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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 17, 1998)
uesday • February 17, 1998 The Battalion im» *0^ iiHii ^ r 0 KI Jarone’s legacy will be more than losses ■ m, t , "Y A That Tony Barone has until 1994 and will not open its doors until next sea- has graduated 88.9 percent of his players, an nario Barone envisioned at the start of the season. He ... I Chris Ferrell ' ^ports writer lat Tony Barone has done for the Texas A&M Men’s Basketball Team over the past seven sea sons can’t be measured in wins and losses, but unfortunately in the world of big time college athletics, that’s all that counts. Yesterday, Athletic Director Wally Groff announced that Barone would be reassigned within the athletic department after the season, putting an end to weeks of speculation about [oirioach’s future. The Aggies are 6-16 on the season are winless in conference play. But to measure me by wins and losses would completely overlook the has done during his time in College Station. |eng even years ago, Barone took the worst coaching n college basketball. He came to a school which decimated by NCAA probation, had terrible facil- and had no fan support. He left behind a ghton program which had advanced to the sec- J round of the NCAA Tournament and had won Missouri Valley Conference titles in the past three ons. The only thing Texas A&M had was the nise of a new arena, one that was not approved until 1994 and will not open its doors until next sea son, when a new coach will be leading the Aggies. With Barone’s arrival there was re newed hope that A&M would return to the same level of success it had en joyed under Shelby Metcalf, who be came the winningest coach in South west Conference history during his 27 seasons at A&M. But that never hap pened. In fact, the Aggies would only experience one winning season under Barone. That was in the 1993-94 season when the team received an NIT bid. But what Tony Barone did bring to the A&M basketball program was class and unmatched enthusi asm. As ESPN’s Dick Vitale told me last fall, “Tony does things the right way.” The purpose of college ath letics, no matter what you may hear, is not to serve as a minor league to the professional ranks, but rather to develop better people, the same way teachers do it in the classroom. During Barone’s time at A&M, he has graduated 88.9 percent of his players, an unheard of number in today’s game. He has done that by going out and getting good peo ple, not just good basketball players. He brought in players that cared about Texas A&M and the program. Maybe he did not produce lottery picks, but he produced good citizens. He put everything he had into Texas A&M basketball. He celebrated with every basket and died a thousand deaths with every loss. He could be spotted playing defense along with his team, shuffling back and forth across the sideline shout ing out instructions to his players. Watching Barone was often more en tertaining than watching his teams — teams which were limited by scholar ships, and usually by talent, but always found a way to play tough and keep most games competitive. His enthusiasm for the game is contagious and you could see it in his players and those around him when he started talking about A&M basketball. Yesterday’s announcement was the last sce nario Barone envisioned at the start of the season. He was excited about the team and felt that this was go ing to be the breakthrough year for the Aggies. But with a couple of tough losses and a couple of big in juries, the season quickly fell apart. There was not much question that a change need ed to be made for the sake of wins and losses. With horrible attendance at G. Rollie White Coliseum and a new 12,500 seat arena set to open, something needed to be done to shake things up. After all, money talks and that’s why Barone walks. His legacy at Texas A&M will be as the guy who took off his jacket and tie and danced around the sideline. Barone has been more than that. By weath ering the storm of the past seven seasons, Barone turned the worst job in America into one of the best. The next Men’s Basketball Coach at Texas A&M will inherit a young, talented team and the arena which Barone was promised when he first arrived. He may bring more wins. He may produce better basketball players. But doing things with the same commitment to academics and with the same dedication as Tony Barone will be a tough act to follow. — Chris Ferrell is a sophomore journalism major ten's team limps into final weeks of season Individuals stepping up for the women then’s ' ■ Jett 1-minus four and counting. There are four games