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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 11, 1988)
Society of Manufacturing Engineers Meeting Guest Speaker: Dr. John Mayer International President of SME Program Director for Manufacturing Processes at The National Science Foundation Topic: Competitiveness Through Advanced Technology Date: Monday April 11,1 988 MSC Room 201 Dinner: Program: 6:30 P.M. 7:30 P.M. (No Charge) Sponsored By: Engineering Technology and SME Student Chapter 99 ‘PARENTS' ‘WEEKEND SECOND SET OF PRINTS FREE With developing and 3i/2 X 5 inch single print orders at the regular low price. C-41 color print film only. $2.79 12 EXPOSURE ROLL $5.39 24 EXPOSURE ROLL $3.79 15 EXPOSURE DISC $7.39 36 EXPOSURE ROLL Offer good April 8th - April 13th. 1988 PHOTOGRAPHIC SERVICES AT GOODWIH HALL & TEXAS A&M BOOKSTORE IH MSC m ‘Little’ guys find limelight in NBA As the NBA playoffs approach, it is becoming obvious how much the game has changed over the past 10 or 20 vears. Hal L. Hammons From the dominance of guards like Oscar Roberson and Jerry West to the days of super-centers Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdui-Jabaar, the burden of the offense has drifted from position to position on a relatively constant basis. But because of the slow, unnoticeable nature of such changes, it takes a while to realize that one of the most significant ones is in progress right now. The most important offensive player on the court is now — surprise, surprise — the small forward. It is difficult to accept, but the fact seems to be that centers are vastly overrated in terms of importance. How many dominant centers can you name — honestly? The only one I know of who can dominate a game offensively is Akeem Olajuwon. In contrast, the two accepted front-runners — the Lakers and Celtics — have perhaps their weakest link at the pivot. Abdul- Jabaar is on his last legs and is consistently outscored and, arguably, outplayed by his opponent. Robert Parrish is hobbled by age and injuries. Neither is in the “NBA Offensive Top 40.” Nor are Tree Rollins or Bill Laimbeer, the big men for Atlanta and Detroit, respectively. Dallas is winning the Midwest Division with James Donaldson — under 10 points per game — at center. Who is at the top? Small forwards. Of the top 10 scorers in the NBA, only Kevin McHale — No. 10 — is a true power forward. Dominique Wilkins, Larry Bird, Mark Aguirre and Alex English give the plurality to the small forward. And everyone else in the top 10 — Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Clyde Drexler and Dale Ellis — could easily convert under different systems. No centers. Olajuwon is the highest-ranked one at 11th. The next-highest, Moses Malone, is 18th. Only three others are in the top 40. But the high-scoring guys on the perimeter abound. Look at each of the top teams, and you will Find a money player on the flank. Boston has Bird. The Lakers have James Worthy. Denver has English. Dallas has Aguirre. Detroit has Adrian Dantley. Houston is a notable exception with no reliable point production from anyone in the front court aside from Olajuwon. Perhaps that’s one reason the team is having a mysterious lack of success this year. If I were to pick the best players in the NBA — the creme de In creme— I would choose Bird, Barkley, Jordan, Magic Johnson and Olajuwon. The next level would include players like Drexler, Karl Malone, Alvin Robertson, Paul Pressey and Isiah Thomas. Note the dominance of forwards under 6-10. These are the players who, in a clutch situation, can take the ball down low and either score or get fouled. Money players. And seven of the 10 are either small forwards or transit; »t; lot . guards. And this is not an b*/ • ■< c \ that wi) ice the problem solved quickly. centers is dominated bv,shat; say “elder statesmen" like Malone, Parrish and Abdul- Jabaar, none of whom are got to play any longer than tttooj three more years. In contrast, look at the collegiate t anks. Thebestfoml players in the country,bymis| standards, are Danny Mannii Kansas, ].R. Reid of North Carolina, Hersey Hawkinsof j Bradley, and Sean Elliot of Arizona. AH, with the possible except ot Reid, probably will plavsmi forward in the NBA. Kids ,ii e growing up u.;:-:. to be Larry or Magic today instead of Wilt or Kareem .V: result, the schoolyards are yielding players like Manning who, despite 6-11 height,ha« developed ball-handlingsli and mu side-shooting touchesi they will be able to playontk perimeter. Who knows what the next phase will be? Perhaps a nens of centers over 7-5 willemerj block any shot in sight. averay “W< by th The only high-scoring big man to come out of college since Olajuwon has been Brad Daugherty. The list of the other But for now, it would seen J game of basketball has been turned over to the (relatively little guy. Rockets, Mavs, Spurs long shots for NBA title five r DALLAS (AP) —- We’ll just have to live another June without a Texas team playing for an NBA title. You can handicap the Texas troika thusly in the upcoming play offs: • The San Antonio Spurs: 1,000 to 1. Lots of heart and hustle, but not a lot of inside muscle. • The Houston Rockets: 50 to 1. A team with perhaps