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September 20, 1995
7
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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
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□ 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.”