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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 6, 1987)
Page 10/The Battalion/Friday, March 6, 1987 Cl Sports Aggies to tangle with Frogs in 1st round of SWC tourney By Doug Hall Sports Writer If you’ll pull out your local sports page and scan the South west Conference Basketball standings, the team on top is No. 15-ranked Texas Christian Uni versity, whose 14-2 SWC record easily outdistanced seond place Baylor. Keep scanning that column, however, past Houston, Texas Tech, Arkansas, Texas, and SMU and you come to Texas A&M. The Aggies, who have a 14-13 season record, stumbled to a 6-10 SWC mark and thus has the honor of playing TCU today at 2:38 p.m., in the second game of this weekend’s SWC Post-Season Classic in Dallas. It’s not the most enviable posi tion for Shelby Metcalfs Aggies, but one that holds a lot of oppor tunity for a team that has struggled through an up and down season, Metcalf said. “It’s a great opportunity for us,” said Metcalf, whose 394 ca reer wins lead all SWC coaches. “To knock off the Southwest Conference Champions in the tourney would give us an awful lot of satisfaction.” Don’t count on the Horned Frogs to roll over and let the Ag gies just steal one away, though. SWC Coach of the Year Jim Kill- ingsworth has a squad in Dallas that is packed with talent and post-season awards. Carven Holcombe, the Frog’s versatile forward/guard, who av eraged almost 16 points and 33 minutes a game, was named SWC Player of the Year on Wednes day. In addition to Holcombe, TCU’s 6-7 forward Larry Richard was named to the first team and also picked up the defensive MVP award. Additionally, Guard Jamie Dixon, who set school records in assists this year, led the second team in balloting. And if those three aren’t enough to take on the rest of the SWC, don’t forget 6-9 center Tony Papa who stung the Aggies for 16 points in the team’s second meeting at G. Rollie White Col iseum and premier guard Carl Lott, who recently returned to the lineup from a hand injury. But the Aggies are far from de- fenseless. Senior forward Winston Crite, who will play his final games in an Aggie uniform this weekend, also was named to the SWC second-team, and, according to Metcalf, plans on be ing heard from in Dallas. “Winston’s ability to score is down inside near the basket,” Metcalf said. “But they will make it tough on him by packing their zone in tight.” Metcalf said for the Aggies to be successful against TCU, A&M’s outside shooting will have to be on track. “We’ve got to have some out side shooting to spread out their zone,” he said. “Of course Todd (Holloway) is our most consistent shooter, but we also need (Keron) Graves to get hot. He hasn’t been shooting that well lately, but he’s certainly capable.” Looking around the confernce, Metcalf said he considers SMU and Arkansas to be the two “dark horses” of the tourney. “SMU is playing awfully well,” Metcalf said. “And Arkansas has had a good second half also. They’ve got the depth to go through three days of rugged basketball.” No matter what the outcome of this weekend’s post-season tour ney, though, Metcalf said he is as proud of this year’s team as any of the other 23 Aggie squads he has coached. “The only thing I have to say is that I’m very proud of our se niors,” he said. “It’s been a frus trating season, but they still go out there and bust their rears ev ery day.” SWC hoop classic dubbed ‘Horned Frog Invitational’ A&M rebounds to beat OSU in men's tennis The Texas A&M men’s tennis team came back Thursday to defeat Oklahoma State 5-1 after losing to Duke Wednesday in the opening round of the Corpus Christi Team Tournament. The Aggies upped their spring re cord to 9-2 with the win. “They (Oklahoma State) beat us earlier indoors,” A&M Coach David Kent said, “but we just killed them today.” The only defeat for A&M came when OSU’s Frank Kaiser beat Dean Johnson 0-6, 7-5, 6-2. In other action, A&M’s Marcel Vos defeated Robin Scott 7-6, 6-2, and Dean Goldfine beat Grant Wil liams 6-3, 6-1. “We really played well today,” Kent said. “We needed this match after (losing to) Duke.” In other singles matches, A&M’s No. 4 Shaun O’Donovan defeated Chris Schntz 6-1, 6-1, while No. 5 Brent Haygarth was victorious over OSU’s Dean Rothe 6-2, 6-4, and A&M’s No. 6 player, Steve Kennedy, beat Jack Salerno 6-0, 7-5. “It’s always good to beat someone who has beaten you earlier,” Kent said. “It’s good revenge for us.” The Aggies will take on Maryland today. DALLAS (AP) — Some are calling it “The Horned Frog Invitational.” The 12th annual Southwest Con ference Post-Season Basketball Clas sic is expected to be a Texas Chris tian University