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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 3, 1986)
Thursday, April 3, 1986/The Battalion/Page 9 'Horns undoubtedly of SWC basketball £ i given Id ex- n the 'hawn Car- I have been A&M pitch- g- We tcause ■eaker ■nd in ring a : have e just have e bats weeks, e Ags ■orked esdav. (from ; been :s that itened an the whs iderat 7-0 in th ago, ed the i pitch- Brock e have ntry.” ic first 1 try to mance Can we talk? Now that the college basketball season is officially over, we’ve got to get some things straight. The best team in the country this season was Duke. The Blue Devils 37-3 record was the most victories ever recorded in a season by a men’s college basketball team. Case closed. The best team over one tourna- Charean Williams Sports Viewpoint ment and in one game was, ob viously, the national champion Louisville Cardinals. Closer to home, chalk one up for the Texas Longhorns. In the South west Conference, the best team was undoubtedly the one from Austin. Calm down. Not the Weltich, Brownlee and Willock bunch. The Longhorns I’m referring to are the ones with the “Lady” tag in front. The ones that were ranked No. 1 for the entire season. The ones that went undefeated, 34-0, over the en tire season. The ones that brought a national championship to the SWC. The SWC best enjoy this national championship. It might be its last until next basketball season when the Lady ’Horns get a chance to de fend their title. The conference has taken its share of lumps over the past year. Scandals have rocked seven of the nine SWC schools, the latest victims being the football programs at Texas and Houston. The Baylor basketball program and SMU football program are already on probation and surely there will be others to join the list. The SWC smiled a little when Texas A&M upset Auburn and heisman Trophy winner Bo Jackson in the Cotton Bowl and finished the season ranked No. 6. But the ’85-86 aasketball season brought yet more heartburn to victory-starved SWC fans. - Over the past few years, SWC fans grew accustomed to hearing “N-C- double-A.” After years of getting used to watching Houston’s Akeem Olaj- jwon, Clyde Drexler and Michael I Young phi, slam and jam their way ■to the tbp, Arkansas’ Joe Kleine go [head-to-head against SMU’s Jon Koncak on the way into the NCAAs, and Eddie Sutton and Guy V. Lewis match coaching wits in some big games, this past season left a lot of fans waiting to be relieved of the misery. : It was a plop, plop, fizz, fizz kind of year. Sutton took his show' to Kentucky where he came within one game of Photo by John Makely ' All-Americans Kamie Ethridge, left, arid Annette Smith helped lead Texas to a 34-0 record and their first national championship. the Final Four while his former team, the Razorbacks, came within two games of the SWC cellar. Lewis wasn’t slow in following Sut ton’s lead, announcing his retire ment in the middle of the season. There were no All-Americans out of the SWC. Not one league team was ranked in the Top 20. Not one conference team was given an at- large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Heck, there w'asn’t even a team good enough to win the outright conference title. Three teams shared the honor, A&M, Texas and TCU, and the fifth-place team, Texas Tech, won the postseason tourna ment and earned the automatic NCAA bid. Despite SWC coaches’ cries, their conference was one of the weakest in the country. Even SWC fans must have felt that way. Only the Arkansas fans dared to show up at the SWC Post- Season Classic in Dallas, ironically the site of the ’86 Final Four. The National Invitation Tourna ment, college hoop’s “other” tourna ment, picked up four SWC leftovers. A&M and SMU lost in the first round. TCU and Texas bailed out in the second. Tech failed in its biggest test, los ing a close game to Georgetown in the first round of the NCAAs. There wasn’t much there for the SWC to cheer, yell or even whimper about. But the Lady Longhorns took care of that. There were no scandals. No pay offs. No cars. No cash. And no losses. It was collegiate basketball in its finest hour — pure, unadulterated amateur athletics. UT won with style and finesse. With seniors and freshmen. With All-Americans and no-names. With starters and bench players. With tal ent and intelligence. With the team “we” and not the individual “L” Former U.S. congresswoman Bar bara Jordan of Texas said to the Lady ’Horns, “You are the best there is. You have taught us what a team is.” Texas students felt that way. Over the season, the Lady Longhorns out- drew the men’s team — at home. The press felt that way. Houston Chronicle columnist A1 Carter said the Lady Longhorns should have been invited to the men’s SWC tour ney, but the league might have been embarrassed at the outcome. This season, the SWC has spelled relief L-A-D-Y H-O-R-N-S. ” Car at our will be no-hit- be an- nented i to try turn to he key ing off ?