Thursday, January 19,1989
The Battalion
Page 13
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SWC race defying experts in early going
Proposition 42 supporters
standing by their position
By Jerry Bolz
Assistant Sports Editor
Sixteen games into the season the
A&M men’s basketball team is almost
right on course for last year’s 16-15 sea
son record. However, there are some big
surprises in the rest of the Southwest
Conference.
The biggest shock of all is at the top of
the standings — Texas Christian.
After last season’s dismal 9-19 (3-13
in SWC) record, most predictions for the
Homed Frogs were for more of the same
this year.
Rebuilding under second-year coach
Moe Iba, TCU’s 5-0 start makes them
worth a second look.
The Frogs are led by junior transfers
Rich Antee and Craig Sibley, and senior
John Lewis. Guard Danny Hughes is
guiding the team as the main ball han
dler.
On the surface, there is nothing about
TCU that truly stands out. They seem to
be just one of those teams every year that
draws together and works well as a team.
The Aggies had that type of a team
two years ago when they had a strong
late-season spurt and blewout everyone
in the SWC tournament before losing to
Duke in the NCAA tourney.
A noteworthy fact about the Frogs this
season is that they are made up mostly of
transfer students. Although they have
five true freshmen, there is only one
sophomore on the team, and five of the
six juniors are transfers.
TCU’s roster seems to be moving in a
direction much like the Aggies’, who
have transferred in nine of 14 team mem
bers. But, somehow, the Frogs have
been able to get all the mechanics work
ing well enough to go 12-5.
Most of the talk about the slumping
Aggies has pointed to a high amount of
turnovers. A little figuring, however,
shows an average of 17.2 per game dur
ing the first seven games (6-1) and only a
slightly higher 17.9 average the last nine
outings (2-7).
The problem seems to be more the
level of competition and the fact that
only two of the last nine games were
played in Aggieland.
ries this year. After starting out with
their annual victory over a national
power, (this year’s victim was North
Carolina State), the Mustangs lost last
year’s sixth man Todd Alexander for
personal reasons and All SWC guard
Armstrong for academic reasons.
Associated Press
During the slump, A&M played na
tional powers Nevada-Las Vegas and
Oklahoma as well as above-average Ok
lahoma State and Arkansas. Losing to
Southern Methodist in Dallas was no sur
prise, since Kato Armstrong was still on
the team and led the game with 25
points.
SMU takes second in wild SWC sto-
First-year Coach John Shumate has
the Ponies at 2-1 in the conference with a
shot at 1-3 Rice tonight. However, the
loss of Alexander and Armstrong is
showing up in a 6-6 overall record, even
though they have played some tough op
ponents.
Another first-year coach, Tom Pen
ders, has the Longhorns of Texas starting
strong this year. After their victory over
Tech Wednesday, the Longhorns have a
share of the conference lead with TCU
and Arkansas, losing only to the Razor-
backs.
Arkansas is tough again this season.
Currently at 10-4 (4-1 in SWC) the Hogs
are trying to outdo a good 21-9 record
last year.
Whether or not they can manage an
other 20-win season lies mostly in the
hands of juniors Ron Huery and Mario
Credit. If they can pull it off, Coach No
lan Richardson will certainly be a more
accepted part of Fayetteville.
per
TCU, Texas pick up SWC wins
Associated Press
Hollis led Houston with 16
TCU 55, Houston 54
Freshman center Reggie Smith
scored seven of Texas Christian’s
last nine points and 17 overall to
lead the Horned Frogs to a 55-54
Southwest Conference win over
the Houston Cougars Wednesday
night.
With 1:25 remaining, Houston
tied it at 52-52 on a Chris Morris
free throw, only his second suc
cessful foul shot in eight at
tempts. A 3-point play by Smith
made it 55-52 with 1:03 to go.
Houston’s Derrick Daniels
missed the front end of a 1-1 with
three secondsleft to seal the vic
tory for TCU, now 12-5 and 5-0
in conference play. Houston
dropped to 9-7 and 1-3 after los
ing three straight conference
games by a total of Five points.
points.
Houston hit only six of its first
18 shots in the second half and
TCU recaptured the lead 52-51
on a fast-break layup by Tony Ed
mond with three minutes to play.
Texas 90, Texas Tech 86
Travis Mays scored 35 points and
Texas held off a furious Texas
Tech rally for a 90-86 Southwest
Conference victory Wednesday
night.
The Longhorns improved to
13-3, 4-1 in the SWC. Texas Tech
is 6-9, 1-3.
Mays and Lance Blanks, who
added 26 points, staked the
Longhorns to a 17-point halftime
lead that grew to 21 points early
in the second half.
