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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 20, 1995)
I The Battalion ind Wednesday September 20, 1995 7 Briefs Guerrieri’s style makes A&M a winner Robinson home after night in hospital i incoai; its." louldfe e they ar laid, 'it : ands: mcil u 3nti igh mif * throii all is rea. at of ar vole said ining is seir; i chai g to sere gone! iard t resho r, agre /ices ] food o Ostigt: you c« pie the; me to a: as guesti >ns. St'. : coming can cotj eir dinin >n on SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Spurs center David Robinson went home to recover Tuesday after spending the night in the hospital with stomach trouble. Robinson checked himself out of San Antonio Regional Hospital after overnight treatment for gastroenteritis, spokeswoman Stacey Clayton said. "He is in good shape and feeling much better," she said. Officials said Robinson was hospital ized Monday after seeing a doctor. The NBA Rookie of the Year for 1988-89, Robinson was the league's MVP last season. He joined the Spurs af ter serving a two-year military commit ment after attending the U.S. Naval Academy. Robinson averaged 27.6 points, 10.8 rebounds and 3.2 blocked shots en route to his award last season, but the Spurs were defeated In the Western Confer- enee Finals 4-2 by the eventual champi on Houston Rockets, Nebraska's Phillips pleads no contest LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska tailback Lawrence Phillips pleaded no contest to misdemeanor assault and tres passing charges Tuesday while prosecu tors decided against filing separate charges against backup Damon Benning. The decision not to prosecute Ben ning was the first good off-field news for the second-ranked Cornhuskers in more than a week. However, backup tailback lames Sims faces a Nov. 7 court appear ance on misdemeanor charges of dis turbing the peace and vandalism after a )uly 3 incident involving his ex-girl friend. In all, three Husker running backs have been accused of roughing up their ex-girlfriends this year. Benning was cleared Tuesday, Sims maintained his innocence and Phillips, in addition to his no contest pleas, sent a letter of apology to his victim. "Please accept my deepest apologies for my actions toward you on Sept. 10," he wrote. "I never intended to hurt you and I am sorry for any grief, pain or suffering I may have caused you. What I did was wrong and I accept full responsibility for it." □ Guerrieri has compiled a 33-7-3 record in just over two seasons at A&M. Stew Milne, The Battalion Texas A&M Head Soccer Coach G. Guerrieri emphasizes his point with hand gestures during the Aggies' 3-1 win over Texas Christian Monday at the Aggie Soccer Complex. By Lisa Nance The Battalion In just three years, A&M Head Coach G- Guerrieri has taken the A&M Women’s Soccer Team from scratch and molded it into one of the top 20 teams in the nation. Is he surprised? No. “I think that every thing I’ve done has built up to this.” Guerrieri said, “A lot of the programs I’ve been hired to coach were either making corrections to get back on track or starting from ground zero. There’s been success at every step.” Since taking over the program in 1993, Guerrieri has compiled a 33- 7'3 record and has brought the pro gram national recognition. “ The key to ■■■■■■■■■■■ our success is adapting a style of play that fits our players,” Guerrieri said. “We are able to use that style to win games. We play with that style, and we’ve worked hard to develop it. We’ve i never played a game where the 1 other team worked harder than we did. That goes even for games that we’ve lost.” This hard work has paid off for the Lady Aggies and is why they have achieved their success so quickly. Guerrieri said, “The work rate and the level of high performance is probably the biggest factor that has made our success so fast-coming. The girls have worked so hard, there is no doubt that they’re going to be successful.” When it comes to coaching his players, Guerrieri said he tries to be completely open. “We try to instill confidence in them and speed of play, to try to play as quick and simple as possi ble. As far as my style in coaching, I take a pretty direct approach to the way I try to work with the girls. I know how competitive they are, and I want them to succeed as best the can.” He also instills in his team the will to win. “My thing is to go out and win for ourselves,” Guerrieri said. “The thing that our players have to un derstand is that no matter who you’re playing against, you have to go for the jugular, you have to kill them and not leave anyone out there thinking that a weak team can play against you." A&M is 1-1 this season against teams ranked in the top 10. They lace their third top-10 team this e k e n d "You have to not leave anyone out there thinking that a weak team can play against you." — G. Guerrieri A&M Head Soccer Coach w e when they travel to New England for the University of Massachu setts Classic. Friday, they face No. 6 Massachu- setts. “The game against UMass is probably our biggest game thus far,” Guerrieri said. “It’s another opportunity for us to make national headlines. We know that with a good performance we can beat them.’ “The girls who started with us three years ago in 1993, we were on them all the time as far as what the level of training should be and we’ve kept with that. The biggest thing is that the players understand that and they see the benefits of it. “Once that seed is planted it await Colorado topr 1,1, ley Gen fl 3 Freeh' irinted** 1 . s/’ GrM tere was * volvecb re sponsi it for f asonS' □ A&M players and coaches agree that this weekend's game is the talk of the en tire campus. By David Winder The Battalion It’s finally here. After months of waiting, No. 3 Texas A&M will travel to No. 7 Colorado Saturday with a chance to show the rest of the coun try they have what it takes to win a national championship. “On campus everyone is talking about it, saying ‘Wow! YaTl are a 4 1/2 point underdog” offensive guard Calvin Collins said. “I mean teachers are _ teaching and people are talking about the game.” By the end of the week the teachers will probably be talking about the game, too. “This is it,” offensive tack le Hunter Goodwin said. “This is what we stayed up stew Milne, The Battauon here a11 summer for. We have to get through Col- Texas