Sports
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Russell
By RICHARD S. JAMES
Sports Writer of THE BATTALION
American Motorcyclist Association Su
perbike champion of 1991 Thomas
Stevens passed teammate Scott Russell a
number one as a reward for his victory in
the Superbike race at Texas World Speed
way Sunday.
Stevens handed his Kawasaki team
mate a number plate with the traditional
Rolen's many travels Page 10
out Polen for Superbike title
champion's number one, which Russell
earned by defeating Doug Polen on the
1.8 mile road course and protecting his
points lead in the Suberbike champi
onship.
Russell, the fastest qualifier, put slower
traffic between himself and Polen's
Ducati in the closing laps, giving him just
enough of a lead to hold off Polen's
charge out of the last turn on the last lap.
Polen was beside him as they crossed
the finish line, but Russell won by two
feet and five one-thousandths of a second.
"Fifty more feet and I would have
won," Polen said. "But it's not fifty more
feet so I lost."
Polen pulled close to Russell's Kawasa
ki several times toward the end of the
race but was caught behind slower riders
that Russell passed quickly.
Russell said he thought traffic helped
him more than hurt him in this race. He
said he passed several people on the
straight that Polen had to pass in the cor
ners.
"We had some pretty slow guys out
there that sometime get in your way on a
track like this," he said. "There's not a lot
of room to pass and it makes it real inter
esting when you have to get by these
guys in tight situations."
Russell led all but the first lap of the
33-lap race. Tom Kipp jumped into the
lead at the start, but lost it when Russell
SPECIAL REPORT
passed him under braking on lap two.
Kipp's Honda was passed by several
more riders before finishing in eighth.
Polen qualified in second, but fell to
fourth at the start. He passed Kipp and
Kipp's teammate Mike Smith to settle in
second. Stevens finished third.
Polen, Stevens and Jamie James all had
a chance of winning the championship
going into this race, but Russell's win en
sured his points lead. James was four
points behind, but lost two laps in the pits
because of a flat tire.
Russell lost the Superbike champi
onship by two points last year to Stevens,
who was riding for the Vance & Hines
Yamaha team at the time. He might have
breathed easier had he known that his
closest competitor was out of the compe
tition.
"I didn't even know Jamie was out of
the race," Russell said. "I wasn't watching
my pit board, I didn't care. I knew I was
leading it and all I wanted to do was win
the race." Russell also won the 750cc Su-
perSport race on Saturday. He had al
ready clinched the championship in that
class.
Russell said he had to work harder in
the race than he did in qualifying. He
said his throttle control and smoothness
didn't come as easy as they did in qualify
ing.
But even with the problems, he said he
didn't think it would be as close as two
feet.
"I started to throw my arm up halfway
down the straight (on the last lap) and I
Said 'uh-oh, I better not do that,'" he said.
In other races Sunday at TWS, Conroe
native Colin Edwards came out on top of
a tight battle with Jim Filice in the 250cc
Grand Prix race. Doug Polen's teammate
Pascal Picotte lapped the entire field on
his Ducati to win the SuperTwins race.
Tom Kipp won the 600cc SuperSport
race on a Honda and Scott Zampach best
ed the Harley-Davidson TwinSports field.
Edwards, Picotte and Kipp each won the
season championship in their class.
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The State of the Aggies
Despite grumbles from media
and fans, Slocum thinks
undefeated A&M is on course
By CHRIS WHITLEY
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Sports Editor of THE BATTALION
Like something out of a Charles
Dickens novel, the Texas A&M football
team has seen the best and the worst of
times.
On one hand, the fifth-ranked Ag
gies are undefeated and hold the high
est position they have had in the Asso-
Readers sound off Page 8
crated Press poll in years. They are on
top of the Southwest Conference and
are overwhelming favorites to defend
their spot in the Cotton Bowl on New
Year's Day.
However, this has also been a team
cast in the spotlight, which has made it
susceptible to criticism. Charges by
media and fans about the Aggies' lack
of dominance over their opponents and
the level of play at quarterback have
haunted them in recent weeks.