Jerry Mason, who led the Red
Raiders with 22 points, scored
seven points during the 10-point
run.
Texas countered with a 12-6
run for a 90-83 lead with 15 sec
onds remaining.
The game drew a crowd of
13,233, the Longhorns’ largest of
the season.
Florida St. 112, Arkansas 105
Reserve Derrick Mitchell, who
had a chance to win the game in
regulation, scored all seven of his
points in overtime to lead 14th-
ranked Llorida State over Arkan
sas 112-105 Wednesday night.
A 62 percent free throw
shooter for the season, Mitchell
made both ends of a one-and-one
to give the Seminoles a 102-100
lead with 4:14 left in overtime.
McCloud, who scored a game-
high 28, had hit a 3-pointer to tie
it at 100 with 59 seconds left.
Despite a storm of protest since its
passage last week, Proposition 42,
the controversial NCAA rule that
would bar awarding athletic schol
arships to high school graduates who
fail to meet certain standards, has at
least a few supporters.
Grady Bogue, interim chancellor
of Louisiana State University, said,
“A student who fails to obtain an
athletic scholarship is not deprived
of a college education. We have ju
nior colleges and public colleges and
universities that educate thousands
of poor and minority students every
year.”
Proposition 48, which went into
effect three years ago, limits athletic
eligibility for freshman to those who
come into school with a 2.0 high
school academic average and a score
of at least 700 on the Scholastic Apti
tude Test or 15 on the American
College Test.
Students able to meet only one of
the requirements still could enter
school on an athletic scholarship, but
a “partial qualifier” would be ineli
gible for sports participation as a
freshman and would have only three
years of eligibility remaining. Propo
sition 42, the new rule which would
take effect Aug. 1, 1990, closes the
“partial qualifier” loophole in Propo
sition 48.
Many coaches, athletic directors
and administrators have reacted an
grily to the new rule, saying it is bi
ased against minorities. Others call
Proposition 42 racist.
Bogue’s opinion is opposite that
of LSU basketball coach Dale
Brown, who has spoken in opposi
tion to Proposition 42 since its pas
sage last Wednesday by a vote of
163-154 during the NCAA’s na
tional convention at San Lrancisco.
“It seems a strange perspective
that assumes that poor students and
minority students are only enrolled
on basketball and football teams,”
Bogue said Wednesday in New Or
leans.
“We have thousands of them en
rolled in this school that are doing
well in college. You cannot conclude
that this rule does damage to the
poor and minorities. It affects only a
small percentage of them.
“I don’t know if a basketball
player who doesn’t get a scholarship
will go to college or not, but I do
know that if they want to, they can.”
Athletic officials at the University
of Colorado also are among the few
who have come out publicly in favor
of Proposition 42.
Colorado faculty representative
William Baughn, whose school voted
for Proposition 42, said, “I’d like to
see young people ready to come to a
university. The standards are mini
mal. They can go to community col
leges to make the grades and still
play two years at a Division I school.”
Georgetown basketball coach
John Thompson brought national
attention to the issue by walking out
of a game in protest of the new stan
dards.
“I disagree wholeheartedly with
Thompson,” Baughn said. “It’s not
aimed at blacks; it’s to get people re
ady for college.”
A handful of Colorado athletes,
all minorities, received scholarships
under Proposition 48 guidelines,
and have made satisfactory academic
progress, Baughn said.
“Sometimes you do have suc
cesses,” Baughn said. “But I’m not
sure these young people would not
have been better off going to a com
munity college first.”
Colorado basketball coach Tom
Miller said he “could live with” Prop
osition 42 as long as schools are
given enough time to prepare for it.
“I don’t think the standards are so
high you can’t achieve what it takes,”
he said, citing the 1,100 average on
the SAT for the Colorado student
body.
Meanwhile, officials of four
Maryland colleges that voted in fa
vor of Proposition 42 said Wednes
day the rule should be repealed or
revised.
Representatives of Maryland,
Maryland-Eastern Shore, Maryland-
Baltimore County and Towson State
announced their change of stance
after an appeal from Maryland’s
Legislative Black Caucus.
Helen Giles-Gee, assistant to the
president at Towson State, said the
university has reconsidered its posi
tion. She said the representative who
cast Towson State’s vote misunder
stood the impact of the rule change
on other colleges.
A statement by the Black Caucus
said the new rule “would prevent in
stitutions from recruiting individu
als who may perform well scholasti
cally but who may perform poorly
on standardized tests.”
Black coaches and administrators
have been particularly opposed to
Proposition 48 because they believe
the standardized entrance exams are
racially and culturally biased.
