The Battalion
SPORTS 9
Duke leads Aggie
Four critical double plays lead to
By Jerry Bolz ^ a ppy with the win and the de-
tensive effort.
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
Andy Duke celebrated his birth
day by knocking in three runs on
four hits to lead the Texas Aggies to
a 9-3 win over Sam Houston State
Tuesday.
Duke hit singles in the second,
third and fourth innings to help the
Aggies notch their 34th win tn 35
games. Sam Houston dropped to 24-
14 with the loss.
Duke was pleased he had such a
good night at the plate on his birth
day.
it’s just one of those things,” he
said. “I happened to have a great
day on my birthday. A lot of the
credit (for the RBIs) goes to the peo
ple in front of me.”
A&M’s Mike Easley also got three
hits while Kirk Thompson and
Terry Taylor got two apiece.
The Aggies turned four critical
double plays to keep the Bearkats
r*^ garT V e - W 1 T L We g ot four double plays and if
A&M Coach Mark Johnson was you’re doing that, a team has got to
ESPN/Collegiate Basebal
Top 25 Poll
Team
1-Texas A&M
2. LSU
3. Wichita St.
4. Miss. St.
5. Arizona St.
B.Arkansas
7. Oklahoma St.
S.Texas
9. Florida
10. CIemson
11 Miami, Fla.
12. Arizona
13. Fresno St.
14. Long Beach St.
15. Florida St.
16.Southern Cal
17.California
IS.Houston
19.San Jose St.
20.South Florida
21.UNLV
22.Oklahoma
23. Fullerton St.
24. Brigham Young
25.South Alabama
Record
34-1
31- 3
30-3
21- 5
30-10
27- 4
23- 5
33-10
28- 9
24- 3
25- 10
25-12-1
22-12
2»4
28- 9
27-14
26- 10
32- 5
28-6
29- 9
26-8
18-7
21-11
18-9
22- 9
baseball team past Sam Houston
9-3 victory
play great of tense to beat you.”
The Aggies got on the board in
the second inning, ascatcher Eric Al
bright walked and went to third on a
single by Duke. Easley singled to left
field to score Albright to give the
Ags a 1-0 lead.
A&M did more damage to the
Bearkats’ starting pitcher Norman
Butler in the third inning.
Shortstop Chuck Knoblauch was
hit by a Butler pitch and stole second
base. Third baseman John Byington
singled but Knoblauch was thrown
out at the plate by SHSU right
fielder Tom Jones.
Albright walked and Duke singled
to score Byington and Albright to
give A&M a 3-0 lead.
The Aggies did the most damage
in the fourth inning, getting five
runs on only two hits.
Taylor singled to right before
Knoblauch and Albright walked to
load the bases. Duke singled to left
to score Taylor and Knoblauch.
Albright and Duke scored when
SHSU third baseman Clint Turling
ton overthrew first base in an at
tempt to throw out Easley. Easley
Aggie shortstop Chuck Knoblauch awaits a (7) for the first out of a double play in the
throw to put out SHSU’s John Carmichael second inning of A&M’s 9-3 win Tuesday.
scored on another throwing eirof on the fifth and one in the ninth while innings and got the win for A&M
fhetollowmg play to put the Aggies the Aggies got one more in their half and Butler (3-3) suffered the loss for
U P of the fifth. the Bearkats.
c tt ^ . . The teams play a single game to-
Sam Houston scored two runs in Brent Gilbert (2-0) pitched three day in Huntsville at 3 p.m.
Rule changes are unnecessary for today 9 s college basketball
It never fails. Just when things are going
good, someone comes along and tries to
make unnecessary changes to improve
things.
In Seattle this weekend, NCAA coaches
met to talk about various rule changes in
basketball, just at the time when basketball,
be it professional or collegiate, is enjoying
its most popularity . Hey folks, haven’t you
ever heard the saying “if it ain’t broke, don’t
fix it”.
Among the rules changes that are being
discussed are moving the three-point line
back to the international line, abolishing the
time line, widening the lane and the most
asinine suggestion of raising the height of
the goal. Let’s take a look at each suggestion
and see why it would or wouldn’t work.
First, there’s the moving of the three-
point line back to the international distance.
One of the main proponents of this move is
Indiana Head Coach Bobby Knight. Knight
thinks that 19 feet 9 inches is too dose to
merit an extra point. This might be true,
but even at 19 feet 9 inches, teams are still
only hitting 30 to 40 percent of their three-
point shots.
The real reason Knight and others want
to move it back is because they all lost to
teams that used the three-point shot to beat
the likes of Indiana and Arizona.
Moving the three-pointer may help in
international play, but the fans like to see
teams like Siena and shooters like Glen
Rice. Moving the line back isn’t going to
keep three-point shooters from beating
you, it will just keep fans out of the
building.
The one rule change that makes sense is
the widening of the lane. By playing with a
wider lane, the college athletes will be
familiar with it and when the Olympics
come around, American athletes wul not
suffer culture shock from the wider lane.
This will also help the likes of Alonzo
Mourning, who loves to camp in the lane,
learn to move and stay active in the scheme
of the offense.
However, this rule probably won’t be
implemented because the wider lane looks
foreign to the fans and they will not tolerate
it.
Abolishing the time line will never
happen, because fans love to see man-to
man defenses and presses. Take away the
time line and there is no incentive to play
defense until they get within 20 feet of the
basket. More teams will start to play zone
defenses and the game will slow down. The
result will not only be a loss of fans, which
means a loss in revenue, but a stadium of
sleeping fans.
The most off-the-wall idea is the raising
of the goal to 10 feet 4 inches. There is no
real reason for the goal being at 10 feet,
except that’s where it has always been.
The reason some want to raise the rim is
because more and more players play above
the it.
The most harm will be done to smaller
teams that will be forced to take more
three-point shots, from wherever it is. as
they will be out-rebounded by the larger
teams that get up over the rim.
The best news to come out of Seattle,
besides the national championship, is the
fact that none of these ideas were accepted.
However, with the likes of Knight and
others arguing for changes, those who like
the game as it is (the fans and players) may
have no choice in the matter.
Hopefully, Knight and his litde band of
do-gooders will wake up and smell the
coffee.
If they change the sport too radically the
fans may reject it completely. If the fans
don’t come to watch, then tickets aren’t
sold, TV money dries up and basketbal gets
filed in in the infamous circular file.
No matter what Knight and his merry
band do, at least we still have the NBA.
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