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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 24, 1997)
The Battalion Page 7 Monday • March 24, 1997 Arizona, N. Carolina prepare for rematch (AP) — North Carolina and Arizona, which met in their season opener, will play a rematch at the Final Four. The top-seeded Tar Heels beat sixth-seeded Louisville 97-74 Sunday in the East Regional to advance to their 13th Final Four. Fourth-seeded Arizona recovered after blowing a big lead and edged No. 10 Providence 96-92 in over time at the Southeast Regional to reach its third Final Four in nine years. Shammond Williams scored 22 points for North Carolina (28-6), which will play Arizona (23-9) in the national semis next Saturday in Indianapolis. The Wildcats beat the Tar Heels 83-72 in the Hall of Fame Tipoff Classic on Nov. 22. North Carolina, which has won 16 straight, turned around its sea son following an 0-3 start in the Atlantic Coast Conference. “This was a great feeling to cut down those nets after the way we started the ACC season,” forward Antawn Jamison said. “We came together as a team and put all our differences aside. It shows how hard we worked and that hard work pays off.” Arizona, which finished fifth in the Pac-10 with an inexperienced lineup, squandered a 10-point deficit in the final 3 1/2 minutes of regulation before rebounding to beat Providence. Miles Simon scored 30 points for the Wildcats, who knocked off top-ranked Kansas in the previous round. “Certainly, this wa£ not expect ed,” said coach Lute Olson, whose team began the season with four new starters and has no seniors in the playing rotation. “Everybody kept saying, ‘Next year, they’re going to be pretty good.’ Well, next year got here a little early.” The other Final Four matchup on Saturday is defending national champion Kentucky (34-4) vs. Minnesota (31-3). The semifinal winners will play for the champi onship on Monday night. North Carolina built a 21-point halftime lead against Louisville, Furtick Continued from Page 5 The Cardinals are good, but old. This team cannot afford to lose more than one player, if any, and Gaetti, Pagnozzi and Eckersley are three keys who are getting close to 40. Projected Record: 84-78 Key Series: Sept. 17-18 @ Chicago Cubs; Sept. 19-22 @ Pittsburgh Pirates; Sept. 23-25 vs. Cincinnati Reds; Sept. 26-28 vs. Chicago Cubs: St. Louis closes out 1997 with 12 games in 12 days against Central Division foes. If the Cardinals want to make it to the playoffs again this year they will have to win at least eight or nine of these games. CINCINNATI REDS At least Marge Schott will not be around to “entertain” us this year, but we might miss her. The Reds, only seven years removed from a World Series victory, are in the middle of a decline. They still have a very good lineup, but their pitching will be suspect. The infield is solid with Barry Larkin and Bret Boone filling the middle and Hal Morris at first. Willie Greene at third has a ton of potential, and he will have a whole year to develop it. Behind the plate will be the platoon of Ed Taubensee and Joe Oliver. If the Red’s outfield were as good as their infield, they might be look ing at a division title. But Ruben Sierra, Curtis Goodwin, Reggie Sanders and Deion Sanders may be the division’s worst, even behind Pittsburgh. Cincinnati seemed to pick up every low-cost free agent pitcher on the market this offseason. The five starters will be some combi nation of Ricky Bones, Kent Merker, David Nied, Pete Schourek, John Smiley and Mike Morgan. Cincinnati needs to get quality starts out of those guys because they have the league’s best set-up man in Jeff Shaw and one of best closers in Jeff Brantley. Ray Knight used 147 different lineups in 162 games last year. He will probably have a more stable team this season, but they won’t make very much noise in the division. Projected Record: 81-81 Key Series: Sept. 19-22 vs. Houston Astros: The Reds will then pulled away again in the sec ond half after the Cardinals (26-9) cut the margin to three with 8:19 left. “That win came over a coura geous, gutty team that was down by 21 points and came back,” said coach Dean Smith, who has guid ed the Tar Heels to four Final Fours this decade. “You also have to hand it to our players for the way they responded and played great over the last seven minutes. You have to admire that for a team that’s been like that all year.” Louisville star Dejuan Wheat, play ing with a sprained ankle he injured in his previous game against Texas, scored only six points on 2-for-ll shooting. “I just wanted to play,” Wheat said. “If we were going to lose, I wanted to be out on the court.” Alex Sanders scored 20 points for Louisville, which lost for the first time in seven regional finals under Denny Crum. Providence (24-12), trying to become the lowest-seeded team to reach the Final Four since No. 11 LSU in 1986, had a chance to beat Arizona in the closing sec onds of regulation after stealing the ball. But Corey Wright’s 3- pointer was off target and the game went to overtime, where the Friars finally ran out of steam. “Clearly, it was an uphill battle the whole game,” said Providence coach Pete Gillen. “The kids kept scratching and clawing and with 3.9 seconds left, we had a chance to steal the game.” Providence