showtime special. The 15th-ranked Horned Frogs claimed the regular season title by four games, the widest margin of victory in 20 years. Colleagues of TCU Coach of the Year Jim Killingsworth weren’t about to let the “Killer” off the hook at Thursday’s tournament preview news conference. “TCU should be the favorite be cause the team has great composure at money time,” Texas A&M Coach Shelby Metcalf said. “They probably learned that from playing poker and shooting dice with their coach.” Metcalfs Aggies are the No. 8 seed and meet the top-seeded Horned Frogs today at 2:38 p.m. Fourth-seeded Texas Tech and No. 5 Arkansas tangle in the 12:08 p.m., quarterfinal opener. Second-seeded Baylor meets No. 7 Southern Methodist at 6 p.m., while third-seeded Houston plays No. 6 Texas at 8:30 p.m. The semifinals are set for 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. on Saturday with the finals at 1 p.m. on Sunday. The win ner gets an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. “TCU is the favorite of everybody here,” Texas Coach Bob Weltlich said. “If you got rid of TCU then the tournament would be a tossup,” Ar kansas Coach Nolan Richardson said. Southern Methodist Coach Dave Bliss would not back off his earlier prediction that TCU would be in the NCAA Final Four. “The Frogs are it,” he said. There seemed to be little opti mism that some team would spring from the pack for an upset like last year’s tournament victory by Texas Tech. Even Tech Coach Gerald My ers doused cold water on that idea, saying “nobody will take us lightly this year.” Even though the Horned Frogs are 23-5 and are considered a cinch to earn an at-large berth even if they fail to win the tournament, Kill ingsworth said TCU doesn’t want to back into the playoff door. “I don’t know why we would let down,” Killingsworth said. “I think we have a lot to play for." TCU has never won an SWC Clas sic title. The Frogs advanced to the championship game once, losing to Houston in 1983 when the Cougars went on to The Final Four. TCU won both regular-season ? ;ames against A&M this year for the irst time since 1971. “We were very fortunate to win ei ther one of them let alone both of them,” Killingsworth said. “We got lucky against them. The Aggies are no breather opener.” The SWC’s basketball reputation is so far down that all the coaches ex cept Richardson felt they would have to win a tournament to get an NCAA invitation. “If we won two more games it would give us 20,” Richardson said. “That might get us into the tourna ment because we played a very tough schedule. We’ll find out how important all those power ratings and strength of schedule can be.” Houston Coach Pat Foster said the Cougars would have “one chance in a million” of getting into the tour nament if they didn’t win the SWC Classic. A&M to host tournament in softball FULLY By Loyd Brumfield AisisUint Sports Editor $ 6 Three nationally-ranked teairj will be in town this weekend whe ! the second-ranked Texas AiHj softball team hosts the AgpJ Spring Invitational beginningifri day at the Southwood ValleyAtt| letic Complex in College Station I The tournament field indudel No. 1-ranked Cal State Fullerton! the team that knocked off Atoll in last year’s N C Ail TWO HI R TWO-36< 640KB R 8088-2 P 8/4.7 championship game, ninik ranked Louisiana Tech, ranked South Carolina, Olt homa State, Sam Houston Stan and Baylor. The tournament is being ra on a round robin format, whid allows every team to play eac other once. Session onebeginsto day at 1 1 a.m., when A&M, 2-1 faces Baylor on field two; tli Lady Aggies will also be in actict at 1 p.m., on field three to fact OSU. PRICES ! phoeni: SAMSON CHOICE PC-CALC Got Tonight at 8 p.m., A&M wi pl.n South ( .iiohna on fieldt> and will return to action Saturd; when session three begins at i a.m., to play Sam Houston Staa on field three and Louisiar, Tech on field one at 5 p.m. A&M will have a shot at rt venge against 8-1 Cal State to lerton at 7 p.m., on field one. Admission is $3 per sessions: adults and $2 for senior citne: and students with I.D. Day passe may be purchased for $5 and M tournament passes for S10. Cb dren under 12 get in free. “We’re really excited aboutth tournament,” A&M Coach Bet Brock said. “You don’t usualk find so many ranked teams pb ing each other so early in the sea son.” 707 Ti PARA/SRL (XT) P*"*' (AT) PARAl CITIZEN 1Z IJOOBMOOO 4IM «> $1. IN' HO RE Sp SALE FOR your favorite casuals at terrific savings just in time for spring break! 25% off Reg. or orig. $8-$70, sale $6-52.50 Get ready for the good times with great looking, comfortable clothes from our most popular makers! 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