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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 1996)
The Battalion Wednesday February, 1996 Sports Page 7 sports GLANCE 1 Bud Light Daredevils to perform tonight The Bud Light Daredevils, spon sored by Jack Hilliard Distributors of Bryan, will perform Wednesday at the Texas A&M vs. Houston men's basketball game at G. Rollie White Coliseum at 7 p.m. The Daredevils eight-minute halftime routine is paced with high- velocity trampoline dunks, breath taking flips, amazing acrobatics and comedy antics. The team was formed in 1980 when several athletes combined their precision gymnastics and ball handling skills while cheerleading at the University of Mississippi. Their act has been seen by more than five million fans in their 16- million fans in their 16-year touring history. They have entertained audiences audiences at more than 306 col leges across the United States, near ly every NBA team and 22 CBA teams. The team has made appear ances in more than 70 cities in 19 foreign countries. Michigan players broke NCAA recruiting rules ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Michigan basketball players in volved in an automobile accident on their way back from a party in Detroit might have committed an NCAA violation by taking a recruit too far from campus. "It appears a violation has hap pened, but we won't do anything until we get the actual mileage — we're clocking that right now,'' Craig Keilitz, the university's athletic compliance officer, said Monday. An NCAA rule states that recruits on official visits may be provided with entertainment, but it must be within a 30-mile radius of campus. The party was slightly farther away than that. The rollover accident occurred Saturday when forward Maurice Taylor fell asleep at the wheel of his grandmother's 1996 Ford Explorer Limited Edition, police said. Also in the vehicle were center Robert Traylor, guard Louis Bullock, forward Willie Mitchell, walk-on Ron Oliver and recruit Mateen Cleaves. Lakers to retire Goodrich number INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Gail Goodrich, recently elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame, will have his No. 25 jersey retired by the Los Angeles Lakers next season. Goodrich will become the sev enth Laker to receive the honor, joining Elgin Baylor, Wilt Cham berlain, Jerry West, Kareem Abdul- Jabbar, Magic Johnson and James Worthy. Goodrich, 53, spent nine of his 14-year NBA career with the Lakers, including two separate stints (1965- 68 and 1970-76). He was a member of the Lakers' first NBA championship team in Los Angeles in 1972. He helped the club to a profes sional sports record 33 consecutive wins and an all-time NBA best 69- 13 record. He led the team in scoring that season, averaging a career-high 25.9 points per game. Swingman Eddie Jones, who cur rently wears No. 25 for the Lakers, will switch to a new jersey number at the beginning of next season, al though what number he will wear has not been decided. Goodrich will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame May 6. SCORES ROUNDUP NBA Milwaukee 92, New York 87 Orlando 123, Philadelphia 104 Chicago 102, Cleveland 76 Boston at Utah, (n) San Antonio 108, Portland 105 Lakers 121, Clippers 104 Communication, Coogs concern Aggies Evan Zimmerman, The Battalion Texas A&M junior guard Tracey Anderson drives into the paint during the Aggies 66-63 loss to Texas Tech two weeks ago at G. Rollie White Coliseum. □ The Aggie Basketball Team is trying to snap its current three- game losing streak. By Tom Day The Battalion Despite its recent off-the-court prob lems, it is business as usual for the A&M Men’s Basketball Team. The Aggies return to the court tonight in a Southwest Confer ence matchup with the University of Hous ton at G. Rollie White Coliseum at 7 p.m. Currently mired in a three-game losing streak, A&M (11-12, 3-8 in SWC) has re cently had its fair share of problems on the court as well. The Aggies’ most recent set back, a 60-55 loss to Rice last Saturday in Houston, was their fifth defeat in seven games. With the exception of its loss at Texas Feb. 14, A&M’s recent losses have come in the closing moments of games, a problem that Head Coach Tony Barone said is not from a lack of effort. “Six of our last seven games have been decided in the last minute of the game,” Barone said. “We haven’t been able to fin ish some plays and knock down a shot when we had to, (but) all you can do is keep playing hard and keep identifying plusses and go from there. "The kids have put themselves in a posi tion to win and they’ve been in a positive effort mode. I’ve had no complaints about our effort all year.” Although losing isn’t his first choice, Barone said the Aggies can gain from their experiences. “I think being in these kind of situations is a great teaching mechanism,” Barone said. “I don’t totally agree in a losing-and- learning type of mentality. I think we’ve found out how tough it is to win, and we just have to ask ourselves if there is (some thing) we could have done better.” Freshman center Brad Strieker said A&M’s inability to crash the boards in the waning moments of games has been a prob lem. “I think mainly down the stretch our problem has been rebounding,” Strieker said. “Teams get a key offensive rebound and put it back in and that has hurt us a lot. “But every game we play, we’re always in it until the very end and that’s been a positive for us. It’s in our mind that if we do the little things right, we can win.” Houston (13-9, 7-3 SWC) comes into G. Rollie White having won 11 of its last 14 games after start ing the season 2-6. The Cougars defeated A&M 78-67 in overtime Jan. 24 at Hofheinz Pavilion. They are led by senior forward Tim Moore who leads the team with 17.2 points per game and 11.9 rebounds a contest. Barone said the Aggies will have to con tinue playing stellar defense to