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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 24, 1995)
Friday • March 24, 1995 111111 H - N V M s -1 s . C" s i SPORTS Austin makes plans for pro baseball team AUSTIN (AP) — Professional baseball could be in Austin by 1997 under a plan hammered out between city officials and the Triple-A Phoenix Firebirds. The Austin City Council still must vote on the plan, but city and team officials say the terms have been finalized. “We know what we’re doing,” said Mike Heitz, Austin’s parks director. “We’re not negotiating anymore.” Craig Pletenik, the team’s general manager, said team Firebirds officials would travel to Austin next week to garner support for the plan before the City Council votes on March 30. Under the plan, the city and the minor-league team would share the costs of an $18 million stadium to be built on city parkland about three miles east of downtown. Heitz said the agreement is a “good deal for the city” because most teams don’t help build the stadium. Itoo to interview for Big 12 commissioner KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — With their base of support sharply divided along North-South lines, Bob Frederick and Steve Hatchell face one final interview before one is named commissioner of the Big 12. Hatchell, 48, is Southwest Conference commissioner and enjoys solid backing among most of the Texas schools that will help comprise the new superconference. Frederick, 55, the affable athletic director from Kansas and chair man of the NCAA tournament selection committee, draws greater strength among the northern Big Eight schools. Supporters of both men have been actively lobbying Big 12 presidents since nominations began more than two months ago. In Dallas on Sunday, the 12 CEOs will interview Hatchell in the morning and Frederick in the afternoon. They will announce their decision later Sunday. Defending champs face tough test □ Arkansas Razorbacks match up with Memphis in Sweet Sixteen [AP]-Having survived two close games in the NCAA tournament, defending champion Arkansas now faces a team it beat by only one point during the regular sea son — and a bitter rival. On deck for the Razorbacks (29-6) Friday night in the Mid west Regional semifinals at Kansas City, Mo., is Memphis (24-9), whom they defeated 88- 87 at Fayetteville on Feb. 9. Arkansas opened defense of its title with a 79-78 victory over Texas Southern, then fol lowed with a 96-94 overtime triumph over Syracuse. Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson said his team’s ri valry with Memphis is more a matter of players than fans. Richardson has recruited in the Memphis area since he was coaching at Tulsa. He continued the practice at Arkansas, and three of his players are from Memphis — Corey Beck, Dwight Stewart and Elmer Martin. “Any time you have three play ers on your team from that city, it makes it a rivalry,” Richardson said. “I don’t think it would be such a big rivalry if we didn’t have as many players from Mem phis. You have more of a rivalry among the players than among the fans right now.” In Friday’s other Midwest Regional semifinal, it’s top- seeded Kansas (25-5) against Virginia (24-8). The East Regional semifi nals also will be played Friday night, with top-seeded Wake Forest (26-5) against Oklahoma State (25-9) and Tulsa (24-7) against Massachusetts (28-4) at East Rutherford, N.J. The regional semifinals be gan Thursday, with George town (21-9) against North Car olina (26-5) and Kentucky (27- 4) against Arizona State (24-8) in the Southeast at Birming ham, Ala., and UCLA (27-2) against Mississippi State (22-7) and Maryland (26-7) against Connecticut (27-4) in the West at Oakland, Calif. Richardson is concerned about two important factors for the game against Memphis — Arkansas’ lack of defensive re bounding and Corliss Williamson’s foul troubles. Memphis has the ability “to get offensive rebound stick- backs,” Richardson said. “They get a lot of second-chance points.” ‘We have to be much more ag gressive and try to get off from the beginning of the game play ing that way,” he said. “Usually when we are playing with aggres sive board work, we won’t have too much of a problem.” Williamson was on the bench with five fouls Sunday by the end of regulation play in the narrow overtime victory over Syracuse. Richardson said, “You don’t want your guy that ... (you) want to get the ball to fouling out.” The Kansas-Virginia game could hinge on the play of the teams’ big men — the Jayhawks’ 7-foot-2 Greg Ostertag and the Cavaliers’ 6-8 Junior Burrough. Ostertag is the all-time lead ing shot-blocker in Big Eight Conference history with 256. His intimidating presence in the middle is