left for the Aggies to win: at Texas, vs. . Texas Tech, at Kansas State and vs. Baylor. Bay- may be the best bet for a victory. The last time the lies lost to Baylor at home was 95-92 in 1994 in ible-overtime. Unfortunately, it looks as if every- igis on hold after the big news on Monday: rone Reassigned ‘bach Tony Barone will be reassigned as Athletic ector Wally Groff’s special assistant at the end of season. The Aggies hope to hire a new head coach une 1. The Sporting News has speculated that VI could “wave big money at New Mexico’s Dave sor Mississippi’s Rob Evans.” alysis Of A Losing Streak The Aggies lose to upper-tier Big 12 teams (Kansas, ahoma State and Oklahoma) by an average of irly 21 points per game. The Aggies lose to second- teams (a six-way tie for fourth place between Tech, Kansas State, Missouri, Colorado, Baylor Nebraska) by an average of around 13 points a e.The Aggies lose to bottom-tier teams (Texas Iowa State) by an average of five points a game. ;es sense, doesn’t it? igs And Arrows, Part II IJunior guard Chris Clayton was out for the season i a fractured right foot suffered in the loss to Texas Tech. Clayton was averaging 6.8 points a game and was shooting 33 percent from three-point range. “Chris had worked very hard and was starting to get more and more playing time,” Barone said. “It’s a very unfortunate injury. Our main focus now is to make sure his injury is treated properly so he can play next year.” Clayton is the fourth Aggie to sustain a season ending injury. Others include Dario Quesada (bulging disk), Calvin Davis (herniated disk) andTJ. Brown (torn anterior cruciate ligament). Clayton’s injury left the team with only eight players. Schmidt Has Career Day Freshman guard Michael Schmidt (no relation) had a huge game off the bench against Missouri with a ca reer-high 24 points. Schmidt, who entered the game shooting about 20 percent from three-point range, was 4-5 from the same area against Missouri. Schmidt has an interesting story. A native of Toronto, he was the only high-schooler named to the 1997 Canadian Un- der-22 National Team and was rated by several recruit ing publications as the No. 1 player in Canada. He chose Texas A&M before visiting the University over Minnesota, DePaul, Syracuse and Southern California. Barone Speaks After The Missouri Loss On having eight players: “It really disrupts prac tice. We don’t have any (Missouri center) Monte Hardges walking around campuses. You need guys to scrimmage against.” On losing streak: “I’m fully aware of our record. These guys aren’t quitting, they are playing their hearts out. You’ll try anything to keep your sanity. As you lose, the critics are there, but most don’t know anything about basketball or our team.” On playing at the Hearnes Center (Missouri): “It’s like playing the Packers at Lambeau. They’re 11-1 here.” —Jejf Schmidt is a junior journalism major i j 11,® ■MgjSfiBJV T he Texas A&M Women’s Basketball Team went 0-2 this past week. The Aggies lost to the OSU Cowgirls 95-57 and the Texas Tech Red Raiders 90-65. This week, the Aggies take on the University of Texas Wednesday at 7 p.m. at G. Rollie White Colise um, and Texas Tech Saturday at 2 p.m. in Lubbock. Sharpe Doubles Her Pleasure Sophomore forward Prissy Sharpe has scored in double figures in 18 of the Aggies’ 22 games this sea son. Sharpe leads the Big 12 in double-doubles with 14. For her career, Sharpe has scored in double fig ures in 29 out of 49 games with 19 double-doubles. Alexander Takes Over Sophomore forward Kera Alexander started against Texas Tech on Saturday. Alexander had been A&M’s leading scorer coming off the bench, averaging 12.6 points per game. Alexander ranks ninth in the Big 12 in scoring, averaging 15.2 points per game in conference. Alexander scored a career- high 32 points in a loss to Baylor earlier this year, which was the highest scoring performance by an Aggie in Big 12 history. Even more impressive then her scoring, Alexander is currently maintaining a 4.0 GPR in Computer Science. Tark The Shark With 5 assists against Texas Tech, junior point guard KimTarkington has tallied 104 on the season. Tark’s 104 assists are the most by an Aggie player since Lisa Branch had 231 assists in the 1996 sea son. If the season were to end today, Tarkington would rank 14th all-time in the Aggie record books for assists in a season. An intense competitor on the court, Tark also is known for her soft spot toward children off the court. In a game earlier this season, Tarkington ran a few rows up into the crowd during player introductions to give a mini-basketball to a child who was ill with leukemia. While in junior college, Tarkington