Tuesday, March 8, 1988/The Battalion/Page 11
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Sports
SWC tourney championship up for grabs
By Hal. L. Hammons
Assistant Sports Editor
Well, there’s good news and bad news as
it's a® he Texas A&M men’s basketball team gets
sit won eady for the Southwest Conference Classic
his weekend in Dallas.
The good news is, there are six teams of
he eight that have to be considered legiti-
nate threats to walk away with three wins
ind the championship. The bad news is, the
\ggies are one of the other two.
Granted, distinct favorites for the crown
lave emerged, but the amazing consistency
and crazy shenanigans in the annual
hoot-out in Reunion Arena promises any-
hing but a cakewalk for the top-seeded
iouthern Methodist Mustangs, the second-
ceded Baylor Bears or the highly regarded
Arkansas Razorbacks.
Were I a gambler, here’s how they’d
land up:
Southern Methodist: seed — No. 1. odds
-3-2.
Few logical reasons could be found as to
vhy the Mustangs would lose, as they are
lands-down the best team in the confer-
nce. When they’re on there’s no turning
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them off, and there’s no way to beat a team
that gets three points every time down the
court. Kato Armstrong, Carlton McKinney,
Todd Alexander and Eric Longino can all
hit from beyond the three-point stripe.
The trouble is, when they’re off they’re
ot'f. They can’t seem to work it out so that
only one player at a time has a bad day. Ei
ther they all shoot the lights out or they all
airball everything. Fix that and they could
be a Final Four team.
Baylor: seed — No. 2. odds — 2-1.
The Bears are the hottest team in the
SWC and beat SMU handily in Waco in the
teams’ last meeting. Darryl Middleton has
become a somewhat-reliable force on the
inside after a long history of no-shows, and
guard Michael Williams should have been a
lock for SWC Most Valuable Player. If he’s
left alone he will hit the shot. It’s just about
that simple. After finding his touch at mid-
season, guard Roy Hobbs’ confidence is at
an all-time high.
However, Baylor is weak on the bench
and has proven to be vulnerable. Witness
the thrashing they took on the road against
Texas. Middleton won’t be able to slack off
like last year and still get to the finals.
Texas: seed — No. 4. odds — 4-1.
If Bob Weltlich doesn’t get Coach of the
Year it will be robbery. He’s taken a team
that has relatively little talent and formed
one of the best team in the conference.
Lack of actual talent, however, could come
to haunt them.
Plagued with injuries the entire season,
they have gotten healthy and hot at the
right time. Three more strong efforts could
spell championship for the Horns.
Houston: seed — No. 5. odds —4-1.
Another flaky team. When they’re good
they’re close to unstoppable. Junior College
transfer Richard Hollis is uncanny when he
decides to become part of the offensive at
tack, and center Rolando Ferreira probably
is the most reliable scorer in the conference
from inside 10 feet.
Whether or not the Cougars play with
the intensity they are capable of showing,
the game with Texas definitely should be
the best of the opening round games, if not
the tournament.
Arkansas: seed — No. 3. odds —5-1
The fact, inexplicable as it may be, still
remains: the Razorbacks stink when it
comes to the tournament. They ought to be
contenders. They could be contenders. But
if the last few years’ performances are any
indication, they won’t be.
Plus the Hogs have had discipline prob
lems, consistency problems and their an
nual difficulties winning on the road. Put
the Classic in Barnhill Arena and they’ll
have a shot. In Reunion, don’t count on it.
Texas Tech: seed — No. 7. odds — 10-1.
There’s absolutely no reason to think the
Red Raiders will do anything at the tourna
ment but lose big, and as soon as possible.
Yet there remains an inexplicable force that
surrounds the SWC Classic. Some invisible
specter forces all stray balls into Tech
hands, shoves all Raider shots through the
hoop, gives their opponents some strange
disease that keeps them from playing well.
A lot of it comes from Coach Gerald My
ers, considered by most to be the best in the
SWC..If he can get his team to win two or
three games this weekend, though, he
ought to be running for president.
Texas A&M: seed — No. 6. odds — 15-
1.
Agreed, this team ought to have a better
chance at the Classic crown than last year’s
squad had — the team that not only won it,
but beat up three of the top four seeds.
That team, however, had Winston Crite.
With good performances from the “3-
Ds” — Darryl, Doug and Donald — as well
as just about everyone else, the Aggies
could win one or two or even three games
— stranger things have happened.
Texas Christian: seed — No. 8. odds —
25-1.
Truth to tell, the odds ought to be about
25-1 that they beat SMLJ in the opening
round. Two more wins after that would be,
. . . well, let’s just borrow a quote from Jim
Wacker and say “unbeleeevable!”
