Page 4 • The Battalion
Wednesday • January 18, 1995
Home is where the wins are for Aggies
i
□ A&M on the road
to nowhere with
away-game losses.
By David Winder
The Battalion
“On the road again, just can’t wait
to get on the road again.”
That is, unless you are the Texas
A&M men’s basketball team who
have won only one game game away
from the friendly confines of G. Rollie
White Coliseum. The Aggies are cur
rently 7-1 at home while 1-7 on the
road.
“We’ve played pretty well at
home,” coach Tony Barone said. “But
our problems on the road have been
in minutes. At Clemson, we were
only down two with ten minutes left,
then we came unraveled.”
Although Barone has been pleased
with the team’s performance he
would like to see more effort.
“I’m not disappointed in our play
as much as I’d like to see us play at a
higher level,” Barone said. “Anyone
that saw this team play last year
knows that we haven’t lost points, re
bounds or assists from last year, we
lost a specific heart from last year.
“We are slowly getting it back.
(Southwest) Conference (play) should
speed that process up.”
The conference race should be
wide open with A&M, Texas, Texas
Christian and Texas Tech all battling
for the SWC crown. Freshman point
guard Kyle Kessel said that he be
lieves the Aggies will get their road
woes cured in time for conference
play.
“We’ve played some real tough
road games, the guys never stopped
playing hard,” Kessel said. “We’ve
just got to keep playing that way and
we’ll win on the road as well as
home.”
A lack of experienced players has
hurt A&M this season. Kessel along
with fellow freshman guards Waseem
Ali and Chris Oney have all seen
playing time. Freshman Dario Que-
sada and junior college transfer John
Stevens have also seen action.
“We’ve had to play a lot of young
kids in the line-up,” Barone said.
“Last year (Joe) Wilbert and (Tony)
McGinnis were the only ones who
saw a lot of minutes. (Damon) John
son and Corey (Henderson) just did
n’t see much time last year.”
The biggest problem for the Aggies
has been turnovers, they are current
ly averaging over 20 a game.
“We have to maintain a level of
consistency with the ball,” Barone
said. “We always have to maintain
turnovers. The more possessions we
have, the better chance we have to
score and win.”
Barone has been pleased with play
of Wilbert and McGinnis. An All-
SWC selection last year, Wilbert is
currently averaging 24 points a game
in SWC play.
“Wilbert has been outstanding, he
has defense has really picked up,”
Barone said. “He has also improved
on his rebounding.”
McGinnis has become the Aggies
defensive stopper covering and shut
ting down the opponent’s top scorer.
“Defensively, he’s the best in the
league,” Barone said. “This year he also
improved on his offensive intensity.”
Player
Position
Classification
John Stevens
F
Junior
Quinton James
G
Freshman
Chris Oney
G
Freshman
Tony McGinnis
G
Senior
Kyle Kessel
G
Freshman
Max Schleder
G
Freshman
Roy Wills
F
Senior
Jimmy Smith
G
Sophomore
Joe Wilbert
F
Senior
Chris LeBlanc
F
Sophomore
Corey Henderson
G
Senior
Chris Pulliams
G
Sophomore
Damon Johnson
F
Senior
Sean Clarke
F
Freshman
John Jungers
F
Senior
Waseem Ali
G
Freshman
Dario Quesada
F
Freshman
Stew Milne/THE Battalion
Forward Damon Johnson in the clear for a layup