Sports
Friday • April
The Business of Winning
Coach Melvin Watkins left all he had known in North Carolina for the challenge of building a basketball traditions
Jeff Webb
Sports editor
T he most noticeable feature about the
office of new Texas A&M Basketball
Coach Melvin Watkins is nothing at
all. The walls stand bare, and aside from
random stacks of papers that sit around the
room, the surroundings are pretty boring.
Watkins is not familiar with the con
ventions of moving into a new office be
cause until one month ago, he had spent a
quarter-century at the University of North
Carolina-Charlotte.
Looking past the six-inch-high stacks of
phone messages that await his reply,
Watkins sits back in his chair, arms folded,
and dreams about how long it will take for
the Aggies, his Aggies, to win the National
Championship.
“IVe looked at some film, and I know
they (Aggies) had some injuries last year,
but we won’t spend time on last year,” he
said. “We need to look forward and bring
some fresher air in here.
‘‘We want to have a winning basketball
team, but more importantly, we want to win
at life. I want to win the National Champi
onship. Is that realistic? I don’t know, but I
ask my players to think big.”
A winning attitude is something Watkins
earned a reputation for as a player and a
coach at UNCC. As a starting guard, Watkins
led the 49ers to a 28-5 record in 1977 on their
way to a Final Four berth where they would
be knocked off by eventual champion Mar
quette. As a coach, Watkins began his stint in
Charlotte in 1996 by losing three of his first
five games. The team rebounded to win 10 of
their next 11 games and made the NCAA
Tournament for the first time since Watkins
was a player. Leaving the only place he had
“Melvin’s voice started
breaking. Tears started
running down my face.
yy
Judy Rose
UNCC Athletic Director
ever lived was difficult, but was a decision he
felt was right at the time.
“Some of it was talking to Wally (Groff,
athletic director), and after talking to him,
I started doing a little recruiting of myself,”
he said. “After I investigated it and found
out more about it, it looked like a heck of
an opportunity.”
Current UNCC basketball coach Bobby
Lutz served as an assistant under Watkins
during his brief two-year tenure. Lutz and
Watkins also worked together as assistants
under former coach Jeff Mullins. Many peo
ple in Charlotte were taken aback by
Watkins’ departure.
“I was surprised, but not shocked,” Lutz
said. “When you’ve been in the business as
long as I have, you should never be shocked
at what happens. What he was able to do in
such a short time at UNCC is incredible.”
Watkins also is the first African-Ameri
can basketball coach in A&M history. De
spite the fact that many try to make light
of the situation, Watkins refuses to see it
as a racial matter.
“What is the color of a basketball? Or
ange,” he said.
Lutz said that Watkins’ character over
shadows any racial questions proposed to
the coach.
“I consider him one of the best profes
sionals in the business and the best per
son,” Lutz said. “It’s rare to find such a
class-person who is also a great coach and
an open-minded individual. He is proud
of his race, and he’s also the man who is
best for the job.”
Watkins has a reputation for developing
close, family-like relationships with his
players. When reserve UNCC guard Charles
Hayward was diagnosed with leukemia
during last season, Watkins called for the
season to be dedicated to him and stood by
him as if he was a family member. UNCC
Athletic Director Judy Rose found out about
the incident from Watkins and said he was
profoundly affected by the incident.
Please see Watkins on Page 8.
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New Texas A&M Coach Melvin Watkins makes sure players will adheretoth
that makes them winners on the court and in the game of life.
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Texas A&M travels to Waco to cage Bears Big 12 schedule eti
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By Travis Harsch
Staff writer
The Texas A&M Baseball Team will be playing
for first place in the Big 12 this weekend as they
travel to Lawrence, Kan., to take on the Kansas
Jayhawks. The current first place team, Baylor,
won two games against Kansas State in midweek
action, so a sweep by A&M would put the Aggies
into the conference lead.
Coach Mark Johnson said the Aggies will
not be concerned with that when they take the
field this weekend.
“We’re not going in there with the idea to
sweep; we’re going in to play the best games that
Baseball Update
Record: 34-15, 16-8 Big 12
Next Game: at Kansas
Time: 7 p.m.
Scheduled Starters:
Ryan Rape (7-4,3.30 ERA) vs.
Les Walrond(3-4, 8.00)
Idon ii|
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we can,” Johnson said. “If we sweep, if we win two
out of three, we’ll take that and go from there.”
Johnson said the Jayhawks have had some dif
ficulties this season.
“They were hitting .311 going into their series
with Texas, their fielding hasn’t been very good,
they’ve struggled defensively and they’ve strug
gled a little bit on the mound,” Johnson said.
“They’re a pretty good offensive team. That
seems to be their strong suit and they’ve got a
couple of pitchers with good ERAs.”
Johnson also said warmer temperatures in the
north will help Kansas.
