The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, November 19, 1987, Image 10

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Page 10/The Battalion/ Thursday, November 19,1987
Metcalf enters 25th season £
as A&M’s basketball coach °
By Tom Mulos
Reporter
Texas A&M Head Basketball
Coach Shelby Metcalf sounds like a
government advertisement for the
armed forces when talking about his
job.
“With me, coaching at Texas
A&M is not just a job, it’s a way of li
fe,” Metcalf said.
A way of life adds up to 30 years
at Texas A&M and 25 years as head
coach of the Aggie hoopsters.
This basketball season is being
coined as the “Silver Anniversary of
the Silver Fox” because it is Metcalf’s
25th season as head basketball
coach. Will 25 years be enough for
the silver-haired, witty and laid-back
coach who has been termed the
“Dean of Southwest Conference coa
ches”?
“As long as the thrill of coaching is
there, my health is there, and I can
give the Aggies the kind of basket
ball they want, I’ll keep coaching,”
Metcalf said. “I’m not coaching to re
tire. I’m coaching to keep from re
tiring.”
In fact, just this summer, Metcalf
signed a new four-year contract.
Metcalf was the starting point
guard at East Texas State University
for three years. He led ETSU to the
NAIA National Tournament three
years and finally won the
championship his senior year in
1955. That same year, Metcalf grad
uated with both his bachelor’s and
master’s degrees in philosophy.
He spent one year coaching in
Cayuga where he led it to a 33-10 re
cord and a district championship.
From 1956-58 he was an athletic
officer in the Air Force in Germany.
He coached a team to a 78-17 record
and an All-Germany championship
twice.
r players that I coached
the year before and I
When he came back from Ger
many, he became the freshman head
coach and assistant varsity coach for
A&M. He was 41-19 in five years be
fore Bob Rogers left and Metcalf was
promoted to head coach.
His first varsity team, in 1964,
went 18-7 overall and 13-1 in SWC
play and won the conference
championship for the first time in 41
years.
“I had four
as freshmen
brought in two junior college guys
from Lon Morris,” Metcalf said.
“Those two additions added to what
we already had, made for a good
basketball team.” &->
Since 1964, A&M basketball teams
have had winning seasons 21 of Met
calfs 24 years and never back-to-
back losing seasons. They have won
the conference title six times and
gone to the NCAA playoffs five
times. Metcalfs overall record is
397-267, a 59.8 percentage, which
places him 20th on the list of win-
ningest active coaches in Division I.
Other accomplishments include
the SWC record for years at one
school and a conference record of
221-139, the most wins by an SWC
coach.
With just three wins this season,
Metcalf will surpass the 400-win
mark, a milestone that he never
really thought about.
“Up until this year, I never really
thought about, or cared about, how
many wins I had,” Metcalf said. “It’s
something that others figure up, but
not me.”
The satisfaction that Metcalf gets
from coaching is the success that his
players have after they graduate
along with the lifelong friendships
that he gains.
“When a player comes here, I’m
gaining a lifetime friendship,” Met
calf said. “I try to keep up with all
players and see their success in life.”
To some, success after college bas
ketball means playing in the Na
tional Basketball Association, but
that is not the way Metcalf sees it. He
has coached only one player before
this year that ended up in the NBA,
and that was Sonny Parker who
played for seven seasons. This year,
though, Winston Crite was the third
round pick of the Phoenix Suns, sur
vived all cuts and will play this sea
son.
Metcalfs teams have a history of
A&M Basketball Coach Shelby Metcalf
not having a lot of talent but playing
above their heads and defeating op
ponents with more talent. 1 o him,
it’s also a sign of the whole Univer
sity.
“I think it’s kind of a trademark of
A&M teams and not just the basket
ball team,” Metcalf said. “This whole
University takes pride in overachiev
ing. The school can take a loss, but
not a lack of effort and that is what I
try to get our teams to do. I just want
my teams to go out and give it their
best.”
Last season, A&M finished 17-14
overall and just 6-10 for an eighth
place finish in the conference. But
the team overcame adversity and
won the conference tournament ad
vancing to the NCAA tournament
for the first time since 1980.
“Last season was tough. We had
injuries and illnesses all through the
season. How many times do you
have a player go out with chicken-
pox? We also had to suspend one
player for missing classes,” Metcalf
said,
“That team went through a lot of
adversity. They never complained or
stopped working hard. It was a just
reward to win the tournament,”
Metcalf said.
In the tournament the Aggies
went to Indianapolis to play in the
first round of the Midwest regional
against Duke, who was a Final Four
team the year before. A&M kept the
game close in losing 58-51.
