uesday, April 24,1990
The Battalion
Page 9
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Texas Christian outfielder Chad
Shipes grimaces (left) after be
ing tagged out by A&M second
baseman Trey Witte (below) in
the second game of Saturday’s
doubleheader. The Aggies de-
Photos by Jay Janner
feated the Horn Frogs in the
weekend series, 2-1. A&M will
go on to face Houston with a
game Friday and doubleheader
Saturday in the last games of
the Aggies’ regular season.
Basebali America Top 25
Team
Record
1. Miami, Fte.
42*6
2. Stanford
38-7
3. Arizona State
39-11
4. Texas
41-12
5. Georgia
38-8
6. Southern Cal
31-15
7. Florida State
40-10
8. Wichita State
34-11
9. Arkansas
39-8
10. Loyola Mary mount
36-10
11. Oklahoma State
36-12
ISt. Illinois
30-13
13. Texas A&M
42-12
14. UCLA
31-16
15. Georgia Tech
34-13
18. S, IBinois'
32-8
17. Iowa
27-8
18. Mississippi State
31-13
19. Washington State
32-14
20. Lousiana State
36-12
21. Cal State Fullerton
25-16
22. Sen Jose State
35-11
23. East Carolina
38-5
24. Qa. Southern
37-10
25. North Carolina
36-10
Spurs finding themselves atop
NBA Midwest Division mountain
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — It took seven years, but the
San Antonio Spurs finally returned to the top of the
Midwest Division.
Sunday’s 108-93 regular-season ending victory over
the Phoenix Suns gave the Spurs the No. 2 seed in the
Western Conference and their first division title since
1982-83.
“It’s a very emotional time,” said Spurs owner Red
McCombs. “It means so much.”
Particularly to McCombs, who used to own the
Denver Nuggets, San Antonio’s first-round playoff op
ponent.
Victory No. 56 gave the Spurs a pair of records that
seemed impossible at the end of last season.
San Antonio’s previous best record was 53-29 in
1982-83.
The Spurs also surpassed Boston’s NBA record for a
single-season turnaround, improving by 35 games over
last year’s dismal 21-61 effort. Boston’s turnaround
mark was 32 games.
“The most important thing is to go into the playoffs
with the momentum we have,” said Terry Cummings,
who scored a game-high 27 points Sunday as the Spurs
won their seventh straight.
Last year San Antonio finished the season with nine
consecutive defeats.
The Spurs now have won six division titles, fourth
best in the league since the 1976 ABA-NBA merger.
Only the Los Angeles Lakers (11), Boston (8) and Mil
waukee (7) have had more success during that span.
“It’s a tremendous feeling to win the division,” Spurs
coach Larry Brown said. “You can’t be anything but ex
cited.”
Although out-scored by Kevin Johnson 24-9 Sunday,
Spurs point guard Rod Strickland was a key to the
Spurs’ fate-season success as they overcame a TVz-game
deficit to catch Utah.
Acquired from New York for Maurice Cheeks,
Strickland led San Antonio to an 18-6 record in the 24
games he started.
Guard Willie Anderson, one of only two Spurs play
ers left from last year, said this season should silence
skeptics.
“Everybody predicted we wouldn’t be able to do any
thing. They said we didn’t have enough experience.
Well, we proved them wrong,” he said.
Spurs center David Robinson, whose impact in his
first pro season has him considered a Most Valuable
Player candidate in addition to the runaway Rookie of
Year, also basked in the victory.
‘Tve tried to stay focused. The most successful thing
for me has been staying focused most of the year,” he
said.
Lady ’Homs
overtake SMU
to lead tourney
SAN ANTONIO (AP) —Texas
made a strong comeback Monday
to soar past Southern Methodist
University and take a second-day
lead at the Southwest Conference
Women’s Golf Championship.
The Lady Longhorns trailed
SMU by five strokes after the first
round, but ended the day 11
strokes ahead of the pack after 36
holes.
The defending three-time
SWC champions fired a 392 to
push their two-day total to 616.
SMU fell back with a 627 total,
one stroke ahead of Texas Chris
tian.
Junior Michiko Hattori of
Texas shot a course-record 72 to
aid the Texas comeback. Hattori,
the nation’s sixth-ranked colle
giate player and tournament’s de
ending champion, sank three
birdie putts tojump to the top of
the individual stanaings.
Her score eclipsed the old
course record of 73 set by Helen
Wright in the mid-1970s.
The final round of play in the
women’s championship begins
Tuesday morning at 8 a.nm
Atlanta coach resigns
amidst controversy for
failing to make playoffs
ATLANTA (AP) — Mike Fra-
tello, under fire because his team
failed to make the NBA playoffs, re
signed Monday as coach of the At
lanta Hawks after seven seasons.
“For the best interests of the At
lanta Hawks and in my best interests,
it’s probably best for both of us if we
part ways at this time,” Fratello said
at a news conference held with
Hawks’ officials.
Atlanta, plagued by injuries and
internal bickering this season, fin
ished 41-41 despite winning six of
their last seven games. They failed to
make the playoffs for only the sec
ond time in Fratello’s seven seasons
and first in the last five years.
