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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 27, 1995)
The Battalion • Page 7 Friday • January 27, 1995 Briefs Well-travelled Buonaguro finds home at A&M Clinton sets deadline on baseball strike WASHINGTON (AP) — President Clinton on Thursday gave baseball owners and players until Feb. 6 to show progress in their stalled strike talks or face a possible recommended settlement by the federal mediator. "America has been living without baseball for far too long,” Clinton said in a statement issued by the White House. “Now, as the strike drags on, it threatens the start of the 1995 season. It could well damage the economies of the spring training states. It is imperiling the livelihoods of tens of thousands of workers whose jobs depend on baseball. “And it trying the patience and depressing the spirits of millions of baseball fans — including me. It is time for this strike to end.” Clinton said he had spoken Wednesday and Thursday with Labor Secretary Robert Reich and with meditor W.J. Usery, whom the adminstrator appointed last Oct. 14 as special mediator. Date set for Rangers’ spring training camp ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — The Texas Rangers will open their 1995 spring training camp on Feb. 17 with workouts at the team’s Port Charlotte, Fla., complex. Only then will the Rangers be certain how many players will remain on strike and how many replacement players the team will need to open their 1995 regular season. The full squad is scheduled to report for physicals Feb. 15. The first exhibition game is scheduled for March 3, when the Rangers host the Minnesota Twins at Charlotte County Stadium. Meanwhile, the Rangers announced Thursday that Jim Byrd has been hired as a player-coach for its Class AA Tulsa club in the Texas League. Byrd, 26, will be making his coaching debut after spending seven seasons as a shortstop in the Boston and Milwaukee organizations. Byrd played in two games with the Red Sox in 1993 without a plate appearance. He batted .228 in 71 games for Milwaukee’s Class AA El Paso club. Pippen suspended for one game, fined CHICAGO (AP) — Scottie Pippen, the disgruntled star of the Chicago Bulls, drew a one-game suspension and $6,000 fine from the league Thursday for his chair-throwing tantrum earlier in the week. As a result of the suspension, Pippen will miss Thursday night’s game at Orlando and the $26,000 salary he makes per game. Pippen was disciplined for an angry outburst during the second quarter of the Bulls’ game against San Antonio on Tuesday night. Slapped with a technical by referee Joe Crawford after he complained about the lack of a three-second call against the Spurs, Pippen then became irate over the technical and was ejected. Before leaving the court, he threw a chair. “When you throw a chair onto the middle of the floor, that’s very serious,” said NBA vice president- operations Rod Thorn, who determined the penalties. “They were in the process of putting stuff on the floor (for a timeout promotion.) There were little kids nearby.” Thorn said Pippen also failed to leave the court in a timely manner after being tossed. The ejection carries an additional $1,000 fine. □ Assistant coach brings experience to coaching staff. By Robert Rodriguez The Battalion Texas A&M men’s assistant basketball coach Mitch Buonaguro helped bring a National Champi onship to Villanova in 1985. The Aggies are hoping he can do the same for them. Buonaguro, now in his fourth year at A&M, was the assistant coach for the Villanova Wildcats when they defeated the Georgetown Hoyas to win the NCAA basketball championship in 1985. Buonaguro was credited with recruiting most of the Wildcats. “It was an incredible experience,” Buonaguro said. “We (Villanova) were playing perhaps the top team in the country and were not figured to do any thing in the tournament. We had everything going for us and were very confident.” After the championship season, Buonaguro took the head coaching job at Fairfield. He led them to the NCAA tournament twice before ending his tenure there with a record of 72-103. When Fairfield let Buonaguro go in 1991, he was not sure what was going to happen after that. Then came Texas A&M men’s basketball coach Tony Barone. “Coach Barone got the job here and asked me to be the assistant coach,” Buonaguro said. “Being a head coach to being an assistant, that was going to be an adjustment for me.” Not only did Bounaguro have to adjust to his new job, but he also had to adjust to life in Texas. Buonaguro had spent most of his life involved with basketball in the East coast and had never been to the Southwest. “Going to Texas was interesting for me since I had never been to this part of the country,” Bounaguro said. “But I’ve enjoyed Texas and I en joy working here.” However, in his first season at A&M, things were not so enjoyable for Bounaguro or his family. On Jan. 19, 1992, just before tipoff between Texas A&M and Baylor, Buonaguro passed out in the locker room. The players also were feeling nauseous and it was discovered that there was a carbon monox ide leak near the locker room at the Ferrel Center in Waco. Bounaguro, whose heart had stopped twice, was rushed to a Dallas hospital for treatment and re leased two days later. The scary moment in his life taught Bounaguro an important lesson. “This kind of incident has kind of made me re alize how precious you life is,” Bounaguro said. “You have got to live each day to the fullest. When you’re alive, you not only got to spend it and enjoy it, but also live it.” Barone knows how special Bounaguro is to this team and the players respect him because he knows what he is doing. “Mitch is a brilliant basketball strategist,” Barone said. “He does the scouting reports, and there’s never a day our guys don’t go in there pre pared for a game. He is an excellent teacher and is able to bring that to the players.” Bounaguro said he