GUY ROGERS/Thi Battalion
'"txas A&M senior forward Jerald Brown goes up for a rebound against the
niv* rsity of Kansas Monday night at Reed Arena.
<8 m
SPORTS
THE BATTALION Page9
Aggies host 12th-ranked Cowboys
BY JASON LINCOLN
The Battalion
With a full four days between games, the Texas
A&M men’s basketball team had plenty of time to
recuperate from a loss to No. 8 University of Kansas.
With the break behind them the Aggies prepare for
their fourth Top 20 opponent in only its fifth confer
ence game.
The young Aggie squad will face one of its tough
est battles yet Saturday, as they go up against the vet
eran squad of the 12th-ranked Oklahoma State Uni
versity Cowboys.
“They are a veteran team, that’s for certain...,”
A&M men’s basketball coach Melvin Watkins said.
“Their number one strength is experience.”
With six returning seniors that have a combined
14 seasons of experience, the Cowboys have the
knowledge and expertise at each position to domi
nate the Aggie freshmen.
Leading Oklahoma State is senior forward
Desmond Mason who is averaging over 18 points
and seven rebounds per game. Mason is also com
ing off a 30-point night in the Cowboys win over No.
14 University of Texas on Wednesday.
Oklahoma State senior Brian Montonati has also
been making strides inside during the conference
season averaging 13 points-per-game.
The key for the Aggies will come from the
guards. Oklahoma State’s aggressive inside game
plays right into the strength of A&M’s perimeter
play. Matched up against veteran point guard Doug
Gotlieb and shooting guard Joe Adkins, Aggie fresh
men Jamaal Gilchrist and Bernard King will have a
challenge to capitalize on OSU’s weakness.
“Just like always, we have to make sure we value
the basketball,” Watkins said. “One good thing for us
is that they don’t tend to pressure the passing lanes
and that is one thing we’ve had trouble w ith. On the
other hand, they get very stingy when you get in close
and they don’t let you get good looks at the basket.
“Our main key is to try' and get a good shot every
time down the floor and not turn the ball over. It re
ally plays to the strength of our guards w hen we’re
not pressured so much. It helps us out and doesn’t
wear us down.”
In 1999 conference action, Oklahoma State and
A&M made for an exciting matchup. The Aggies
lost both season matchups against the ranked Cow
boys, but would battle OSU to the finish, losing by
only five in each game.
“We did a pretty good job of matching up with
them last year,” Watkins said. “Both games were pret
ty competitive, we positioned ourselves to have a
chance to win and we just came up a little short each
time. Hopefully, we’ll go into this game with some
confidence from last year, knowing that if we play
good basketball, we have a chance to beat this team.”
In the previous match-ups fatigue has been the
biggest factor in the Aggies downfall.
In home-court losses to UT and KU, Texas A&M
has played right w ith their ranked opponents for the
first half and the beginning of the second, before be
ing outlasted by opponents w ith deeper benches and
more experience.
“1 think we’ve played for spurts, if we can man
ufacture that for a little longer than twenty minutes,
we like our chances.”
That is just what the Aggies did in their one con
ference w in. Texas A&M kept Texas Tech Universi
ty within striking distance last Saturday, enabling
Andy Leatherman to win the game with a last sec
ond bucket.
The Aggies also hope to capitalize on a strong
home court advantage at Reed Arena. In A&M’s loss
to the Jayhawks on national television, the Aggies
See Cowboys oh Page 10.
Ags head to Nebraska A&M men ’ s and women’s swim
BY REECE FLOOD not think A&M is being outmatched by teams face off against Jayhawks
BY REECE FLOOD
The Battalion
her sdHThe Texas A&M women's basket
ed. bal1 team will try to earn its second
20 co. Big 12 Conference w in of the season
when it travels to Lincoln, Neb. to-
\is\ morrow for a 7 p.m. showdown
■ kr against the University of Nebraska
inte Cftmhuskers (2-2,8-7).
g BariHThe Aggies (1-4, 9-6) started the
‘ ’ r-SMson off with a bang when they tal
lied a 8-2 non-conference record and
- ; ■ went on to win their first conference
game against Baylor University.
KfWBBut things started going dow nhill
1 'Wt when they lost the next four games
to Oklahoma State University, the
ii.University of Oklahoma, Kansas
'C3l' ; State University, and the University
j-.fOf Colorado.
•^mHCoach Peggy Gillom said she does
not think A&M is being outmatched by
superior teams, it is simply not execut
ing to the level it is capable of.
“We’ve scouted the other teams
very well and we tend to get their
plays and do whatever,” Gillom said.
“But we haven't been doing our thing
very well.”
The “thing” the Aggies hope to do
tomorrow night is to take advantage of
Nebraska’s weaker supporting cast.
“I don’t think they have as strong a
bench as they’ve had in the past,”
Gillom said. “We’re hoping that our
bench can come out and out-produce
their bench.”
In order for that to happen, the Aggies
w ill have to improve on putting points on
the board. In their last game against Col
orado, the Aggies only managed to make
See Nebraska on Page 10.
BY BLAINE DIONNE
The Battalion
Y2K has been good to the Texas A&M
men’s and women’s swimming teams. The
15th-ranked men and the 22nd-ranked women
began the new millennium w ith first-place fin
ishes at their meet in Boca Raton, Fla., beat
ing the University of Nebraska, Florida At
lantic University and the University of
Nevada-Las Vegas.
The men went on to place third in their
next meet, the annual Dallas Morning News
Invitational.
“Our guys were ready to swim,” assistant
men’s coach Jay Holmes said. “At the Dallas
Morning News meet last weekend every team
there was ranked in the top twenty, and we
wound up getting third up there, so we were re
ally good in places.”
The areas in w hich the Aggies did well did
not appear until the second day of the Invita
tional, when they were in danger of finishing
fifth in the final standings.
The 400-yard freestyle relay team of Scott
Taylor. I’rik Toth. Riley Janes and David Mor
row' made sure that would not happen, taking
first place with a time of3:00.42.
Morrow then raced to an individual first
place in the 100-yard freestyle, beating the com
petition by seven-tenths of a second with a time
of 44.49. Janes took second place in the 200-
yard backstroke in 1:49.57, and Patrick
Kennedy took first place in the consolation heat
of the 200-yard back, clocking a time of
1:53.54.
In the diving portion of the meet, Jesse Even
placed fourth in the three-meter springboard.
Holmes said Morrow 's first-place finish
es helped solidify his status as one of the
See Swim on Page W.
*7,
RLE PHOTOA'iu Battalion
The Texas A&M men’s and women’s swimming teams
host the University of Kansas Jayhawks Saturday.
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