“Today is not a sad day,” Fratello,
with a career record of 324-250,
said. “This is a day of moving on for
the two sides.”
The news conference followed the
team’s end-of-the-season meeting at
the Omni. There had been specu
lation that Fratello would be fired,
but Hawks president Stan Fasten
said the departure was Fratello’s de
cision.
“Mike came to the realization that
this would be good for him,” Kasten
said. “I support that decision; I
agree with him.”
Kasten said no decisions have
been made about a new coach. Fra
tello’s contract expired when Atlanta
ended its season Saturday night with
a 130-109 victory over Miami.
“No question this is my most dis
appointing season,” Kasten said af
ter the Miami game. “That this team
is not going to be in the playoffs is
unbelievable. I’m really having a dif
ficult time with that.
“To think that Cleveland, and Mil
waukee are in the playoffs with a
much worse injury situation than we
had, and we’re finished tonight. It’s
very distressing to me.”
Doc Rivers, one of several Hawks
players who missed playing time
with injuries, said, “It’s too fresh in
my mind. I’m not ready to sort it
out.”
Dominique Wilkins said it was a
slow start.
“No doubt in my mind if we
played all season the way we played
the last two weeks we’d be in the
playoffs. If we’d play two more
games at any point in the season
we’d be in the playoffs.”
Aztecs try to
rebuild fallen
athletic empire
SAN DIEGO (AP) — San Diego
State announced a plan Monday to
bail out its deficit-ridden athletic de-
f iartment and explore withdrawing
rom the Western Athletic Confer
ence to align itself with a league
more geographically suited to San
Diego.
Among the options under consid
eration are an application for admis
sion to the Pacific-10 Conference or
becoming a football independent
with all other sports part of the Big
West Conference, which also has 10
schools, including reigning NCAA
basketball champion Nevada-Las
Vegas.
“We look to these other options as
any good managers would look to
the future for our enterprise,” San
Diego State president Tom Day said.
“We all seek to create for San Diego
and for Aztec athletics the best envi
ronment for success. I believe ex
ploring these other options is the
wise thing to do.”
Day added that any change in af
filiation likely would take up to three
years.
He said he planned to make a for
mal presentation to Pac-10 officials
in June but stopped short of saying
San Diego State was committed to
pulling out of the WAC, a league the
school joined in 1978.
“We have to take this one step at a
time,” said Day.
Jeff Hurd, an associate commis
sioner with the WAC, said the league
understood San Diego State was act
ing to resolve financial problems but
hoped they could be solved without
a pullout from the conference.
“We prefer that San Diego State
remain a member of the WAC be
cause we feel they’re an important
part of it,” Hurd said. He said how
the other WAC schools respond to
San Diego State’s actions will be the
subject of discussions during the
WAC meetings in Tucson, Ariz.,
from May 5-8.
The 17-team athletic program at
San Diego State is approximately
$600,000 in debt. Its revenues have
failed to keep up with expenses,
largely because of mediocre records
and declining attendance over the
past three years by its flagship foot
ball and basektball programs.
Athletic director Fred Miller also
said the financial problems have
been exacerbated by the school’s af
filiation with the nine-school WAC,
the nation’s most geographically di
verse league with teams stretching
from Hawaii to El Paso, Texas.
“We have to get out of this flying
conference stuff,” said Miller. “We
can't afford it.”
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Wednesday, April 25th, 7:00 p.m.
ITS TOURS a TRAVEL
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RSVP by 4:00 p.m., April 25 by Calling 764-9400
846^5273
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Tuesday Night.
Special
5:00 till Close
Chicken Fried
Steak Platter
with toast and all
the fries you can
eat with tea.
$3.29
plus tax
Dine in only
STUDY ABROAD
JR. FULBRIGHT
Grants for Graduate Research Abroad
Competition Now Open
INFORMATIONAL MEETINGS
Wednesday, April 25,10:00-11:00 am
251 West Bizzell Hall
STUDY ABROAD OFFICE
161 BIZZELL W. 845-0544
into the
’90s
with
benneton
and
MSC Hospitality
Thursday, April 26,
10:00p.m.
at
THE NEW BAJA YACHT
CLUB
Phi Kappa Phi
Initiation Banquet
College Station Hilton
April 30 • 6:30 p.m.
Dr. H.O. Kunkle, Professor of Life Sciences and former
Dean of Agriculture, will speak on
“The Second Education”
Tickets are $14 and are available from Dr. Donald G.
Barker, Department of Educational Psychology,
845-1864
Deadline for purchasing tickets is Thursday, April 26.
(STUDY ABROAD OFFICE
SCHOLARSHIPS FOR
GRADUATE STUDIES IN
THE UNITED KINGDOM
LEADING TO THE AWARD
OF A BRITISH
UNIVERSITY DEGREE
COMPETITION NOW OPEN!!
INFORMATIONAL MEETINGS:
Wednesday, April ZS, 10:00 - 11:00 am
251 West Bizzell Hall
STUDY ABROAD OFFICE. 1B1 WEST BIZZELL HALL 845-0544