ROBERT MCKAY/The Battalion
Texas A&M’s Craig Kuzmic tackles the challenge of beating Baylor for the Big 12 title this weekend.
“I think northern teams start picking it up a little
more towards the end of the season. They start get
ting warmer weather and get more practice time, so
we really anticipate a tough series,” Jolmson said.
That would be a turnaround from last year’s
games in College Station when A&M swept the
Jayhawks. Ryan Rupe got a 10-5 win in the first
game of the series, the last game he pitched be
fore a blood clot was discovered near his clavicle.
The Aggies came back from an 8-0 deficit to win
the second game, 10-9, and shut out Kansas in
game three, 8-0 to take the series. The sweep in
creased A&M’s all-time lead in the series to 16-5.
Kansas will be trying to rebound from a
sweep by Texas in a midweek series which saw
the Jayhawks lose two extra-inning games. A&M
is coming off an extra-inning loss of its own, a
10-inning affair which the Aggies dropped to
Houston, 9-7. That game followed a weekend in
which A&M took two of three from the Long
horns to go to the 12th spot in both the Baseball
America and the Collegiate Baseball polls.
By Robert Hollier
Staff writer
The Texas A&M Softball Team (32-
22-1, 6-8) will conclude its confer
ence schedule this weekend when
they host No. 19TexasTech on Satur
day and Baylor on Sunday. Both se
ries are doubleheaders and will start
at noon at tire Aggie Softball Field.
The Aggies are currently in sixth
place in the Big 12 and need to
make a strong showing this week
end to possibly move up in the
standings for a better seeding at the
conference tournament.
“Last weekend, we got great
pitching and tremendous defensive
play,” Coach Jo Evans said. “We put
it all together last weekend and I was
really pleased with our team’s play.
“If we want to win this weekend,
we have to carry the intensity over
from last weekend.”
Last weekend, the Aggies split
two doubleheaders from No. 5 Ok
lahoma and No. 10 Oklahoma State
behind some timely hitting, solid
defense and tremendous pitching.
“Our outfielders were aggressive.
Our overall defense didn’t make any
costly mistakes and our pitching
was excellent,” Evans said.
Freshman Amy Vining, who
pitched two games last weekend,
agreed, adding the Aggies’ defense
saved the day on many occasions.
“Our defense was amazing,” Vin
ing said. “Our outfield didn’t let a
ball get passed themisB
weekend. We’ve been ::®
,md everygm P-
Vining also expressed tel
lam this weekend will befoilf
and where they wi
12 tournament.
“This week
end is very im
portant leading
up to the confer
ence tourna
ment,” she said.
“I feel like we
should be able to
sweep Baylor,
and Tech could
hold some prob
lems for us. They’ve gotii
girls who can really hit die
“Baylor has somegooii
who can hit the ball. Am® 1
fro is a good pitcher for
she has a good risingfastfe 1
good knuckler.”
Evans said if the team®
to play with the sameinte®
showed in Oklahoma, ste
doubts about this weekete
“We feel like we canv®
of these games,” Evans said
have to keep the intensity 1 !
confidence is strong rights
we need to stay aggresste
plate and in the field."
After the Aggies conclud
conference play, theywill
Oklahoma City May 1-310$
in the Big 12 Tournament.
MSC COMMITTEE FOR THE AWARENESS
OF
MEXICAN AMERICAN CULTURE
CAiiftei
1E3
jNVircS YOU TO COME
diETCTEEs
FAJITA COOKOUT
Friday, April 24, 1998
4-8PM (Serving Time)
Olsen Grove Pavilion
(On George Bush Drive over railroad tracks)
$6 TAMO St^dentB/^Sculty/Sfcaff
$7 General Community
$4 Children Under 12
^Tickets Available On-Site*
GK
FOR MORE INFORMATION
CONTACT TONY VERDUZCO
©THESTUDENT PROGRAMS
OFFICE @845-1515.
ck.
special needs. We reqcu
nt to e r%ab le txs to
notification three (3) working days prior
> assist yovi to the best of cur abilities.
Join us for the 3rd Annual
Games
Fun
Music
Give Aways
Free Refreshments
This celebration is for families and students,
young and old - Everyone who lives on
PLANET EARTH!
‘Saturday, April 25, 1998‘
10:00am - 3:00pm
Texas A&M Bonfire Site
Rain Date
May 2, 1998
This event will feature community wide education on:
^ Water conservation
^ Water quality
Energy conservation
^ Recycling
Waste reduction
Composting
Sponsored by the Cities of Bryan and College Station Energy, Solid Waste, and Water Services Departments,
the Brazos Valley Solid Waste Management Agency, and Texas A&M University Physical Plant
ATTENTION
CLASS OF ‘9!
Come meet your new
Class Agents:
Laurie Nickel
Alex Cabanas
Brandon Meche
They will be available at
The Faculty Club during Ring Dance
on April 25 beginning at 10:00p.m
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