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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 2, 1999)
The Battalion Sports Page 3 • Monday, August 2, 1999 Aaron Jack-F Begins senior year in 1999 Jerald Brown-G/F Begins senior year in 1999 Michael Schmidt-G Transferring to Niagra University in 1 999 Chris Richards-C Quit team at start of 1998 season iJi im i Chris Clayton-G Completed eligibility’ in 1999 TJ. Brown-G Not medically cleared to play in 1999 1 I |Ljr f ^ .ftrTIMi ■ f f ' ,.J. m w t . If k -Apr' 1 if Calvin Davis-F Herniated back disk ^ ar *° Quesada-C Shanne Jones-F ended career in 1998 back disk Larry Thompson-C/F Completed eligibility ended career in ’98 Completed eligibility in 1999 in 1998 Brian Barone-G Transferred to Marquette University' in 1998 Steve Houston-G Dismissed for violating team rules in 1998 PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY GUY ROGERS/The Battalion Sihce his arrival at Texas A&M University, coach Melvin Watkins has molded the Men’s Basketball Team into his own through recruiting. Only two of the 12 players from the 1997-98 squad remain on the team today. 1 Building a Winning Team Aggie coach Melvin Watkins makes most of his first-full recruiting class at Texas A&M BY JEFF WEBB The Battalion he most amazing sight outside the Coleman High School gymnasium in Gibsland, La., was not the few ma- I Hon-clad basketball fans, some standing pli their toes and craning their necks for a bkter view inside the place on an atypical- ■frosty March evening in North Louisiana. ^ ~ ■ The person they came to see, this real- , 'Me Jesus Shuttlesworth of Gibsland, La., e-strangulTM s t j ie ma j n attraction in a hotly contest- inty woma ■ s{ate p] a y 0 ff g ame against Pitikin High , iMhool. st {ie j| If Th e window beside the door of the sold- thal need^ X ramshackle gym was the only way to 'dnesd<n h see th e Division I phenom for the many ?d, is the M] 10 CO uldn’t get tickets and were left on Me outside. i death ro«l; Bernard King was ranked among the i they geu i 0 p 40 recruits in most college basketball ■cent inter publications, and he had committed to they want x ( Kas a&M in November at the request of te senfe-r Watkins, a coach who had just hankingG 1 - 1 completed his first year at the helm of a es hackit'r traditionally pitiful program. le’s Shefti M Watkins pulled a minor coup during the ? night ot ' off-season, filling all 13 scholarships by ^600 in O' stealing top-ranked recruits out from un der the whistles of other college coaches. ; a 3-foot-WB Nine players mark the first full recruit- mer sawntHL c i ass froj-p the long-time University of > blamed a; North Carolina-Charlotte (UNC-C) coach. forsomN- Watkins was wooed on April 1, 1998, ? butchered j exas a&M Athletics Director Wally :hroat wenM ro ff an d a rich contract that makes him nes in t|' e one of the highest paid college basketball i pain,' f coaches in the state. I Although the news conference an nouncing his hiring was conducted on ■pril Fools’ Day, the joke is now on B/atkins’ critics. The new class is expected to come in right away and improve a team Miat posted a mere 12-15 record last year. ieral fuiA’l “ The y ( the recruits) are still going to be ieeds to hq freshman,” Watkins said. “We try to think we can ease them into it, but the Big 12 Conference is a major adjustment. Bernard has the confidence, but physically he’s not strong enough. But right now, Bernard will have the easiest time adjusting.” The Aggies need King to contribute minutes right away, possibly at point guard. Former starting point guard Clifton Cook, named Big 12 Conference Newcom er of the Year in 1999, was ruled academi cally ineligible on June 30, signifying the end of his A&M career. Cook led the team in assists (5.8), steals (2.5) and scoring (15.6) and was named third team All-Big 12 by league coaches. “When I got to the state of Texas, I found that a lot of kids were excited about A&M - MELVIN WATKINS BASKETBALL COACH “It was a major setback for us, but more importantly for the kid,” Watkins said of Cook’s situation. “We don’t know what will become of him. We got him a tryout with the (Houston) Rockets, and he might play across the water. He was our man, but now we have to face the hardest period of replacing him.” His replacement will be King or 1999 re cruit Jamaal Gilchrist of Middleburg, Va. Other guards in the signing class include Damon Escoffery, a community college transfer from Brooklyn, N.Y., and Jesse King, an athletic 6’ 6” swingman from De troit, Mich. But the prize of the class is King, who was recruited by more than 30 coaches be fore he signed. He said the opportunity to play during his first season was the reason he chose A&M. “Before I came in, [Watkins] said it was going to be a young team,” King said. “It feels good because I wanted to go some where where I was going to get a chance to play early. Not until this year did people get a chance to see me play. I knew I could be a top prospect. “I committed early because I wanted to concentrate on my season and try to win the championship.” Watkins offered the possibility of play ing time to most of the new recruits be cause high-school players want the promise of early playing time once they en roll. The large roster turnover for the Ag gies in the last two years created a need for new contributors. “It happens that in the world we live in today, there is no delayed gratification,” Watkins said. “Freshmen are not happy when they’re not playing, and kids don’t want to waste their time. “But we’re on solid ground. The bonus is we have a lot of open spots.” Andy Slocum is another freshman who will fight for playing time next