• . , ion last sopho- irk and l me run NCAA to initiate 3-point shot for ’86-87 basketball season I DALLAS (AP) — The three-point goal and use of televised instant replays to correct timing and scoring errors will become part of college basketball starting next season, the NCAA men’s rules committee an nounced Wednesday. Under another rule change, coaches no longer will be charged with a technical foul if they leave the coach ing box to protest errors involving timing, scoring or alternating possession. - Dr. Edward S. Steitz, secretary editor of the rules committee, said the three-point goal, which has be come a popular feature in the NBA, was adopted by the 12-member committee following a five-year exper- jimentation among 20 conferences. Three points will be credited for a shot made 19- feet, 9 inches from the basket. Steitz said it was hoped the three-pointer would ease the rough play underneath the basket and give more (attention to outside play. “It’s going to force teams to play more defense away from the basket,” Steitz said. “People will say ‘You are (putting the little man back in the game’ and that’s good.” Notre Dame Coach Digger Phelps, saying he was ‘very surprised” to see the three-point goal pass, was less than enthusiastic about the new rule. “It would be nice, one of these years, to let the game settle down and see what we really have,” Phelps said. “If anything needed to be addressed it’s still the foul situation at the end of games.” Bobby Dotson, an assistant coach at Louisville, also questioned the need for the three-point goal. “The game was going awfully good,” Dotson said. “I don’t see why they need mess with it. I can’t under stand why they would put something like this in. I think it’s silly.” Steitz emphasized that instant replays would be used only to correct mistakes made by scorers and timers, and not for any officiating calls. He said an incident that occurred in Kansas City during the NCAA Midwest Regional two weeks ago was a factor decision to use instant replay. A clock malfunctioned causing 15 seconds to be lost during a the Kansas-Michigan State game and the inci dent was blamed for blemishing the Jayhawks’ victory. “When there is a problem area that we haven’t ad dressed, we’ll try to address it,” Steitz said. - Steitz said conferences experimented with different distances for the three-point goal before adopting the 19-9 distance. “Some conferences used the pro distance (23-9) and didn’t find that desirable,” he said. “As a result of a questionnaire, most of the coaches preferred 19-9.” >n Pkwy. DON’T FORGET. . . Senior Bash APRIL 25,1986 Banquet APRIL 26,1986 Ring Dance APRIL 26,1986 Ticket sales April 7-25 Rudder Box Office Student Y at ease General Meeting ask for it 7:00 p.m. Thursday, April 3 by name 701 Rudder Everyone Welcome! call 845-2611 to advertise Who is in Danger? The Prisoners or the The problems with the Texas Prison System today. Wed., April 19 510 Rudder 8:00 p.m. TfOG ~SpjECJAi ATTENTION ALL DORM STUDENTS Pizzas Behind Pizza "Hut. March 24-April 6 ANNOUNCING PIZZA HUT DELIVERY’S 2nd ANNUAL DORM CONTEST $2000 GIVEAWAY April 7-13 Aston DORM CONTEST PAIRINGS April 14*20 Pizza "Hut. Spence < \Briggs Pizzas Behind March 24-April 13 7 P9rm 2 3 'Dorm 4 Dorm 6 Dorm 7 4 Dorm 8 > CORPS CONTEST PAIRINGS ‘‘The Final Four” April 13-27 Dorm 9 Dorm 10 1st place-$500 2nd place-$300 3rd place-$200 Dorm 11 < Dorm 12 Even ■*r Vote for the Right Experience! Dick Haddox’s many friends and business associates had these comments to make about him: “Good Communicator” “The Right Experience” “Enthusiastic” “Very Responsive” “Well Respected” “An Innovative Planner and Implementer” Dick Haddox, a well respected business leader in our community, brings the right ability, strength, and experience needed for the city of College Station. Basically the issues are supported by all the candidates, but because of his vast experience, Dick Haddox will make the difference. As one of the original founders of Anco Insurance, Dick Haddox has contributed his leadership skills to building a strong local company. His respect has grown throughout our community, and beyond, due to his philosophy of long range planning and his ability to implement these goals. Vote Saturday, April 5th! Elect Dick Haddox! College Station City Council, Place 6 for h> iht ( ommin.-t-1» He.1 Dick Maddox. Harry J. <.r t -cn. jr.. Treasurer