the most tal ented athlete in the NBA in Akeem Olajuwon, but operating on a strange chemical imbalance involv ing Coach Bill Fitch and ball-hog ging players. • The Dallas Mavericks: 45 to 1. A scoring machine in Mark Aguirre who breaks down on defense like an Edsel. Now, the particulars: THE SAN ANTONIO SPURS Alvin Robertson, Johnny Dawkins Analysis and Mike Mitchell give the Spurs an exciting scoring pace, but they seem to flat give up on the road. The ru mors don’t help. Will Coach Bob Weiss be sacked? Will the team be sold? The Spurs need another Davy to save them the the way Crockett did the Alamo for a couple of weeks. Only this time, Navy officer David Robinson could be saving a franchise in deep need of a boost. THE HOUSTON ROCKETS The Rockets’ Olajuwon has been openly critical of Fitch and even nee dled some of his ball-greedy team mates like Sleepy Floyd. Houston does the other team a favor every time they don’t get the ball into Akeem’s hands. The Rockets lost to Denver at home this past week, and you could see the difference between a team like the Nuggets and an assembly of hoop-hungry hogs like Houston. Maybe Olajuwon is right. Perhaps Fitch can’t unlock the storehouse of team play with the Rockets. Houston has a dynamite club with a wet fuse. Pound for pound it’s probably the most talented team in the NBA. It can stand up physically with the Lakers or anybody, but there’s something wrong in the car diovascular area. THE DALLAS MAVERICKS Aguirre was too tired to play in the second half of a game recently. He told Coach John MacLeod he was weary, so Aguirre only partici pated for seven minutes. General lightec snap a The I the nil i" Manager Norm Sonjualmost™ fuse, probably thinking Aguirre’s $15,000-per-ganie It triggered a round ofdit finger-pointing. The players mad they called a team meeiis postponed it because nolx find it convenient to come, ir They later held themeetiril’' went out and got blownawa'Mr. P lt( ton as Larry Bird made sPf*! nin S s pointers while Aguirre watclm 1 loited J|mh : The Mavs are one solid player and an attitude £> 1 ' away from being on a level* W‘‘ lani Lakers, but that’s like twoof®r er 11 missing on a six-cylinder car f wa The Lone Star state's t0 ^ have too many fatal flaws t’Wp championship ring. That’s*] 82-game regular season wills Mythical concept of ‘peaking’ is a basketball enigma DALLAS (AP) — Rick Sund is hoping his Dallas Mavericks turn around a recent slide and win their final 10 games, but from first-hand experience, he knows that winning isn’t everything. At least not in the final weeks of the NBA’s regular season. “Look at. us last year,” said Sund, the Mavericks’ vice president of bas ketball operations. “We finished up one of the strongest teams in the league and it looked like we’d breeze through the playoffs until the West ern Conference finals. Heck, we folded like a tent in the first round against Seattle. “From a selfish standpoint, I want to end on a strong note. But I’ll also be the first to tell you I don’t care if we’re playing Seattle or whoever: Records don’t mean squat. Every body is 0-0 when the playoffs start.” no one knows for sure if it’s a month-long April fool’s joke, or an accurate barometer of a team’s chances in the playoffs. the Lombardi school, where winning isn’t everything — it’s the only thing. Some coaches shrug their shoul ders when asked about the impor tance of peaking. “I don’t know if there’s such a thing,” the Detroit Pistons’ Chuck Daly told the Dallas Morning News. “It’s a word used by the media and coaches talk about it. But it’s so abs tract, who can define it?” “It’s better to go in with a head of steam in the playoffs,” said the Mav ericks’ coach, whose team lost four of five games, before defeating the Utah Jazz 118-95 Friday night at Re union Arena. peaking for the playoffs, M team in this league would it,” said Denver Coach D« : whose team plays in Reunioj day night. “You can’t go in sideways, and it’s not very good to go in losing a lot of games. I’ve always believed that you want to go in on an upbeat note.” The Nuggets havewoniC secutive games and appf 21 peaking as the MidwestDini has narrowed to Dallas and ^ If there’s one thing clear about the last 30 days of the season, it’s that There are several schools of thought: The first goes along the same lines as the famous quote at tributed to former Green Bay Pack ers’ coach Vince Lombardi. Another is that it’s not whether you win or lose in April, but how you’re playing once May starts. Everyone sets out to end strongly, but to use the word “peak” implies a Mia ‘ premeditated, controllable action. It doesn’t work that way. But “it’s like when tkt Tournament starts andvoH hear, ‘Geez, now conies the Watch these guys becausf 1 ways peak for the tout 111 Then they get knocked o# 1, first round,” Moe said. Some coaches just hope that their teams begin showing an im provement in play, and let the wins and losses fall where they may. John MacLeod is a graduate of “If there was such a real thing as “It’s a bunch ot bull Bi'" the playof fs, someone isf ', hot somewhere along the ^ times, it. happens with rhyme or reason. Thei^l to do the best you can, ' whatever happens, hapP e( WI