knows what it takes to be a championship caliber team and does see some com parisons between the 1985 Villanova squad and this year’s Aggie team. “This team at A&M plays hard, just like the one at Villanova,” he said. “We also had a star on the Villanova team in Ed Pinckney and here at A&M, Joe Wilbert is our go to guy.” Buonaguro said the Aggies have played well de spite their 9-10 record. “It ’s tough for the new guys to get adjusted to the system,” he said. “Each game presents a different challenge, and the kids have to be ready to play.” Photo courtesy of Sports Information Department Assistant coach Mitch Buonaguro talks over strategy with se nior guard Corey Henderson. Womens basketball team to face Lady Frogs □ Height will be an advantage for the Lady Aggies. By Chip Hanson The Battalion Here they come around the corner, down the home stretch and the Lady Aggie basketball team is trying to pull away from the pack to win the coveted title of Southwest Conference. Saturday, the I8th-ranked Texas A&M women’s basketball team plays host to the Lady Frogs from Texas Christian Uni versity at 7:00 p.m. in G. Rollie White. TCU comes to the A&M with an 0-4 SWC record (1-13 overall). “They are a very young bas ketball team, they have strug gled somewhat,” Texas A&M women’s coach Candi Harvey said. “We can’t af ford to make the mistake of taking them lightly.” Lady Frog freshman Leah Garcia leads the team with 12.5 points per game while another freshman starter, Stacy Price, leads the team in rebounds with 7.6 per game. . Height is a disadvantage for the Lady Frogs as their tallest starter, Marie Ramos, stands only 5 feet, 10 inches tall. The Lady Aggie possess a lot of height, especially at the cen ter position. Centers Kelly Cerny (6 feet,5 inches) and Martha McClelland (6 feet, 4 "The strength of the (Lady) Aggies is the inside-outside game." — Lisa Branch, junior guard inches) are two of the seven women on the team that stand over six feet tall. Cerny aver ages 7.9 points a game while McClelland contributes 10.0 points per game. “The strength of the (Lady) Aggies is the inside-outside game,” junior guard Lisa Branch said. “The ability to have big girls on the inside and the rest of us shooting good from the perimeter.” Branch was named SWC Player of the Week after lead ing A&M to wins over Rice and Houston last week. Branch sank eight three-pointers against Rice and scored 22 points at Houston. Even though A&M has size advantages over most teams, they have been struggling with grabbing the rebounds. Last week at Houston, the Lady Ag gies were outrebounded 24-11 in See Lady Ags, Page 8 49ers deserve shot Kristina Buffin Sportswriter A lthough not many people are looking forward to the Super Bowl this weekend, this is the Super Bowl that I have been waiting for for three years. The San Francisco 49ers have the oppor tunity to establish themselves as the best team in football and to stake their claim as the foot ball team of the 1990’s. Ever since Joe Montana was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs, the Bay Area has been waiting for the team to regroup and to prove that they and Steve Young can have the kind of suc cess that Joe Montana and the 1980’s 49ers teams had. Young may have won four straight passing titles and three MVP awards, yet many fans and crit ics have said that unless the 49ers win the Big One without Joe Montana at the helm, they will not have established their own identity and legitimacy. After beating the Cowboys twice this year, once in Novem ber and once in the NFC Cham pionship game, people still at Super Bowl title doubt the 49ers. Comments like, “Well, if Emmitt and Troy were healthy, the Cowboys would have won,” or “If the ref erees had called pass interfer ence on Deion Sanders, the NFC championship game would have been a completely differ ent ball game.” Instead of doubting the 49ers, people should give them the re spect that they deserve. They have as much talent ,if not more, than the 49er teams- of the 1980’s. Players like Deion Sanders and Ken Norton, who were acquired through free agency in the offseason, have given the 49er defense the boost that it needed to become one of the most dominating defenses in the league. Wide receiver Jerry Rice, run ning back Ricky Watters and tight end Brent Jones supplied the points that helped the 49ers average almost 30 points a game, the most productive of fense in the league. Sunday’s game will be a re match of a game played in the regular season, in which the 49ers won 38-15. In order for the Chargers to have a chance in this game they are going to have to do a few things different. • First, the defense (which is one of the best in the league) See Buffin, Page 1 0 Win against Siena boosts men’s team’s confidence By Tom Day The Battalion When the Texas A&M men’s basketball team left College Sta tion on Monday, it departed in search of something it’s been lacking on the road in recent weeks. Confidence. The Aggies finally found it in a 76-70 road victory over Siena. “Anytime you win a game on the road, it certainly helps your confidence,” A&M coach Tony Barone said. “The fact that we came back from being down by twelve at halftime also helped us.” The Aggies will be looking to ride their new wave of mo mentum into Saturday’s show down with Texas Christian in Fort Worth. “Even though Siena was 4-12, a road win is a road win,” fresh man guard Waseem Ali said. “Everybody on the team knows that it’s tough to win on the road. I think we can use that win as a confidence builder to take with us to TCU, as well as the rest of the road games.” The new look Horned Frogs (12-5,4-1) have jumped out of the gate quickly, surprising the rest of the league with solid play on both ends of the floor. “Obviously, their system and style is completely different and See Aggies, Page 8 BREITLING John D. Huntley, Inc. "Very Personal Investments" 313B S. 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