v.
Thursday, November 1 , 1990
The Battalion
Page 1 1
TCU’s Wacker optimistic about
Saturday’s Houston showdown
FORT WORTH (AP) — A pes
simist, they say, sees a glass half
filled with water and proclaims it
half empty. An optimist calls it half
full. And then there’s Jim Wacker.
The personable Texas Christian
University coach Figures it’s not wa
ter but champagne and the bar
tender is nearby with a refill.
With his job in jeopardy, and com
ing off a critical loss to Baylor,
Wacker takes his Horned Frogs to
Houston Saturday to face the un
beaten, sixth-ranked, totally awe
some Cougars in the Astrodome.
A loss would eliminate the 5-2, 3-1
Frogs from the Southwest Confer
ence race. The Cougars haven’t lost
in the dome since 1988. In fact, their
11-game winning streak is the long
est in major college football.
So is Wacker worried?
“I love these kinds of games,” he
said, smiling broadly. “Your kids can
play relaxed and loose because
Lombardi award
narrows choice
to four seniors
HOUSTON (AP) — Moe Gard
ner of Illinois, Russell Maryland of
Miami, David Rocker of Auburn and
Chris Zorich of Notre Dame on
Wednesday were named finalists for
the Lombardi Award, given to the
nation’s top lineman.
All four are defensive players, al
though offensive linemen also are el
igible for the award.
Twelve players were nominated
before the season. That list was nar
rowed to four finalists — all seniors
— by a nationwide committee of col
lege coaches, sports writers and
sportscasters.
The winner will be announced
Dec. 6.
Gardner was an All-Big Ten selec
tion as a sophomore and junior.
Rocker, whose brother Tracy won
the Lombardi Award in 1988,
anchors Auburn’s highly rated de
fense.
Maryland, who had a career-high
20 tackles against Notre Dame two
weeks ago, has 64 tackles this season
with six sacks.
Zorich, who was a Lombardi fi
nalist last year, dislocated his knee
cap last Saturday and will miss this
week’s game against Navy. The in
jury could force Zorich to miss the
rest of the season.
you’ve got everything to gain and
nothing to lose.
“Nobody expects you to win, so
you can go down there and take a
shot and if you do win, then — man
alive! — the pot of gold is still there
at the end of the rainbow.”
The pot of gold, of course, is the
SWC title and a New Year’s Day Cot
ton Bowl date, both of which seemed
a not-so-remote possibility until
TCU dropped a 27-21 verdict to
Baylor Saturday.
Until then, the Frogs were riding
a five-game winning streak, loung
ing atop the SWC standings at 3-0
and ranked in the Top 25 for the
first time since 1984.
Meanwhile, the Cougars, though
6-0 in the SWC, are on probation
and ineligible for either a title or a
bowl — but not the national
championship.
“When they’re hitting on all eight
cylinders, anybody who plays them is
in trouble,” Wacker said. “They’re
that good.”
Wacker insists that Houston coach
John Jenkins has the “best offensive
mind in t;he country right now” and
the Cougars’ 200 NCAA, SWC and
school offensive records bear that
out.
“His offense is the most explosive
in football,” Wacker said. “No pro
team is putting points on the board
the way the Cougars are. What he’s
done is flat incredible ... A lot of us
are incorporating the principles of
the run-and-shoot into our own of
fenses.”
Change in Denver
rookie’s medication
allows him to return
DENVER (AP) — A change in
medication for Denver Nuggets
rookie Chris Jackson to control
Tourette’s Syndrome is working
and he should be back within two
weeks.
Jackson, the third player cho
sen in the NBA draft, was placed
on the injured reserve list on
Monday and will miss the first
five games of the regular season.
Jackson, a high-scoring guard
from LSU, was hospitalized on
Sunday while doctors ran several
tests to determine why he was so
sluggish on the court.
Team physician Dr. Allan Sch-
reiber concluded that Jackson's
play was been slowed “dramati
cally” by one of two prescription
drugs he has been taking to com
bat Tourette’s Syndrome, a neu
rological disorder characterized
by involuntary muscle
movements, uncontrollable vocal
sounds and inappropriate words.