The Frogs play well in spurts, and play
ers like Rod Jacques can light up the board
when they get hot, but let’s face it: they
edged Rice out on a tie-breaker for the last
space in the tournament. There’s no reason
to think TCU would be able to win as many
games this weekend as they won all season.
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Mustangs’ coach, 3 players
receive SWC hoop honors
DALLAS (AP) — Champion
Southern Methodist placed two play
ers on the Associated Press 198*7-
1988 All-Southwest Conference bas
ketball first team and Dave Bliss was
honored by his peers as Coach of the
Year.
Kato Armstrong and Carlton Mc
Kinney, the Mustangs’ high-scoring
seniors, were named to first-place
berths.
Guard Darryl McDonald was the
only Aggie to make the team, earn
ing a berth on the second team.
Other first learners picked by the
coaches included Baylor’s inside-
outside, one-two punch of center
Darryl Middleton and guard Mi
chael Williams, both seniors, and
sophomore Ron Huery of the Ar
kansas Razorbacks.
Middleton, who became the first
player since 1975 to win scoring and
rebounding titles, is the AP All-
Southwest Conference Offensive
Player of the Year.
Middleton averaged 19.5 points
and nine rebounds per game. Rick
Bullock averaged 20 points and 11
rebounds for Texas Tech in 1975.
Defensive Player of the Year was
also off Coach Gene Iba’s second
seeded tournament team, Robert
McLemore, a tenacious competitor
who usually guards the shooting star
on the opposing teams.
Baylor had its finest regular sea
son in 40 years with 21 victories.
Newcomer of the Year is SMU’s
Todd Alexander, the most valuable
sixth man in the SWC. Alexander, a
transfer from Minnesota, gave the
Mustangs a lift with his .solid outside
shooting.
Williams moved into the top 15
all-time SWC and broke Baylor’s sin
gle season assists record of 159 set by
Vinnie Johnson, who now plays for
the Detroit Pistons in the NBA, dur
ing the 1978-79 season. Williams av
eraged 18 points per game
For the SMU Mustangs it was
their first SWC title since 1967.
It was the first time for Bliss to
win Coach of the Year honors in his
eight years at SMU.
Armstrong and McKinney each
averaged 15 points for the Mustangs
and Alexander averaged 14 points
coming off the bench as the Mus
tangs won 24 of 30 regular season
games.
Huery, a sophomore, averaged 13
points for the Razorbacks, who fin
ished in a second-place tie with Bay
lor after being the preseason favor
ites.
Temple remains on top of poll
as tournament time draws near
From the Associated Press
For the fifth consecutive week,
Temple remained atop the Asso
ciated Press college basketball
poll Monday, while Purdue, Ari
zona and Oklahoma held on to
the No. 2 through 4 places for the
same period.
Temple, 27-1, has advanced to
the semifinals of the Atlantic 10
tournament and a victory in that
could assure the Owls of a No. 1
seeding in the NCAA tourna
ment when the pairings are an
nounced on Sunday.
Purdue, 26-2, has already
clinched a berth in the NCAA as
champions of the Big 10. The
Boilermakers won the title on Sat
urday with an 80-67 victory over
No. . 0 Michigan.
Arizona, 28-2, clinched the Pa
cific 10 regular-season title quite a
while ago and the Wildcats are as
sured a bid even if they don’t win
the conference tournament. Ok
lahoma, 27-3, had already won
the Big Eight regular-season title
before losing to Missouri 93-90 in
overtime last week and the
Sooners should be in the same
spot as Arizona as far as a bid is
concerned.
Arizona was the only other
team to receive first-place votes as
the Wildcats got four and 1,148
points, while the Sooners had
1,019 points.
Pittsburgh, the Big East regu
lar-season champion, jumped
from seventh to fifth, the same
improvement made by Kentucky,
the top seed of the Southeastern
Conference tournament.
Kentucky beat Georgia and
Mississippi last week to improve
its record to 22-5 and received
886 points, 66 more than Ne-
vada-Las Vegas which had been
No. 5.
The Runnin’ Rebels, 26-4, lost
their third home game of the sea
son last week when they fell to
Long Beach State 79-77.
Duke, 21-6, improved one
place to eighth with 802 points af
ter stopping a three-game losing
streak with a 96-&1 victory over
North Carolina, which fell from
sixth to ninth with 772 points.
North Carolina had already
clinched the Atlantic Coast Con
ference regular-season title and
the loss was the second this year
to Duke.
For the second straight week
and third of the last four, Michi
gan rounded out the Top 10. The
Wolverines, 23-6, split two games
last week, beating Northwestern
105-67 before losing to Purdue.
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