The Battalion
SPORTS
Thursday, March 1, 1990
Alan
Lehmann
Sports Writer
Spring lockout
hurting baseball
fans the hardest
(✓all it a lockout. Call it a
labor dispute. Call it greed.
No matter what label you put on it, the
current rift between the baseball team
owners and players means that baseball
will be put on hold.
Already, teams are canceling spring
training games and if the situation isn’t
resolved soon, the season may not open
on time.
As a baseball fan, it’s hard to imagine
spring without baseball. Will the flowers
postpone blooming for a couple of
weeks? Will the birds not chirp until the
two sides agree?
Regardless, it’ll feel like winter until
the teams trot out for opening day. If
they ever settle this thing.
For the record, it’s called a lockout.
The owners have stopped their players
from working out in the spring training
facilities by literally locking them out.
In contrast, a strike is when players
refuse to work. At the moment, the
players want to work, but have no place
to go for spring training.
The players and owners are fighting
over several issues, the central one being
(suprise:) money.
Money issue # l is arbitration — the
method of settling contact disputes in
which an independant arbitrator decides
whether the player’s demand or team’s
offer is more fair — and who is eligible
for it.
Currently, a player must have three
years of major league service to request
salary arbitration. The players union
See Lehmann/Page 10
81 win
UH too good for Ags in 100-
A&M may find it
hard to match up
with Coogs later
Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack
A&M guard Lynn Suber battles Houston guard Kelvin Smith for a loose ball in
the Aggies’ 100-81 loss Wednesday. Suber finished with 12 points as A&M
dropped to 13-16, 6-9 in conference play. A&M hosts Texas Tech Sunday.
By RICHARD TIJERINA
Of The Battalion Staff
Texas, shmexas.
The I exas A&M men’s basketball team
looked like it was on its way to meeting the
Longhorns in the first round of the South
west Conference Postseason Classic in
March.
But Houston now finds itself in second
place in conference standings, and it ap
pears A&M may draw them first instead.
If so, that s bad news for A&M coach
John 1 hornton. The Cougars are starting
We stunk up the place. We
can’t do that against a good
team, and Houston is definitely
a good team.”
— Freddie Ricks,
A&M guard
to look like they’re the team to beat.
Case in point: Houston’s 100-81 thrash
ing of A&M Wednesday night in front of
2,045 at G. Rollie White Coliseum showed
that while the Aggies may match up well
with the Longhorns, they have little busi
ness messing with the Cougars.
Houston outrebounded, outshot, out-
muscled and outplayed A&M in improving
to 21-6, 11-3 in the SWC. The Aggies
dropped to 13-16, 6-9 in conference play.
This year’s Cougars may not appear to be
Phi Slama Jama, but they did enough slam-
min’ and jammin’ to last Thornton a good
while.
“It’s easier to match up against Texas
than it is for Houston,” Thornton said.
“We’ve got Darren (Rhea), who’s 6-9. (Da
vid) Harris is 6-10. But their 6-8’s are ex
tremely quick. They get it done around the
basket.”
The Aggies tried to match the Cougars
offensively, and succeeded at some points.
But Houston was too much for A&M,
Thornton said.
“They were playing so poised and under
control,” he said. “They took what we gave
them. They never were rattled, never were
scared. They just went back to work.”
Houston pretty much did as it pleased
Wednesday night. If the Cougars wanted to
hold the ball behind the three-point line
and hit the trey, they did. If they wanted to
pass it inside and score on a slam dunk, they
did that too.
Not that the Aggies didn’t have a good
game. They shot well and seemed relaxed,
but there wasn’t much they could do against
the Cougars.
A&M center David Harris fouled out at
the 8:03 mark with the score 85-69. For all
intents and purposes, the game was over.
Without Harris, the Aggies had no one to
close up the middle and stop the Cougars
from taking advantage of their height and
quickness.