a major reason the Jayhawks are third nation ally in field goal percentage al lowed, 37.8. “He changes things in there, he’s so big — just the amount of space available in the paint,” Virginia coach Jeff Jones said. “Then when you throw in an other 6-10 (Scot Pollard) and another 6-11 guy (Raef LeFrentz) in there, there’s even less space.” Burrough, Virginia’s fifth all-time leading scorer and No. 2 rebounder, has averaged 26 points and 10 rebounds in the past six games. He scored 28 points in a 60-54 overtime win over Miami of Ohio in the sec ond round. Arkansas’ Corliss Williamson (left) and Davor Rimac watch a free throw that tied the game with Syracuse in the second round of the NCAA Midwest Regionals Sunday in Austin. CBS coverage of women’s basketball NCAA tournament should equal men’s coverage I t’s March and that usually only means one thing to sports fans, madness. While the of fice pools have already taken place and em ployees are either laughing or crying over their picks, one thing seems to be wrong with the picture. Isn’t there a women’s basketball tourna ment as well? Television stations and most of the media seemed to have forgotten that the NCAA has two basketball tournaments. While the women’s Final Four will be televised, what about the other rounds? It seems that many corpo rate sponsors are not willing to risk money on a sport they believe nobody has any inter est in. However, they are wrong. People do watch wom en’s basketball games and ac tually like them. During the regular season, CBS televises at least two games a weekend and the rat ings are usually pretty good. Now that the tournament has arrived, those ratings should be even higher because the best teams in the country will be go ing against each other. Consider the No. 1 team in the nation, the University of Connecticut. Connecticut boasts a 29-0 record and sold 6,541 season tickets this season. This illus trates an interest in women’s basketball. Some of the best games in the country will be played by the 64 teams in the women’s tournament. High caliber teams such as Stanford, Vanderbilt, Ten nessee, Texas Tech and UConn provide the excitement neces sary for any sports nut to grab a beer and sit down to watch the game. The play of athletes such as UConn’s Rebecca Lobo who is averaging 17.3 points, 10.3 rebounds, 3.4 blocks and 3.8 assists per game are draw ing an increasing number of fans to the game. Women’s basketball has definitely evolved. Many peo ple characterize women’s teams as slow paced and me thodical but this is no longer the case. Women players are bigger, stronger and some of them can dunk. Although the attention is primarily focused on the men’s tournament, the tide is beginning to turn. Women’s teams are just as capable of providing the upsets, over times and last second buzzer beaters that March Madness fans crave. While the women’s Final Four is televised, the net works must realize that the earlier round games are just as if not more exciting that the semi-final and final game. It is usually the earlier rounds that provide the up sets and last second buzzer beaters as been seen so far in the tournament. For many of these athletes this is the last chance to “show their stuff.” Since there is no professional league this is the last opportunity for women players to show off their tal ents and prove that women’s basketball is a real sport. Play ing in the tournament is the biggest honor that women ath letes have, they deserve the re spect of national coverage. You can’t get too much of a good thing, so why not extend March Madness and include the earlier rounds of the wom en’s tournament. The interest is definitely there and it would benefit both the players and the fans. A&M archer wins gold □ Vic Wunderle brings home four medals from Pan Am Games. By Mark Evans Special to The Battalion Texas A&M freshman Vic Wunderle brought home three gold medals and a silver medal in archery after competing in the Pan American Games in Ar gentina earlier this week. Wunderle, a general studies major from Mason City, Ill., cap tured gold medals in the 30-me ter, 50-meter and team competi tions. In the 30-meter competi tion, he broke a Pan American Game record that had stood since 1987. He also won a silver medal in the elimination round competition. “The competition was pretty stiff but not as much as it could have been because the United States tends to be a little domi nant over the other countries. “I was very happy with my shooting. I knew I could do it, it was just a matter of getting up there and doing my best.” Wunderle participated in the Games’ opening ceremonies and met athletes from all over the Americas. “It was really a lot of fun,” he said. “I enjoyed