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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 3, 1995)
The Battalion Tuesday October 3, 1995 SPORTS Stars trade Broten to Blues for Carbonneau DALLAS (AP) — The Dallas Stars acquired veteran center Guy Carbon neau from the St. Louis Blues for right wing Paul Broten on Monday. Carbonneau played for the Blues for one season after spending his first 12 seasons in the NHL with Montreal. In 42 games with St. Louis last sea son, he had five goals and 11 assists. In 954 career games, he has 226 goals and 337 assists. Carbonneau won the Frank J. Selke Trophy as the league's best defensive forward in 1988, 1989 and 1992. Car bonneau also was the runner-up for the award in 1987 and 1990. He has played in the postseason in all 13 of his NHL seasons and was with Montreal when the Cana- diens won the Stanley Cup in 1986 and 1993. Rangers send Podsednik to Marlins to complete deal ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — The Texas Rangers sent outfielder Scott Podsednik to the Florida Marlins on Monday to complete an Aug. 8 trade for pitcher Bobby Witt. Texas also had previously sent pitch er Wilson Heredia to Florida for Witt, who went 3-4 with a 4.55 ERA in his second career stint with the Rangers. Podsednik, a fourth-round pick in 1994 by Texas, hit .266 with 20 RBIs and 20 stolen bases over 65 games with the Hudson Valley of the New York- Penn League. McMullen, Moore return to A&M practice Starting strong safety Typail Mc Mullen and wide receiver Todd Moore both returned to Texas A&M football practice Monday. The Aggies will face Texas Tech Sat urday in their Southwest Conference opener at 1 p.m. Texas A&.M is 6-0 in conference openers under R.C. Slocum. Corbellis make A&M a family affair □ The husband and wife dou ble as assistant and head coach of the volleyball team. By Lisa Nance The Battalion Some of the best things in life come in pairs. There’s peanut butter and jelly, beer and pretzels. Batman and Robin and closer to home, John and Laurie Corbelli. The Corbellis are another example of how good things can come in twos. In March of 1993, Laurie and John Corbelli were hired to take over the head coaching and assistant coaching position for the Texas A&M Women’s Volleyball program. When the Corbellis took the reigns, the A&M program had not placed higher than a tie for second in the "We have to mesh our styles. That's probably when it's the hardest for us." — Laurie Corbelli A&M Volleyball Coach Southwest Conference and had not won 20 or more games in a season, nor had they advanced to the NCAA play offs since 1986. The Corbellis looked to turn that record around. In their first season they took a team with a 3-7 record in league play and 19-17 overall record to a 7-3, second-place finish in the conference and the second round of the NCAA tournament. They ended their first season with a 27-8 record. In their second season, the pair led the team to the second-round of the NCAA tournament a second time, this was only the fourth time in school his tory that the team advanced two years in a row. They finished the season with a 19-14 record and a third place finish in the SWC with a record of 6-4, and Laurie was chosen as SWC Co- Coach of the year. The Corbellis are on track to anoth er winning season this year. They boast a 10-1 record for the season in cluding a win over the No.l team in the nation, the Stanford Cardinal. The Corbellis form one of only four current husband-wife coaching duos in NCAA Division I volleyball. This is not the first time they have coached together, however. They were both members of the 1984 U.S. Women’s National Team that toured Asia, with John as head coach and Laurie as an assistant. Though they have their separate ti tles and duties, when it comes to the team they work together. “He’s mostly in charge of training the team and running the drills,” Lau rie said. “I do a lot of the administra tive work, promotional work and speaking on behalf of the program. We work together on what we want out of the team.” The Corbellis said their familiarity with one another is an advantage. “We know each other better than most head coaches know their assis tant coaches.” Laurie said. “We both have a lot of respect for the other’s knowledge and ability.” One would think that for a couple that works together, taking work home would be a problem. But, for the Corbellis, work stays at work and home is a time to spend with their two kids — four-year-old Rachel one-year- old Russell. “We try not to take our work home,” Laurie said. “We have two kids and they keep us really distracted, which we need.” Despite the enjoyment of working to gether, the jobs do have their problems. “We both have our own opinions a lot of the time,” Laurie said. “I’m titled head coach, but I have a different See Corbelli, Pages Evan Zimmerman, The Battalion Assistant Coach John and Head Texas A&M Volleyball Coach Laurie Corbelli watch the action from the sideline at a recent Lady Aggie game at G. Rollie White Coliseum. As the Worm Turns: Rodman traded to Bulls AP Photo Oft-troubled Dennis Rodman struggles with the Rockets' Mario Elie during the 1995 NBA Playoffs. Rodman was traded to the Chicago Bulls Monday. □ The Spurs dealt the NBA's rebounding champion for backup center Will Perdue. DEERFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Dennis Rodman, the flamboyant forward who led the NBA in re bounding the last four seasons but repeatedly exasperated San Antonio management, was trad ed Monday to the Chicago Bulls for center Will Perdue. “I think it’s great, I think he’s excited, I think it’s a perfect fit,” Neil Draddy, Rodman’s agent, said. “They need some work off the boards and the extra defense he will give them.” Draddy said he did not antici pate Rodman having any off- court problems like the ones that have followed him during his nine-year career in Detroit