45% FG, 81.1% FT 1982- 83 14.2 pts., 9.2 reb. 51.9% FG, 74.2% FT FREE BEER THE ULTIMATE FORCE 4TH ANNUAL FIJI SPRING FLING TICKETS $5.00 FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 1983 BRAZOS COUNTY PAVILLION TICKETS $5.00 TICKETS AVAILABLE AT LOUPOT’S AND R. RUSH & CO. BENEFITTING THE BRAZOS VALLEY RED CROSS NO ONE UNDER 19 ADMITTED

Texas A&M Newspaper Collection

Texas A&M Newspaper Collection

The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, March 24, 1983, Image 13

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