getting to see and talk with people from other sports, spending time learning about their sports.” Though he spent most of his time shooting arrows in competi tion and in practice, Wunderle had the chance to play spectator, taking time to watch the gym nastics competition. Wunderle was one of four men selected to represent the United States last October in the trials for the Pan American Games. At 18 years old, he was the youngest member of the men’s team by about 15 years. Wunderle started shooting at age five when he used a bow made out of a willow branch to shoot arrows at a bale of hay. The following year he won his first archery tournament. At first, he didn’t know he had won. He was only expecting a medal for participating. “I ended up winning the tour nament, but I was too young to read the scoreboard, so I didn’t know,” he said. Since then, he has traveled all over the United States and the world competing in archery tournaments. He has twice cap tured archery’s junior world champion title. Wunderle said he plans to take time off from school later this year to train for the 1996 Olympics. “I’m just going to try and work hard and do my best when the time comes,” he said. The Battalion • Page 7 Swedish golfer makes mark at A&M By Jim Anderson The Battalion Freshman golfer Isabelle Ros- berg brings a bit of international flavor to the Texas A&M wom en’s golf team. The “Swedish sensation” has been one of A&M’s best in her first season on the links. She leads the Lady Aggies as they enter the Texas A&M Book store/Monica Welsh Memorial Tournament starting today at the Pebble Creek Country Club. Rosberg credits her play this year to the encouragement of her teammates. They have helped her get through the pressure of collegiate level golf as well as adjusting to a for eign country. “Kristina (Edfors) is also from Sweden so she has helped me adapt to everything that goes on here at Texas A&M,” Rosberg said. “There are many differ ences both in the style of golf and socially between the United States and Sweden.” Rosberg has been playing golf since the age of nine. She credits her family for stimulating her interest in the game and encour aging her competitive nature. “My older brother is my biggest idol in golf,” Rosberg said. “He’s beat me all of our lives, but I think that I’m about to catch up with him.” Sweden’s excellent junior golf program provided the perfect opportunity for Rosberg to fine tune her game. She moved from the junior level to the national team, for which she still plays. “The Swedish national team is one of the best in the world,” Rosberg said. “I played on the junior team for one year and will be on the senior team for my third straight year.” The difficult courses in Swe den also allowed Rosberg to develop into a player who could compete on the collegiate level. These courses are quite different from those in the United States. “In Sweden all of the courses are public,” Rosberg said. “There are no country club courses which allows everyone to play and improve.” Rosberg finished among the top three in the Betsy Rawls Longhorn Classic held March 10- 12 in Austin. This was a feat ac complished by only three other Aggies in the last twenty years of Betsy Rawls competition. She attributes her success this year to the fact that she has improved her game mentally. “Golf is vpry much a mental game in that you have to visual ize in your mind what you want to accomplish and then put it into action,” Rosberg said. “You have to set long term and short term goals for yourself.” Rosberg said she is not so goal-oriented that she loses sight of the overall purpose of the game. “I love playing the game of golf and have fun every time that I go out there,” Rosberg said. “You have to have fun at what you do or else you will not be successful.” 211 University 268-DAVE 326 George Bush Dr. 696-DAVE * P1ZZAWORKS * We're Always Roll I ns I Carter Creek Center 846-DAVE 919 Harvey Rd. 764-DAVE Call DAVE ior =-Fast Fresh Delivery 2 for 1 or ^Buy 1 Pizza, Get 2nd ■ § of equal or lesser J ^ value for ■ i ONLY $2.00 B x I Battalion * LUNCH BUFFET ★ Dave’s Delivery Deal $5.99 Medium 1 Topping Pizza MSC Political Forum S’ . -A presents: r *>5 ... s n- II M »us Issues: Student Body President Forum A question and answer session with the candidates for Student Body President Monday, March 27, 1995, at 8:00 p.m. in the MSC Flagroom ’P&uUHta. cvit/l cCuyoSetitieo. fUcaoe- Z45- f575 to- uo o£ yoctrt, ofrocieU. neecto. “TVc t&fr&teot Hotc^toatco*. t/Ttoe (3) ^ cvo*&£m^ frUoo to event to en<x6tc eta. to aoatat yoot to t&e 6eat o£ oert <x6ititceo. The views expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of MSC Political Forum, Texas A&M University, or the MSC.