The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, February 22, 1985, Image 9

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By BRANDON BERRY
Sports Writer
fi Lubbock may seem an unlikely
throne room, but one of the bas
ketball kings of the Southwest
Conference can definitely be
found among its tumbleweeds.
H Going into Saturday night’s
game with Texas A&M, Texas
Tech is tied with SMU for first-
place in the SWC with a record of
9-4.
i| The Red Raiders have a season
record of 17-7. Tech has beaten
Arkansas (twice). Southern Cali
fornia and SMU. According to
Texas A&M Head Coach Shelby
Metcalf, the Red Raiders have
won with a team of veteran over
achievers.
■ “They’re a senior ballclub,”
Metcalf said. “They start four se
niors and a junior and bring two
more seniors and a junior off the
bench. That experince really
helps them. They play smart and
don’t make very many mistakes.
And they beat Arkansas in
Fayetteville.”
I' But they also lost to the Aggies
50-47 in G. Rollie White Col
iseum earlier this season and lack
the physical big man in the mid
dle.
H When Tech wins, they win with
teamwork and defense, as op
posed to dominating height or
minding speed. But teamwork
has been good enough for a first-
place tie with three conference
games remaining.
h “What impressed me the most
about their game in Fayetteville
(|gainst Arkansas) was how they
kept their composure all the way
through,” Metcalf said. “They
never panicked, and that’s a sign
of their maturity.”
|| Tech is led in scoring and bal
lhandling by senior point-guard
Bubba Jennings. Jennings scored
32 in a recent game against Hous
ton and was named the Asso
ciated Press SWC Player of the
Week the past two weeks.
T The Red Raider leader is aver
aging 19.8 points per game, sec
ond in the SWC and is good on
56.4 percent of his shots, eighth
in the SWC.
■ “I like that Bubba Jennings,”
Metcalf said. “He plays with a lot
ioto by DEAN SAITO
Texas A&M guard Don Marbury goes for a flying two-
handed dunk past Texas’ bewildered Mike Wacker (left) and
Carlton Cooper (33). A&M lost to Texas Wednesday, 53-51.
A&M tangles with first-place Tech in Lubbock Saturday.
of heart and is just a great
shooter. I tried to recruit him
when he came out of high school,
that’s how much 1 liked him.
“And I like that big-kid (Quen
tin) Anderson. He’s really a good
scorer on the inside. (Tech
Coach) Gerald (Myers) has just
done a good job of working with
his team.”
An A&M victory would move
the Aggies into a tie with Texas
Tech for either first-, second- or
third-place in the conference de
pending on what Arkansas and
SMU do this weekend. It would
also greatly enhance their
chances for a post-season tourna
ment bid.
“Lubbock is always a tough
place to play but so is Houston
(the site of the Aggies’ following
game),” Metcalf said. “We’re just
in a tough position.”
Friday, February 22, 1985/The Battalion/Page 9
1985 A&M Baseball
Ags open season against NE Louisiana
By BRANDON BERRY
Sports Writer
The hot dog ladies pander their
wares in shuttle-bus depots as unsea
sonably white legs rush to catch the
Scarlet O’Hara. Picnic lunches have
replaced thermoses and Lake Som-
merville now has more appeal than a
cozy fire on a cold winter’s night.
The leaves on the trees outside
the Academic Building are starting
to outnumber the raucous black
crows.
Warm weather has indeed re
turned to the Brazos Valley and Ol
sen Field, Texas A&M’s “other” sta
dium, will resound with the noises of
the first game of the 1985 season
when the Aggies take on Northeast
Louisiana in a doubleheader this
Saturday and a single game Sunday.
Both games scheduled for 1 p.m.
This changing of the seasons will
also be a changing of the guard for
the A&M baseball team. The 26-year»
coaching career of Tom Chandler
came to an end last season and new
coach Mark Johnson said the pres
sures of head coaching aren’t what
he thought they would be.
“Coach Chandler ran an ex
tremely successful program here at
A&M and you don’t need to change
something that works,” Johnson
said. “In my time here as his assis
tant, the other assistants and I had a
lot of responsibility, so the decision
making shouldn’t be too difficult.
The way the team will look on the
field shouldn’t be any different than
in the past.
“The pressure of coaching at
A&M is in continuing Coach Chan
dler’s winning tradition. Twenty-six
wins in 26 seasons speaks for itself.
“The main difference between the
way we’re going to do things and the
way they’ve been done in the past is
in the promotions. We truly believe
we have a good product to sell out
on the field. We are the representa
tives of Texas A&M University and
we’re going to try to represent the
school well.
“But more than anything else, we
want people to know that they’re
going to have a good time when they
come out to the ballpark.”
The Aggies should also be an ex
citing team on the field as well. Six
starters return from a team that fin
ished 41-21 and advanced to the
NCAA playoffs. All-Southwest Con-
successful pro-
(ixere at AScM and
you dm It need to change
be 4hy different,than in
■
ference shortstop Rob Swain is a le
gitimate candidate for individual
post-season honors again this sea
son. Plus, A&M has signed some
highly regarded junior college trans
fers and high school players in the
off-season.
transfer also plays such a large role
in college baseball. A few JC trans
fers can make all the difference in
the world between a winning season
and a losing one.”
Not only do the Aggies return
Swain to the starting lineup, but also
senior Buddy Haney, who moves
into right field from first base where
he’s been a steady performer the last
two seasons; senior Mike Scanlin in
centerfield; senior Shawn Choruby
in left field; and junior Steve Johni-
gan behind the plate at catcher.
The Aggies will be counting on
Russ Schow and Fred Gegan to fill
the voids left by Haney at first base
and Tony Metoyer at third base, re
spectively.
Scott Livingston, a highly touted
freshman recruit last season, will al-
sosee considerable playing time at
third base.
So is it too early to order College
World Series tickets now?
“We’re in a very tough conferen
ce,” Johnson said, “and, right now,
you have to consider Texas and Ar
kansas to be the favorites. Baylor is
really going to be improved and
Houston is doing good things with
their program.
“Right now, our strong point
seems to be our hitting. Our pitching
concerns us right now because we
lost Sherman Corbett and Chris
Hutchingson when they signed pro-
contracts. We have Tom Arrington-
back and he was the MVP of the
Southwest Conference Tournament
last year. We also have Kelly Keahey
back. Beje Mahoe is going to be our
short reliever and Phil Taylor and
Barry Smith can do either.
“The inexperience on our infield
really concerns us, but we think
we’ve got the potential for some
good chemistry in our defense,”
Johnson said. “We are playing a very
traditional A&M pre-season sched
ule and by the time we get into the
conference schedule, we should
know a lot more about our team.
“I think that baseball really does
have something that no other sport
can match. There’s that constant
drama of the one-on-one confronta
tion between the pitcher and the hit
ter that’s just so intense. And base
ball is the ‘American’ sport.
“Everybody knows what it’s like to
go out and throw a baseball. Not ev
eryone knows what it’s like to get
pinned by a linebacker or slam-
dunked over.
“Jimmy Flowers was looking really
strong as our third starter for this
season until he got hurt. He’s going
to be out of action for at least three
more weeks but when he comes back
he’s probably going to be our (desig
nated hitter).
“Baseball is a hard sport to predict
ahead of time because there are so
many intangibles. The junior college
“We know that we’re putting a
good product out on the field and
we can’t wait to get started. D.D.
Grubbs, our P.A. announcer is really
major-league quality and he can’t
wait to get started. He bought an or
gan and he’s been practicing. He
should be pretty good by gametime.
What’s a baseball game without an
organ?”
What’s warm weather without
baseball.
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