To add fuel to the fire, three teams
this season have jumped ahead of the
Aggies in the AP poll, forcing A&M to
stagnate at the number five position.
With the elongated season approach
ing its halfway point, A&M still finds
itself searching for respect despite all its
accolades.
A&M head coach R.C. Slocum told
The Battalion that he has had some con
cern about how the Aggies handle the
slings and arrows of the season, but ul
timately they must find some satisfac
tion within themselves.
"I was concerned about that,"
Slocum said. "We've got 41,000 stu
dents here, so there's going to be a
number of people that are going to be
really different. We've got hundreds of
thousands of former students out there,
and there's going to be a percentage of
people who're going to be unhappy
about whatever you do.
"At some point, to be happy in life,
you have to have standards of perfor
mance that you set for yourself."
This year's A&M squad has been
placed in constant comparison to last
year's Southwest Conference champi
onship team. Although the present
team has had a better start, it still has
problems comparing with its predeces
sor, which won its games with relative
ease.
The 1991 Aggies plowed through the
conference schedule without a serious
challenge. They typically outscored
their opponents by huge margins and
ended any doubt to the outcomes of
their games by halftime.
In 1992, the Aggies have come from
behind in every game but one. Their
average margin of victory is seven
points, compared with last year's aver
age of 26.
Much of the criticism against this
year's team has been directed toward
its leader, sophomore quarterback Jeff
Granger. Granger, who also pitches for
the A&M baseball team, has had to
fight off attacks about his passing in
consistency bringing down the team's
offense.
Slocum said that a major difficulty
for Granger is the public comparing
him with Bucky Richardson, the leader
of last year's team who is now with the
Houston Oilers.
"I think anyone that replaced Bucky
Richardson — anyone — would have
probably been overevaluated and over
criticized," Slocum said. "Bucky was
such a leader and such a performer
that, by comparison, with any new
quarterback, there would have been an
adjustment period before he would
have been accepted as being anywhere
close to Bucky."
Another problem Granger suffers
DARRIN HILL/Vie Battalion
Texas A&M head coach R.C. Slocum assembles with the 1992 Aggie football team before rushing off onto Kyle Field.
Slocum's team has received some criticism this season regarding its close victories and its failure to rise in the polls.
Aggies aren't pathetic, but they need big win
I n case you
haven't noticed
recently. The
Battalion has been
a very popular
publication over
the past three
weeks.
Countless
numbers of stu
dents and fans
have joined the
Houston Chroni
cle and The Dal
las Morning
News and who
knows how many
others in reacting
CHRIS
WHITLEY
Sports Editor
See Slocum/ Page 8 to the remarks made in this space about
the level of play of the Texas A&M foot
ball team.
Now, it's my turn.
The Aggies are not pathetic. They are
not a bad football team at all. Actually,
they are a pretty good football team.
Ask Bill Walsh or Spike Dykes, and
they'll tell you the same thing.
Ask the Associated Press. Out of over
200 college football programs in Ameri
ca, their group of writers believe A&M
can beat all of those teams but four.
Ask the 69,017 fans at Kyle Field who
no doubt were at least wary that the Ag
gies would pull out a victory with 5:19
to play in the Texas Tech game nine days
ago.
Ask any collegiate football team in
the nation who has a loss or a tie right
now. No matter how well they may
have played, they can't say that their
record matches the Aggies.
If you look at it on a surface level, it
seems ludicrous to doubt a team who is
in the top five in the nation, who has
beaten a national power like Stanford in
California and who has gone through
five games unscathed.
So what's all the fuss about?
Well, the Aggies haven't yet reached
their potential. They're capable of doing
so much on both the offensive and de
fensive side of the ball, but it all hasn't
clicked at the right times.