A&M junior running back Iceland McElroy breaks through a hole against orado before we honestly Louisiana State. McElroy and his teammates take on No. 7 Colorado this Saturday, have a chance at a national championship. “I’m pumped, I can’t wait. Everyone is excited. You can just feel it. This is the one we’ve looked forward to.” The game will match two high-powered offenses against two of the best de fenses in the country. “We’ll have to do every thing we can,” A&M Head Coach R.C. Slocum said. “I see them as a big-play team. They have speed at tailback, an accurate quarterback and speedy wide receivers. They take big chunks of yardage as they go down the field.” Comerback Ray Mickens said Colorado’s Koy Detmer will be the best quarterback the Aggies will see all year. “He is talented and cocky, which good quarterbacks usually are and finds the open receiver,” Mickens said. “He has no area that looks vulnerable. He does everything well.” Aggie offensive coordina tor Steve Ensminger said the Colorado defense re minds him of the A&M de fense. “They’re a very quick, fast, aggressively-attacking type of defense,” Ens minger said. “It’s like play ing against ourselves. They’re very similar to us. A different scheme, but very similar.” ■HI Slocum said the suc cess of the Aggies’ pass ing game will be impor tant. “It’ll be a big factor,” Slocum said. “We won’t be able to line up and just run the ball.” A lot of A&M players are relying on the A&M Offensive Guard knowledge they gained JJ m 1993 when they lost to Oklahoma on the "I mean, teach ers are teaching and people are talking about the game." — Calvin Collins road as motivation to per form better. That season, A&M was ranked No. 5 and Oklahoma No. 16, but the Sooners routed A&M 44-14. "The wake-up call we got in Oklahoma a couple of years ago is still ringing in 1995,” Collins said. “We learned a lot then, and the nucleus from that is still here.” High stakes, TV exposure weigh on Aggies in Boulder It may be ABC’s game of the week, but it’s Texas A&M’s game of the year. It’s the one match-up fans and experts have been pointing to for months, the pivotal make- or-break game in the Ag gies’ quest for a national championship ring. No. 3 Texas A&M at No. 7 Colorado: For the A&M football program, there aren’t many games bigger than this. The last time a Top Five Aggie team played an opponent with a Top 10 ranking in the regular season was in 1977 when third- ranked Michigan blasted No.5 A&M, 41- 3. Since that disappointing day 18 years ago, the Aggies haven’t played a bigger regular season game, until this Saturday. The Aggies’ contest with the Buffaloes is the media spectacle of the week. ABC is sending its top announcing duo of Keith Jackson and Bob Griese to call the action while Chris Fowler, Lee Corso and Craig James will be at Folsom Field to broadcast ESPN’s College Game Day. The hype and pregame buildup have already begun as a throng of state and national media came to Cain Hall Tues day. How will the Aggie offense fare against a Colorado defense so much like their own? Is A&M looking to send a mes sage to the rest of the country? All these questions will be answered Saturday, and no matter what, the game should be a dandy. A&M is the second winningest team in the ‘90s with a 53-8-2 record while Colorado’s 51-10-4 mark ranks sixth during the decade. If anything, this week’s game marks the biggest regular-season affair in the R.C. Slocum era. Since defeating both No. 7 Louisiana State and No. 8 Houston at Kyle Field in 1989, Slocum-led teams have not defeated a Top 10 opponent in the regular season. In fact, A&M’s devastating one-point loss to No.5 Texas in the 12th game of the 1990 campaign marks the last time the Aggies even played a Top 10 oppo nent in the regular season. Saturday’s game against Colorado pre sents a golden opportunity for A&M. It won’t be easy though, as the Buffaloes have won nine straight games at Folsom Field and hold an 18-1 record in their last 19 games. This weekend however, the Aggies and Buffaloes will have other things on their minds. All the records, numbers and rankings in the world won’t matter when these two teams button their chin straps and prepare to do battle. You may be the winningest active Di vision I-A coach and have the second-best team in the ‘90s. You may score the most points, receive the most hype and break the most records. But there is something Slocum and his team realize is more important. In order to be the best, you have to beat the best and this weekend the Aggies are plan ning on taking a step in that direction. See Guerrieri, Page 8 Tagliabue, Jones clash at NFL meeting □ Team owners are suing Jones for $300 million for Pepsi, Nike deals. ATLANTA (AP) — An angry commissioner Paul Tagliabue vehemently defended the NFL’s revenue-sharing system Tues day, even as Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones insisted he was not trying to tear it down. Jones met Tuesday with the team owners who sued him for $300 million after he signed agreements with non-league sponsors Nike and Pepsi. While Jones expressed satisfaction with the meeting, Tagliabue never seemed more ready to take him on. “The National Football League has very clear cut ways of doing business which has dis tinguished it from all other leagues and made it as great as it is,” the normally composed Tagliabue said during a news conference in which he frequent ly raised his voice. “It’s a philosophy and a com mitment to do business in a cer tain way that’s been very suc cessful. That’s what it’s about. When you have a successful phi losophy which has worked for 76 1/2 years, you hold it pretty sa cred.” The suit was filed Monday in federal court in New York after a unanimous vote by five mem bers of the executive committee of NFL Properties, the league’s marketing arm. “This attack on NFL Proper ties is part of the pressure for teams to move, because if they’re going to do their own marketing, then everyone is go ing to try to move to the best market,” Tagliabue said. “That’s what this is about. It’s not about soda pops and cola and shoes, logos, do-rags and so forth. “The committee felt the Cow boys had increasingly engaged in some unacceptable conduct in the marketplace and that it was having an intolerable negative effect on the company to do busi ness and that we had to stabi lize the situation.”