But Bogue said, “I find it puzzling
that folks attack the standardized
tests, which are least likely to be bi
ased because they have review pan
els with minority members that work
to remove bias, but have nothing to
say about the thousands of other
tests that instructors administer in
schools that have equal impact on a
student.”
Proposition 42' was written and
sponsored by the Southeastern Con
ference, which had voted to phase it
in unilaterally among its 10 member
schools even if the NCAA as a whole
didn’t follow suit.
Charles Knapp, president of the
University of Georgia, earlier this
week called the proposal “a modest
step in some ways, but an important
step.” He said there were “a lot bet
ter ways of promoting cultural diver
sity on campus besides athletic schol
arships,” such as hiring more faculty
and providing more academic schol
arships.
Emphasis on athletic scholarships
as a major vehicle for blacks to at
tend college lends credence to
charges of exploitation, he said.
Knapp also said standardized tests
are “imperfect measures, but they
are used by all colleges and universi
ties across the country to assist the
admissions process.
“In my view, it is not a matter of
cultural bias, but rather a matter of a
young minority student, particularly
blacks, coming into tests with less
preparation than majority students,”
Knapp said. “We’ve clearly got an
educational crisis in this country.
That has been pointed out again and
again in reports like ‘Nation at Risk.’
And we are seeing that reflected,
rather than a demonstrated cultural
bias, on SAT tests.
“Obviously, I don’t believe it (the
SAT test) is racist, and a majority of
presidents of institutions that passed
(Proposition 42) in San Lrancisco
don’t believe it is racist.”
Does Thompson really want to abolish Proposition 42 ?
He has a dream, but does he really know
what it is?
Georgetown basketball coach John
Thompson has a dream and he let the
world know about it by walking out before
the start of last Saturday night’s basketball
game between Georgetown and Boston
College.
Thompson dreams of getting rid of
Proposition 42.
Proposition 42 is a continuation of the
controversial Proposition 48 passed a few
years ago. Under Proposition 48 an
incoming freshman is ruled ineligible to
play or practice in sports if he doesn’t meet
the NCAA academic qualifications.
To be eligible a player must score at least
a 700 on the SAT or 15 on the ACT’. He
must also have at least a 2.0 grade point
average in high school.
Proposition 42 goes a step further.
I f a player does not meet the
requiremefits, not only can he not play or
practice, he is also ineligible to receive any
scholarship or financial aid from the
university.
Proposition 42 was approved by the
NCAA this month. Thompson contends
that the new rule is discriminating against
minorities, especially blacks.
Thompson doesn’t like this rule because
he says that a majority of the Proposition 48
casualties are blacks.
Thompson is only half right. The NCAA
has reported that since the rule went into
effect, 600 blacks have been declared
ineligible under Proposition 48. This
represents 90 percent of all Proposition 48
casualties.
Thompson is wrong when he says that
these students have nowhere to go for
financial aid. These students are still
eligible for government-sponsored Pell
Grants and guaranteed student loans.
Thompson has set off a racial bomb that
will not be defused easily. When one of the
winningest basketball coaches in America,
the most recent Olympic coach, walks out of
a game before his team is to play, people
notice. In fact, Thompson got a standing
ovation from the crowd.
However, this time I think Thompson
may have leapt before he looked.
Proposition 42 isjust a continuation of the
NCAA’s recent efforts to clean up college
athletics. It makes perfect sense not to give
a scholarship to a student who cannot meet
the requirements for that scholarship.
If a student is not playing a sport, why
would you give him a sports scholarship? It
is sort of like paying someone to work tor
you and then not requiring him to work.If
anyone knows of a job like that, let me know
so I can apply and get something for
nothing.
Thompson contends the rule
discriminates because the criteria used to
determine eligibility are discriminatory in
nature. He is not alone. Many contend the
SAT and the ACT are racially biased. They
contend that blacks and other minorities
score lower because the tests are biased
against them.
If that is the case, then let’s see some
scores that prove that lower minority scores
are directly related to biased questions —
not other enviromental factors such as
income, parental support, living
accommodations, etc.
Are these factors in determining how a
student not only answers a question, but
how he reads it? Is the wording of the
question biased in any way? I remember
taking those tests and there were a lot of
words I didn’t know, but it wasn’t because
of the color of my skin. It was my lack of
exposure to them.
These were words thatjust weren’t
spoken at my school or taught there. I went
to a predominantly black high school and I
didn’t have any trouble meeting the
minimum standards.
Proposition 42 is a definite step in the
right direction. We should not be giving
students scholarships if they can’t meet the
requirements. Thompson and the rest of
the college coaches need to remember that
they are dealing with student-athletes.
The word “student” comes first for a
reason. Proposition 42 is right in line with
that reason.
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