Another problem is that this is the
1992 Aggies, not the 1991 Aggies. This is
See Whitley/ Page 8
exas wins fourth straight over OU, 34-24
By STEVE O'BRIEN
Sports Writer of THE BATTALION
tionwl*j) ALLAS _ The Cotton Bowl is
some-
andL
be a
-i marity
al race
t uch al
s that,) 1
5,” W*
cult
|atof an oddity for the Texas Long-
le ramp that leads from their locker
to the field is located on the south
of the stadium where thousands of
lahoma Sooner fans are seated. Every
tea Longhorn player steps onto the
the is greeted with a chorus of boos.
' a ^t° ind in the past three games against
ahoma, Texas had used last-second
j, tics to pull out victories.
^ e ' t00 )j ^rget about oddities. The Longhorns
nton^ (the 16th-ranked Sooners, 34-24, and
_ . pseem prepared to challenge the No. 5
a ps Aggies for another date in Dallas —
^ anl \. this time as Southwest Conference
tatioi^ mpions on Jan. 1,1993.
^ [ 0n gh° rn enthusiasm doesn't come
LIy- ™ nthe simple fact that Texas won. The
jlitant ighorns' win on Saturday was, believe
C=,CratS J not ' a bl owout -
r nenl ; f think our coaches did a fantastic job
Ivlort^ i n g our team ready," first-year head
•^Jchjohn Mackovic said. "Our plans
^ercen’le complete, and we did the things we
—jyarc 'lded to do to get control of the game
|, nsively and defensively.
*0ur special teams were alert. I was
pleased with the way the coaches got
Lady Aggies.' slump continues
with road defeat to Houston
By RULY MEDRANO
KARL STOLLEIS/The Battalion
Texas’ Curtis Jackson (left) dodges around the Oklahoma defense while Norman
Watkins hovers over Sooner tailback Earnest Williams (right) in Texas’ 34-24 win.
But
—ie said'
the players ready. And the players
played a terrific game today."
After losing their first two games and
stumbling with Mackovic's new offense,
now the Longhorns' can look at their final
six games with some confidence.
"We've had the talent, but now we're
finally using it," UT quarterback Peter
Gardere said. "I expect a lot more from
this team. Everybody's just starting to get
on the same page. We're getting more
comfortable, and we're getting better."
See Gardere/ Page 8
Sports Writer of THE BATTALION
After jumping out of the gate with an
8-2 preconference record, the Texas A&M
volleyball team has run into testing times
by stumbling into a 1-3 conference mark.
This past Saturday, the Houston
Cougars downed the Lady Aggies at
Hofheinz Pavilion in Houston in four
games, 5-15,15-8,15-7,15-8.
A&M head volleyball coach Al Givens
said the Lady Aggies started off the
match strongly, but they failed to adjust
to a resurging Cougar team throughout
the night.
"Houston wasn't playing well in the
first game, but then they started playing
well/' Givens said. "You have to respond
in a situation like that and we didn't. We
ended up playing catch up the rest of the
night."
The Lady Aggies were stricken by a
.159 hitting percentage while the Cougars
were attacking with a hitting percentage
of.265 .
According to Givens, the Lady Aggies
had a bad passing night, and ineffective
passing has been the culprit in their three
conference losses.
"Inconsistent passing has been our
problem lately," Givens said. "We can't
get any side-outs that way. In volleyball,
offense is going to win matches, and
Houston was just able to outhit us."
Against Houston, the Lady Aggies
may have been a little weary after a road
swing two weeks ago which took them to
Lubbock and into Florida within a period
of four days.
The Lady Aggies then suffered a dis
heartening loss to the University of Texas
three days prior to the Houston match,
and it is possible they were still feeling
the effects of that loss against Houston.
Givens offered no such excuses.
"I would hope we'd be over it (the
road trip and the Texas loss)," Givens
said. "What I'm really concerned about is
that we're 2-5 over our last seven games.
"We've lost to some good teams, but
I'm concerned with our execution."
Despite the slow conference start,
Givens gives the impression that the
young Lady Aggie team is far from
throwing in the towel.
He spoke of this Wednesday when the
Lady Aggies will travel up Highway 6
into Waco to take on Baylor, who Givens
See Lady Aggies/ Page 10