“We were a little awed going into
the Hoosierdome, especially when
Indiana had 20,000 people just to
watch them practice. It’s tough to
shoot in a big arena because of all
the open space behind the basket.”
“The big factor was the fact that
Duke had a lot of tournament expe
rience from the year before,” Met
calf said. “Duke played great pres
sure defense and really pressured
our guards Todd (Holloway) and
Darryl (McDonald). They weren’t
used to that kind of pressure and we
didn’t have a lot of depth to give
them a rest.” On the surface this
year looks like it will be different.
Crite, Holloway, Mike Clifford and
John Trezvant all are gone. Metcalf
gained six junior-college transfers,
one incoming freshman and four
players that were redshirted last year
to join five returning lettermenb
eluding one returning starter.
“We had our best practice of tin
season last week, and 1 didn’t sleep
wink that night because I wassoei
cited,” Metcalf said. “There comesi
time before the first game eachs»
son when the team really seems
come together and you begin toseei
little hope. That’s what happenei
last week.
“We will be the smallest team it
the league. The conference will!*
tough this year. It’s tough even
year, but this year will be better that
last. Arkansas has Final Foul
material, not that they will get that
but they have the material. Houstct
had a real good recruiting seasot
and Texas Tech got a seven-footei
along with two players that were to
to Proposition 48 last season.”
Will Metcalf be able to surprisf
teams like they have in the past?
“Different teams have differec
personalities,” Metcalf said. “Nt
coach has a secret word to get ate®
to win. All a coach can do is gettkf
team into a position to win, then I#
the players win.”
Metcalf feels that he has asseu
bled the best group of assistam
coaches that he has ever had.
“John Thornton is a great teaditt
and Larry Cockrum is new, butlif
has already contacted more playeti
since August than we have in tit
past three, possibly four years. Tit
next few years, our talent level
basketball program will go up in
mensely.”
To Metcalf, coaching is the saint
year after year. He takes coaching*
a way of life and in a laid back man
ner.
“I was born during the depress?
so nobody could take life too sf
riously. My attitude goes back ton"
parents. They enjoyed life andle"
joy life. I’m not envious of anyone
don’t have an ego problem. I fed
that it’s healthy to be proud of wb<
you have.
“You coach to your own persona?
ity. I still get butterflies each time
walk onto the floor for a game. Bas
ketball is very important to me.
love to compete. I feel that I cat
compete with anyone. I also belie' 1
that my best basketball is ahead
Oilers angered at choice of announcers
for Sunday’s televised game with Browns
HOUSTON (AP) — Houston Oil
ers officials are miffed that Sunday’s
NFL game with the Cleveland
Browns, with first place at stake in
the American Conference Central
Division, will feature two Cleveland-
based announcers on the NBC tele
cast.
Jim Donovan of Cleveland NBC
affiliate WKYC-TV is slated for the
play-by-play with Reggie Rucker, a
former Browns wide receiver, doing
the analysis.
“We weren’t expressing questions
about competency of the an
nouncers,” Oilers spokesman Chip
Namias said Wednesday. “Both of
them do a good job or they wouldn’t
be at the network level.
“The only thing we were talking
about is they were Cleveland sports-
casters and the game is being seen in
large portion of Texas. In no way
are we questioning their abilities as
announcers.”
iNctmids »cuU it was unlikely NBC
would change their announcer team
for the game in Houston.
“As tar as I know, it’s a fact of
life,” he said. “Once they make the
assignment, that’s it.”
NBC spokesman Kevin Monag
han said Oiler General Manager
Ladd Herzeg called network football
coordinator Ted Nathanson on
Wednesday to complain about the
announcer assignments but was told
NBC would not change.
“NBC Sports is disappointed
Oilers have publicly complain"
about Donovan and Tucker,”
Weisman, executive producer
NBC Sports, said.
“Our announcers are not bias"
toward one team versus another,
don’t tell the Oilers who to play
quarterback. They shouldn’t tell
who to put as announcers.”
“I think they would have bigger
things to be worried about,” Monag
han said of the Oilers. “I’ve never
heard this one before. It’s a first.”
Both teams are 6-3. The game is
being touted in Houston, where the
Oilers in recent years have been
among the league’s worst teams, as
the club’s most important since
1980, when the Oilers challenged
the Pittsburgh Steelers for the divi
sion title.
Monaghan said the Oiler c<#
plaint was the first ever lod|
against the network and said ot
NBC games had similar situatio"
where both announcers are fronit? 1 '
cities of one of the teams.
“This weekend, we have the B"*
falo-New York Jets game, usi"
Marv Albert, who is from New Yof*
and worked for WNBC in Nc"
York, and Joe Namath (former ^
quarterback),” Monaghan said. “W
haven’t heard one thing from "
falo.”
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