Texas A&M
The Battalion Sports
Thursday, March 24, 1983/The Battalion/Page 13
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sAggie forward looking toward NBA with hope
bv Frank L. Christlieb
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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
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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
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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
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