Jackson is said to have a mild
case of the multiple-tic disorder,
and team physicians said they did
not believe it would hinder him
when the Nuggets selected him in
the draft.
Schreiber, in consultation with
Jackson’s personal doctors, took
Jackson off one of the medicines
and substituted another drug he
has taken in the past without inci
dent.
After changing medications,
Jackson performed better in
Tuesday’s practice, coach Paul
Westhead said,
“I think the bright side is that
Chris has now kind of turned the
corner physically,” Westhead
said. “It probably was his best
practice since he’s been here.”
Westhead said Jackson, who
was late reporting to training
camp because of a contract dis
pute, can use the next 10 days “as
his personal training period, the
time he probably needed in the
first place.”
Jackson had been taking two
prescription drugs — Proloxin
and Anafronil.
Wudel
Continued from page 9
years of NBA knowledge and his
demeanor on and off the court were
the elements that mixed together the
chemistry of the youthful nucleus.
Boasting the largest turnaround
in NBA history is a testament to the
E reacher’s effect on the team. A
:sson that could be learned by many
other teams in the league.
It just takes one player.
And we are not talking about Sam
Bowie of the New Jersey Nets or a
Randy Breuer of the Minnesota
Timberwolves. We’re talking the
real impact player.
Let’s look at the younger, and
hopefully upcoming, teams in the
NBA.
There are the Los Angeles
Clippers and the Sacramento Kings
out west. Both teams are loaded with
young promising talent that had
great reputations in college but may
never reach the same heights in the
pro ranks.
The Clippers boast of draft picks
Bo Kimble and Loy Vaught to add to
their nucleus of Gary Grant, Danny
Manning, Charles Smith and Benoit
Benjamin.
A combination of players with
enormous potential, but that lack
one important ingredient — an
experienced leader. They mayjust
have one in Ron “Why did you trade
me, Cleveland?” Harper. Time will
tell after a horde of injuries struck
the team down just as it was getting
up off the ground last year.
The Kings story is almost the
same. They have four first-round
draft picks this season, who may all
start for them this year considering
the rest of the talent on the team.
Wayman Tisdale’s star shot down
after college and the team’s only
other decent talent runs one player
deep.
The expansion teams, while
saying they want to start from
scratch with youth, will be years,
perhaps a decade from jumping to
the heights of the league.
Has the idea not sunk into the
heads of all these lowly teams’
general managers? Their players are
running around on the court like
chickens with their heads cut off.
Someone needs to show them the
only logical answer to this problem.
It just takes that one seasoned
veteran to add to a young broth of
players.
Entering a new environment is
tough. Having someone there who’s
been around the bend a few times in
the league could certainly make the
adjustment a lot easier for the new
kids. It may make the difference.
Bottomline — a little bit of old
and new can go a long way. Maybe
all the way to a championship.
FOR STATE REPRESENTATIVE
"/ will be proud to have Steve Ogden
represent me. I want to show that we
care enough to send the best to
Austin."
— U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm
"I'd like to endorse Steve Ogden as a
highly qualified candidate for the 14th
District in the Texas Legislature ."
— Dr. Frank E. Vandiver
College Station
Pol. adv. paid for by Steve Ogden Campaign, Box 3126, Bryan, Texas 77805
Aggies Need Richard Smith j
-Class of’59 I
- Varsity Letterman
- Resident of Bryan for over 40
Years.
- Served Texas AfvM as our State
Repensentative Since 1985
THE DECADE OF THE 1980’S.”
U.S. Senator Phil Gramm
“AS AN A&-M FORMER STUDENT AND AS
YOUR STATE SENATOR, I WILL BE
COMMITTED TO PRESERVING THE
PRIDE, THE TRADITION, AND THE
PURSUIT FOR EXCELLENCE THAT IS THE
SPIRIT OF TEXAS AfrM”
Richard Smith ’59
I
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