held her own basketball camp for children in Fort Smith, Ark. All In The Family The Aggies picked up a recruit during the early signing period. The Aggies signed LaToya Rose, a 5- foot, 6-inch point guard from Magnolia, Ark., to a let ter of intent. Rose is the cousin of current Aggie point guard Kim Tarkington and is rated as one of the top point guards in Arkansas. As a junior in high school Rose averaged 29.5 points per game. - Michael Taglienti is a senior sports management major )rps takes on fraternities in charity game sponsored by Order of Omega By Robert Hollier Staff writer The eighth annual Corps-Fra- nity charity basketball game will I played tonight at 7:30 in G. Rol- | White Coliseum to benefit the :el Creek Boy’s and Girl’s Ranch. The game officially kicks off the der of Omega’s annual Greek :ek, which also benefits the same arity.The Interfraternity Council 11 donate $1,000 to Steel Creek ring a halftime presentation. While this game will not be a udge match for the teams, it is a me both sides are playing to win. Troy Coleman, Corps coach d team captain, said this game just a friendly competition be- een them. “It’s nothing personal,” Cole man said. “We want to win of course, but we still just see this game as a friendly competitive game. It should be a lot of fun.” This will be the fourth time Coleman has participated in this event and he and the rest of the team are ready to play. “We’ve been looking forward to this game all year,” he said. “We put our team together real early, set up our practice schedules and now we’re ready to play.” Robert Ladimir, member of Pi Kappa Alpha and team co-captain agreed, saying the players are just out there to have a good time. “Win or lose, there will be no hard feelings,” Ladimir said. “We get to play on a nice court in front of a big crowd and it’s all for chari ty. That’s the best thing about it.” Ladimir also said another great thing about this event is that it creates a rivalry between the fra ternities and the Corps, which adds more excitement and energy to the game. Starters for the Corps team in clude seniors Troy Coleman (Com pany E-1) and Brandon Henderson (Company L-l), juniors Clay Stan field (Company C-2) and Joe Garza (Squadron 17) and freshman Robert Neal (Company E-2). Starters for the fraternity team are Patrick Collier (Beta Theta Pi), Pranay Patel (Sigma Chi), Rob Turner (Pi Kappa Alpha), Tom Gre gor (Phi Delta Theta) and Brian Sims (Delta Chi). Baseball team faces DBU in doubleheader from staff and wire reports After a weekend which included three wins, a tournament champi onship and a broken record, the 20th-ranked Texas A&M Baseball Team returns home this afternoon for a doubleheader with Dallas Baptist University. Dallas Baptist is 1-1 on the year, with a 6-5 loss to Concordia and a 4- 3 win over St. Edwards on Friday. A&M knocked off Arkansas State, Oral Roberts and UT-Arlington by a combined score of 34-9 to capture the UTA/Arlington Morning News Invita tional and improve their season record to 7-0. Junior center fielder Jason Tyn er stole second in the ninth inning of Sunday’s game against UTA to set the career record for stolen bases with 84. The former record was held by Chuck Knoblauch, who had 83 swipes in his three seasons at A&M. He now plays second base for the NewYork Yankees. Tyner has continued his torrid start of the season, hitting .438 with five steals in five attempts. Sophomore rjlliLg JAKE SCHRICKUNG/The Battalion Senior Scott Sandusky dives back into first base against UT-Pan American. Sean Heaney is also off to a solid start, with nine RBI and an average of .444. Junior Shane King is the likely starter in the first game, which will get underway at 1 p.m. at Olsen Field. King last saw work in the opening day no-hitter, pitching two innings in relief with two strikeouts. Sophomore Chance Caple will go in the second game for the Aggies, following his win against Tarleton State, in which he gave up three runs on five hits and struck out three. Caple will be gunning for his sec ond victory to join senior Ryan Rupe, sophomore Casey Possum and junior Matt Webb as Texas A&M’s two-game winners. Pre Law Society Welcomes St. Mary’s Law School and Texas Wesleyan Law School Wednesday, February 18th 8:30 p.m. 504 Rudder Everyone is Welcome!!! For more information call Office of Professional School Advising 847-8938 IMPROVE YOUR WEALTH- BY SHARING YOUR HEALTH vV/.ir/' K 15940576 B VSYS K 15940576 B \va.'*s»hkoton\T>.C. 11 Here are 81 good reasons to become a plasma donor at Westgate Plasma Center: $80 dollars in your first two weeks, and you save lives. 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