down the Cougars. “Consistency on defense is the key,” you play defensively, and we’ve done that. If you look at our defensive field goal per centage, points allowed and the whole package, we’re a good defensive team. “(We) can’t let Moore touch the ball 35 times.” . That will be a tough task for the Aggies if forward Dario Quesada cannot suit up. The sophomore has suffered from migraine headaches recently and has not practiced. Depending on the results of a CT-scan, he remains questionable for the game. In addition to that problem, Strieker said the Aggies will have to play solid tran sition defense to ground the Cougars’ run ning game. “We have to hurry and get back on de fense after a basket because they’re a run ning team,” Strieker said. “They get most of their points on the break and they’re not as good when they have to set up in an of fense. If we can get back on defense, we can take them out of the game.” "Consistency on defense is the key. You'll stay in every game if you play defensively." — Tony Barone Texas A&M Basketball Coach Barone said. “You’ll stay in every game if my heart means a derrick on my arm I ’d like to preface this col umn by saying that the whole thing is all my broth er’s fault. If he hadn’t done the same thing on one of his birthdays, I never would have been so in spired on mine. This afternoon, as the sun shines brightly down on my 22nd birthday. I’m taking a lit tle trip down to a cozy place in Bryan know as The Arsenal. My purpose there? To acquire myself a tattoo. OK, let’s take a breather here while my mother regains consciousness. That’s better. Now then, I realize this is not sounding much like a sports column so far, so let me explain. My first love in life, as I have mentioned before in this forum, is being moved to the ugly city of Nashville by the scum of the earth, Bud Adams. Yes, before I discovered girls, cars or McDonald’s French fries, I knew the love of a professional football team called the Houston Oilers. At 3 o’clock this afternoon, the Oilers will be a part of me forever in the form of a derrick engraved on my left upper arm, and, if the price is right, the words ‘Forever Blue.' They will move to Nashville, I’ve accepted that. They will change their name to some thing ridiculous like the Nashville Fiddlers or the Ten nessee Backwater Hillbillies or whatever. The Houston Oilers will be no more, except in my heart and on my arm. The idea has stemmed from a long series of frustrating twists and turns of the Houston Oiler franchise, beginning with the firing of Bum Phillips on New Year’s Eve, 1980. Over the years, they have committed so many blunders that at times it was difficult to turn the television onto my lo cal NBC affiliate every Sunday at noon to watch the boys in Columbia Blue get trounced by the Steelers, Raiders, Bengals or Browns. But I did, and I watched the year that our quarterbacks were Gifford Nielsen and Oliv er Luck. I suffered through the Spencer Tillman years, the glo rious season when Chuck Stud- ley compiled a 1-8 record before being fired and even through the greatest collapse in NFL history that cold day in Buffalo. Believe or not though, there were some great moments as well — moments that have made me proud to say I know the lyrics to every single Hous ton Oiler fight song, even the extremely sappy “Ballad of Bum and the Boys.” There was the time Earl Campbell, my boyhood hero, ran over Bob Griese’s Miami Dolphins for 199 yards and four touchdowns in the game the late Howard Cosell called “the greatest game we ever had on Monday Night Football.” Later that same year, I re member my grandmother screeching at us to get down for Christmas Eve dinner while every man and child huddled around a black and white tele vision watching the Dolphin- Oiler wildcard game. Fast forward to January 1987. My family had just seen the Oilers make the playoffs for the first time in years, and mir acle of miracles, they beat the Seahawks 23-20 in overtime at the Astrodome. I remember dancing around my room in my way-too-small Elvin Bethea jersey while my extremely cheap Soundesign stereo blared out the redneck version of “Luv Ya Blue” — which I was shocked to find out as a child was not an original song, but actually was a takeoff of this “Love Me Do” song by some punks called the Beatles. The fiddle-based song even tually caused the speakers of my stereo to blow out, but who cared? Even during the last two years, there have been a couple of memorable moments. Case in point was the final home game of the 1995 season against the Jets. Yes, that’s right, I went to see the Jets play the Oilers and I paid money for it. Despite the less-than-mar- quee matchup, I got to see the first career start of Steve Mc Nair. When all is said and done, and “Air” is on his way to Canton, I’ll say I knew him when. Some people have told me I’m wasting my money, and I’m sure a lecture from Mom and/or Dad is forthcoming, but I have my own justification, and that’s all I need. All of those proud moments are going to be wrapped in one 4-inch emblem on my upper arm from now on. Has your life been affected by Divorce? If so, you won’t want to miss this! Marlene Hsi speaking on the issue of Divorce Thursday, February 22 7 P.M. MSC Room 201 sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ Do You Worry Too Much? Dr. Steven Strawn is seeking volunteers for a 2 - month research study of an investigational medication for anxiety. For more information call: 846 - 2050 Monday - Thursday 8:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m. Friday 8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. "What Should I Do With Jesus?" The Lutheran Collegians offer rides to Wednesday Lenten Services at 7:10 p.m. Pickup will be outside the A/ISC by the Bookstore. Come join us at: Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church 1007 Krenek Tap Road, 693-4514 across from Central Park in College Station
