Sports
9
ednesday, January 16,1991
The Battalion
Sports Editor
Alan Lehmann
845-2688
Freddie ready
io give Aggies
needed boost
Just ask Texas A&M
iasketball player Freddie Ricks where he
iotthe nickname “Ready Freddie.”
There’s a good
thance Ricks
*on’t hesitate to
Jig deep inside
ind pull out his
kst impersona-
tion of his former
coach and men-
tor Shelby Met- Scott Wudel
calf. Sports Writer
“Well...are you ready, Freddie..?”
Ricks would imitate Metcalfs slow, low
trembling voice, and then acknowledge
agreement.
“Wellcome on in..,” he’d finish.
Ricks got the nickname as Metcalfs
first player off the bench in his first
three seasons on the A&M basketball
team.
He was supposed to play his most im
portant role yet this year as a senior un
der first-year coach Kermit Davis Jr. But
Freddie ran into some off-the-court
problems and his plans were put on
hold.
Ricks returned to the A&M lineup
Wednesday after sitting out the Aggies’
first 12 games.
And Davis’ team couldn’t have needed
him more.
Freddie found the surroundings to be
quite the same in his first game back.
The Aggies were hosting Texas Chris-
fian University at G. Rollie White Col
iseum. Freddie patiently waited and
watched from the oench.
This time he wasn’t the first player
Davis called on, but it didn’t take the
coach long to decide the Aggies needed
Ricks’ help off the bench.
One could only guess what Davis said
lo Ricks as he pulled Freddie from the
bench and inserted him into the lineup.
Ricks made almost an immediate im
pact on the court for the struggling Ag
gies. He converted five of his first seven
shots in the hard-fought loss, and fin
ished the night with 1 1 points.
Most importantly, he showed A&M
tans he was ready to play basketball
again.
See Wudel/Page 10
Problems continue to plague Davis regime
By DOUGLAS FILS
Of The Battalion Staff
The Texas A&M basketball team’s season
is just over half gone and already the Ag
gies have endured more trial and tribula
tion than most teams would care to handle
in a decade.
Signs that this would be a rocky season
began to show last summer.
David Harris, a returning 6-10 center,
was declared academically ineligible, as was
forward David Peterson.
Two tranfers that would have been eligi
ble immediately and two incoming fresh
man never made it to the first day of prac
tice.
Another returning 6-10 center, Carlos
Marrero, could not return from a knee in
jury. Then, to top it all off, guard Freddie
Ricks, one of head coach Kermit Davis Jr.’s
two remaining returning seniors, was ar
rested and subsequently suspended from
the team.
Davis started the season with nine
healthy scholarship players, seven of which
received most of the playing time. The Ag
gies then lost little-used guards Cody Blake
and Darrin Terry, a transfer from Carl Al
bert Junior College, who had been averag
ing 5.2 points and 2.8 rebounds. Blake quit
the team to pursue his degree and Terry
failed to meet academic standards during
the fall.
The Aggies fought their way to a 4-4 re
cord after a victory over Texas College on
Dec. 20. However, that A&M win was not
the news of the day.
Earlier that day, news of possible recruit
ing violations committed by the Aggie bas
ketball program appeared in the Syracuse
Post-Standard.
The Post-Standard had been investigat
ing violations in the Syracuse program
when it discovered the possible Aggie viola
tions involving Tony Scott. Scott trans
ferred to A&M last May and is currently sit
ting out a year to gain his eligiblity.
Davis refused to make any comment on
the matter on Dec. 20, saying that Robert
Smith, A&M’s vice president for Finance
and administration and the head of the
school’s athletic complience office would
conduct a full investigation.
To compound the matter, Scott publicly
admitted in the Post-Standard story that all
the allegations were true and that he felt he
had been pushed into attending A&M —
even to the point of being sold.
JAY JANNER/The Battalion
Texas A&M basketball coach Kermit Davis Jr. has had plenty to be upset
about this season.
The Aggies then fell into a six-game los
ing streak. In three of those games, the
A&M blew opportunities to win. The team
had a chance to tie South Alabama at the
buzzer and was tied with both Texas Tech
and Texas Christian late in the game.
“We (the coaching staff) knew coming in
that we were going to have a rebuilding
stage,” Davis said. “We’ve been in a lot of
games. We’re 5-10, but we could also very
easily be 8-7, so it’s a fine line.”
The drain of players from the team has
left the Aggies short on depth and because
of this Davis said the team can ill-afford to
not be emotionally into every game.
“Our team is such a fine line,” he said.
“Because of our depth situation and our
physical talent that if we’re not on edge ev
ery night, I mean really ready to pop and
play, then we can be really bad. But if we
play on that edge, and we do everything
we’ve got to do then we play as a decent
team and play together.”
As the spring semester gets underway
Ricks is once again in an Aggie uniform af
ter serving what was, in essence, a semester-
long suspension. Davis said that after talk
ing with students, former students and
players, the consensus was that Freddie
Ricks had been punished enough.
Then, Monday night, A&M broke that
six game slide with a 103-82 victory over
Centenary, with all five starters scoring in
double figures.
With a 5-10 record, the focus of attention
on any basketball program would be on
how the team will turn things around. But
for Davis and the rest of the team the atten
tion is being focused on the possible recruit
ing violations.
If the violations turn out to be true, the
consequences could lead to A&M losing its
program for up to two years.
Under NCAA rules, if any sport at a
school where another sport has been on
NCAA probation within five years, that
sport could receive the death penalty if
found guilty of a major violation.
Based on the A&M football team’s proba
tion in 1988 for recruiting violations, con
viction of a major violation in the basketball
program could bring that penalty upon
Kermit Davis and his squad.
News of possible violations coincided
with the Aggies’ six-game losing streak, and
many wondered if the outside distractions
of the investigation was having an adverse
effect on the team. Davis was quick to point
out that nothing could be farther from the
truth.
See Allegations/Page 10
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