“I thought that when David Harris
fouled out of the game, that really hurt
them,” Houston coach Pat Foster said. “Al
though they were able to hit the three-point
shots to get back into the game, not having
him in the middle hurt them.”
Senior guard Tony Milton led the Aggies
with 18 points. Freshman guard Brooks
Thompson had nine points, all of them in
the first half. But his three-point accuracy
kept the Aggies in the game.
Down 32-18 in the first half, the Aggies
went on a 12-2 run, sparked by Thompson.
Junior guard Lonnie Nason and Thomp
son hit back-to-back three-pointers, and
Thompson added a 15-foot jumpshot from
the left baseline to cut the lead to 34-30.
But the Cougars responded with a 14-4
spurt of their own, and led at halftime 48-
34.
“We talked at halftime about how we
lacked intensity out there,” said A&M
guard Freddie Ricks, who finished with 11
points. “Coach really tried to get us
pumped up. I don’t know why we came out
so dead. It really showed.
“We stunk up the place. We can’t do that
against a good team, and Houston is defi
nitely a good team.”
Down by 14, the Aggies came out in the
second half determined to make a run. The
only problem, however, was that the Cou
gars weren’t ready to let them.
Houston scored the first four points of
the half, and Harris picked up his fourth
foul four minutes into the period. A&M
was down by 13 when he was sent to the
bench, and after he left the Cougars went
on an 8-2 run.
The Aggies couldn’t get any closer after
that. Whenever they started a momentum
building run of any kind, the Cougars
would hit a long three-pointer or make a
dramatic dunk to stop them.
In a game where turnovers were crucial
to avoid, the Aggies had plenty. A&M
turned the ball over 19 times.
“It’s a simple fact that when you make a
mistake out there, they take that simple
mistake and make it a glaring mistake,”
Thornton said. “They have enough players
and enough confidence right now that they
can hurt you in a number of different
ways.”
It looks like the A&M will have to play
the loser of Monday’s Texas-UH game in
Houston. Wednesday’s game showed what
a problem the Aggies will have matching up
with the Cougars.
Houston has won 10 games in a row, and
are a legitimate threat to conference-lead
ing Arkansas in the Tournament.
“I think they have the ability to cause
some problems in the NCAA Tourna
ment,” Thornton said. “They’re playing
with a lot of confidence and have a lot of
depth at key positions. I look for them to be
a formidable foe for anybody.
“They just physically overpowered us.
We start three guards and they have two big
inside players and a big forward. We just
don’t match up with them.”
? STEVE
SMITH
Elect an experienced, conservative judge
to the County Court at Law Number 2
Steve Smith is the most ex
perienced candidate running for
the Republican nomination for
judge of Brazos County Court at
Law No. 2. As a municipal judge
of College Station, he has heard
almost 4,000 cases involving a
variety of misdemeanor criminal
matters. Judge Smith has earned a
reputation for being firm and fair
and he shows equal concern for the
rights of the victims of crime as he
shows for those accused of criminal
„ acts.
Judge Smith’s professional credentials are outstanding: he is
the only Republican candidate certified by the Texas Board of Legal
Specialization (Civil Trial Law) and is the only candidate selected to
help train Texas Municipal Judges at the state Municipal Judges Courts’
Training Center. He is also the only candidate to serve as a law instructor
to the Brazos Valley Study Group of the AIB.
Judge Smith has an enviable record of public service in the com-
uiunity. He has served many, many civic and charitable organizations
with distinction including OP AS, Leadership Brazos, Crimestoppers,
Optimists and the March of Dimes, among others.
He and his wife, Becky, have two children: they are concerned parents
a nd involved citizens.
Qualified • Experienced • Committed • Concerned
Promote Judge Steve Smith to
JUDGE, COUNTY COURT AT LAW No. 2
_ A r- Rrnw/n Treasurer, Box 9642, College Station, TX 77842.
PD. POL. ADVERTISEMENT BY Steve Smith Campaign, Ann S. Bro ,
Vote Absentee Before Spring Break
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