and San Antonio. “I know he’s spoken to Phil (Jackson, the coach) and Phil is comfortable with what Dennis is going to do. I think they will work out an arrangement be tween the two of them and the team, and everything will work out just fine.” Rodman, who’s in the final year of his contract, will make $2.5 million this season. Rodman, as usual, was the premier force under the boards this season. But the 34-year-old forward, who is partial to multi colored hairdos, assorted body piercings and late-night soirees with Madonna, proved a con stant irritant to the Spurs’ front office. He was suspended during the season for insubordination and would often miss practice, his whereabouts unknown, and re move his basketball shoes while on the bench during games. "We 6Ufe happy to acquire Dennis Rodman,” Bulls general manger Jerry Krause. “We think he is the best rebounder in the game and the best defender at his position. He gives us a di mension we have lacked and en ables us to take more advantage of the skills of Toni Kukoc.” The Bulls, who in all certain ty made the move with the ap proval of Michael Jordan, also renounced rights to Pete Myers and Larry Krystkowiak. In acquiring Perdue, a 30- year-old part-time center and marginal player, San Antonio made it all too clear it was sim ply intent on ridding itself of Rodman. Last year, in 49 games, Rod- man averaged 16.8 rebounds and 7.1 points a game. Perdue, a 7-footer entering his eighth year, averaged 8.0 points and 6.7 re bounds last season in more than 20 minutes a game. Rodman, nicknamed "The Worm,” is an incomparable re bounder at 6-foot-8, and re bounding is the Bulls’ most glar ing weakness as they try to win another championship In Jor dan’s final years. Since losing Horace Grant to free agency before the start of last season, the Bulls have been hurting on the boards. And the return of Jordan forced Kukoc to play out of position at power for ward. But Rodman, who had said he had no intention of returning to the Spurs, is a big gamble. "It’s risk-reward as you go Spurs blow it again with bonehead deal D amn. As a long time San An tonio Spurs fan, Monday’s news of Dennis Rodman’s trade to the Chicago Bulls was disturbing, but not surprising. Once again, the Spurs showed the rest of the NBA that just as they led the league in wins last year, they also lead the league in bonehead personnel moves. Rodman was certainly a prob lem. His antics were unquestion ably detrimental to the team’s championship run last season. While Spurs Coach Bob Hill gri maced at Rodman’s attitude, the rest of the league laughed, espe cially the Houston Rockets. A team attitude could have vaulted the Spurs past the Rock ets, but instead slowed them down enough to let the Rockets fly by. Trading Rod- man is not a hor rible idea, but trading him for Will Perdue is. But trading the HI greatest re- bounder since the days of Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain for a backup center follows the silly pattern the Spurs have followed since they became contenders with David Robinson. Beginning with the release of Rod Strickland, the most talented point guard the Spurs were lucky enough to have, team manage ment has played its cards like they were playing dodgeball, avoiding smart moves like the plague. Just last week the Spurs did it again, signing NBA stalwarts Brad Lohaus, Greg Anderson and now Will Perdue. These brilliant moves prove the Spurs are perfect ly content to mire in mediocrity, rather than building on the suc cess of last season. I like Dennis Rodman. Sure, I’m in the minority of basketball fans that actually do, but Rodman made the Spurs fun to follow. His rebounding skills were a wonder to watch and his rough play made the Spurs a team you just didn’t mess with. His rainbow hair, tattoos and outrageous be havior gave the Spurs a shot of adrenaline and his rebounds sparked the team to its highest point ever with a 62-20 record last season. And now he’s gone to Chicago, instantly making the Bulls the team to beat in the Eastern Con ference. A lineup of Michael Jor dan, Scottie Pippen, Toni Kukoc and Rodman will be tough even for Shaq and the Orlando Magic. Meanwhile, the Spurs are left See Clark, Page 8 NHL to form Dream Team in ’97 □ The season will shut down for two weeks for the Winter Olympics. NEW YORK (AP) — The NHL made it official today: Its players are going to the Olympics. Commissioner Gary Bettman made the announcement today in a press conference with the NHL Players Association and Interna tional ke Hockey Federation. The NHL will shut down its sea son for 16 days to partieipate. Bettman said that despite the shut down, NHL teams would play a full 82-game schedule in 1997-98. Training camps will be shortened to save some time and there will be some scheduling adjustments at the beginning and end of the sea son, Bettman said. “We all felt that taking a 16- day break to have our players on the Olympic stage in what will amount to dream tournament, hockey will be on a high pedestal,” Bettman said. Even though clubs won’t be re imbursed for the time missed and players won’t be paid for participat ing, Bettman said hockey would gain plenty from the arrangement. “We’re doing this to build the game of hockey, pure and simple,” he said. “We think whatever bene fits are recouped, it will end up making this game bigger, stronger and healthier.” Countries involved in the Olympic participation will be the United States, Russia, Canada, Finland, Sweden and Czechoslo vakia — plus two teams promot ed from an earlier Olympic com petition. Announcement of the agree ment between the NHL, hock ey’s international governing body and the players’ associa tion caps several months of complicated dealing on domes tic and international levels. The agreement includes # more than just the Olympics. The pact also paves the way for a 1996 World Cup of hock ey, previously known as the Canada Cup.