season. Re cruiting analyst Bob Gibbons ranks him as the 88th best high-school player in the country. Slocum, from West Monroe, La., was persistently pursued by Utah, Auburn and Florida State University, among oth ers, before signing with the Aggies. Slocum and King are just the latest names added to a long list of blue-chip re cruits from Louisiana who Watkins has re cruited. While at UNC-C, he signed Kelvin Price (New Iberia), Kedric Smith (Alexandria) and Charles Heyward (Alexandria). Each player went on to become significant fac tors in UNC-C’s last three NCAA Tourna- Current players ones most affected by arrival of new recruits on campus BY JEFF WEBB The Battalion Texas A&M Men’s Basketball coach Melvin Watkins signed one of the na tion’s top 15 recruiting classes, but it might have come at the expense of some Aggie players. Guard T.J. Brown will not play bas ketball for the Aggies during the 1999- 2000 season because he was not cleared medically to play by team trainer Mike Ricke. Brown tore his anterior cruciate ligament during his freshman season and suffered another injury last year. However, Brown’s personal doctor said he was healthy enough to continue his career. “The doctor that performed my surgery said that my bone would heal 100 percent,” Brown said. “Mike Ricke ex amined me and wouldn’t clear me to play. At the end of the year, we had our individual meetings with Coach Watkins, and he told me that I could stay on med ical or transfer and play, but I couldn’t play next year. 1 thought that was kind of bizarre. ” Watkins said Brown could not pass his physical, but he will remain on scholar ship until he graduates. Watkins offered Brown his scholarship release to transfer, but Brown said he would not leave A&M at the moment. “I considered it for a while, but [A&M is] like my home now,” Brown said. “I don’t adapt to change well.” Change has been the one constant for the men’s basketball program since Tony Barone was reassigned during the spring of 1998. Of the 12 players on the Aggies’ roster at the start of the 1997, only two remain on this year’s roster. Three completed their basketball eli gibility and left with a degree and anoth er two, Dario Quesada and Calvin Davis, quit the team after back injuries made it impossible for them to play. However, a large number of the play ers transferred were dismissed or quit the team. John McFall, Brown’s high-school coach in Olathe, Kan., had many players who went on to Division I college pro grams. McFall’s son, Brett, plays basket ball at the University of Wyoming. He said the exodus of players from the A&M program is a sign of the times of col lege basketball. see Current on Page 4. ment appearances, although Heyward lost time after being diagnosed with leukemia two years ago. “I don’t know that I have connections,” Watkins said, “but I have worked that state in the past. When I got to the state of Texas, I found that a lot of kids were excited about A&M.” Assistant coach Bobby Kummer played for Watkins for four years at UNC-C before see Recruits on Page 4. ' ou ’ re “ ile often ding is «time, ng backf° [l j ,re efficient J save conn Lawrence Phillips’ return to NFL shows people eed only money, athletic ability to succeed Ryan GARCIA verything anyone needs to know about u.- life can be learned p ensuF- from the National Foot- p „J> a11 Le a g ue. ■rnative e M if life manages to sack sand cun | you, c j ust yourself off and J|et back up again. Oppor- d sqentijPMunities are created — ,menonUMhey are not just the result t W e aredumb luck. Finally, al- Mvays take advantage of •oblems^whatever you can when dealing with a guy y falls on ■he size of Randy Moss. tnsumet 5 ' 1 ' Even now in the preseason, as the scram- „ ale to begin NFL training camps ensues, e utility iootball fans are still being educated. This dobale 11 '' 11 ;; month’s lesson: No matter how bad a person liable,”you are, athletic ability ensures you millions at dollars. This valuable lesson was provided by the z /rfjP‘"BSan Francisco 49ers and its general manager Bill Walsh, who signed troubled running back Lawrence Phillips to a two-year deal this month, worth an undeserved $1.75 mil lion, including a $425,000 signing bonus. Phillips could earn even more through in centives. Phillips, who Aggies may remember as the explosive Nebraska running back who made headlines with his suspension for as saulting a former girlfriend, became even more notorious in the NFL after being draft ed by the St. Louis Rams with the sixth over all pick in 1996. As a Ram, Phillips was arrested three times in a period of 19 months before being released by coach Dick Vermeil who cited Phillips’ excessive tardiness to numerous practices and overall lack of discipline as the main reasons. In addition, Phillips’ lackluster on-the- field performance wasn’t exactly setting the NFL on fire. Despite an already horrid track record, Miami Dolphins’ coach Jimmy Johnson gave Phillips a second chance only to release him four weeks later after an incident in which he allegedly struck a woman who refused to dance with him in a nightclub. With a hitting streak like his, Phillips should have pursued a baseball career rather than toil away in the NFL. Finally, with no options left, Phillips was relegated to NFL Europe, an overseas devel opmental and last-chance league for the NFL. Amid talent that couldn’t compete in the Big 12 Conference, Phillips finally managed to compile decent numbers, setting single season records with 1,021 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns. With an overrated NFL Europe perfor mance, Phillips’ big break came when San see Phillips on Page 4. MARK MCPHERSON/The Battalion