star Austin Croshere fouled out midway through the second half with only 12 points, and the Friars then fell behind by 12 after two of them were hit with technical fouls. The Friars still trailed 82-72 with 3 1/2 minutes left before starting their amazing comeback. God Shammgod and Jamel Thomas scored 23 points apiece for Providence, while Mike Bibby had 17 for Arizona. have a chance to play the spoiler for the Astros in this series while Chicago and St. Louis are hot on Houston’s trail. Hopefully Deion will still be a Cardinal and will be packed for Dallas. PITTSBURGH PIRATES When Kevin Elster is boasted as your team’s biggest free agent signing of the decade, you know you’re bad. Flat out, the Pirates are the worst team in baseball. Not only are last year’s best Pirates, Jeff King and Jay Bell, gone, so is manager Jim Leyland. Left fielder A1 Martin is the only respectable star left on the team. Youngsters Jermaine Allens worth and Trey Beamon will round out the Pirates’ outfield. Both of these players have the potential to be good major league ballplayers, but they can’t cany the team. Ask Jason Kendall, last year’s Rookie of the Year runner-up, who will be catching again. Mark Johnson will play first in an infield where Elster is the big gun. Another rookie, Tony Womack, will get the call at second, and Joe Randa will start at third. That’s it, no kidding — the Pirate’s lineup. The Pirates would have the best pitching staff in the league if they were allowed to carry 50 pitchers, and that’s almost what they will be sorting through in spring training. The probable starters are Jason Schmidt and Jon Lieber — everything else is a mys tery. But John Ericks will be the closer, probably, being preceded by whoever doesn’t make the starting rotation. The Bugs are full of potential, but in this day of the juiced ball, it will be hard for their pitching staff to keep them anywhere near their opponents. Projected Record: 62-100 Key Series: Late August-early September: After overtaking Detroit as baseball’s worst team, the only thing the Pirates have to play for will be pride — except Trey Beamon. In a stretch of about 30 games the Pirates will be facing only one notable staff (Los Angeles Dodgers) and only two probable playoff teams (Houston, Los Angeles). Beamon, the Bucs opening day right fielder, will have a great opportunity to make a late-season run at the National League Rookie of the Year award. Tmf Rattattoiv THE YOGA Classified Advertising J C INSTITUTE A AND O BOOKSTORES • Easy • Affordable 15^85^3 EST.1974 • Effective 725 E. VILLA MARIA For information, call BRYAN 845-0569 FOR CLASS INFO 822-2246 http:// drugs.tamu.edu MSC Political Forum Satisfied customers speak up about I couldn't have done it without them. -Einstein They've really evolved. -Darwin To go or not to go. . . that is not a question. -Shakespeare The week of March 23-27 Acct 327 Test Review Sun Mar 23 6pm-9pm ' ; y™™" iiiiiiiii * ip Buna 303 Shetty Part 1 Son Mar 23 7pm-IQpm Part 11 Mon Mar 24 Spin-8pm Part III Tue Mar 25 5pm-8p»n Part IV Wed Mar 26 $pm-8pm Bana 303 Stein | Darccy Part I Mon Mar. 24 5pm-8pn« Part 11 Tue Mar 25 Spm-8pm Part III Wed Mar 26 Spm-Spm Part IV Tbur Mar 27 Spm-8pm Bana 305 Shetty Wichern Part I Sun Mar 23 10ptn-12atn Part 11 Mon Mar 24 8pro-10pm Part III Tue Mar 25 8pm-I0pn» Part IV Wed Mar 26 8pn»-I0pm Bana 305 Anthony Test Review Sun Mar 23 4ptn-7pm ■IpBIIll ' : j - Econ 322 Part I Mon Mar 24 Spm-Ilpm Part 11 Tue Mar 25 8pm-11 pm ' Mgmt 211 Crunch Test Review- Wed Mar 26 6pm-9pm Tickets for ALL Mgmt 211 Classes will go on sale Wednesday March 26 at 4:00 pm Ticket* Go on sale Sunday at 3:00 p.m. i located behind Golden Corral and next to Sldepockats, on the Centarpole bus route. Question: Which group of Aggies will pub licly display them selves covered only with a "mortarboard" sometime this spring? (First 5 to call with answer get free review!) 846-TUTOR Look for our ads (8886) www.4.0andGo.com ids on M< londays and Thursdays TAMU Jason Evans for Student Body President • General Information • Junior Accounting Major • Born in Houston, TX. • Christian • Email: evans@tamu.edu • Phone: 847-0946 • Experience • Resicience Hall Association (RHA) Casino ‘97 Director - “The Largest Student Run Casino in the World!” • RHA Financial Development Director ‘96 - Coordinated the sale and delivery of campus-wide finals care packages • RHA Crimestoppers - Assisted in establishing this new campus safety oriented organization • AT&T/ACUS Proposals Board - Helped on-campus residents by providing necessary funding for hall pro grams • Awards/Accomplishments • Eagle Scout • Residence Hall Association Director of the Year 95-96 • Texas A&M Distinguished Student • Platform • Accountability to Students - I believe in letting the students dictate to me how they want Student Government to work for them. • Responsive to Needs of Students • Open Door Policy - I believe in one on one interaction with the student body. I would hope that any student would feel free to let me now what they think of the University, Student Government, or any other aspect of student life. That is why my email address <Sc phone number would be readily available to all students so that they can reach me anytime at their convenience. a Honesty, Integrity, Responsibility