NCAA W March Madness™ 2000 Tournament
Date: Thursday, March 30
Time: 5:00 PM
@ Duddley’s Draw
Are vou the Best???
Register to play and get FREE stuff.
(Games, T-shirts, etc.)
Signups begin at 4:15 PM.
Come and prove that you are the best player
at Texas A&M University.
The Final Tournament Winner takes home an
EA SPORTS prize package worth *300.
BEST SANDWICHES
IN TOWN!
For more EA SPORTS event info, contact Brian Wickham
694-7610 or b wick00hotmail.com
SPORTS
Page 12
THE BATTALION
Wednesday, Marti.'-
Women’s Final Four assembles in P
MSC TownHall Presents...
Coffeehouse
Free
Food
Free
Comedy
Free
Music
Open
Mic
Come and make a new friend.
Friday, March 31 st
Rumours Cafe at 7:00
(AP)—Nothing I ike going back home
to try to win a national championship.
Connecticut, Penn State, Tennessee
and Rutgers will assemble in Philadel
phia for the women's NCAA tournament
Final Four, and there is a strong Philly
flavor running throughout the group.
Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma
and Penn State’s Rene Portland both
grew up in Philadelphia. Vivian Stringer
of Rutgers once coached at Cheyney
State, which is just outside the city.
It will be homecoming from some
players as well. Penn State’s Andrea Gar
ner and Rashana Barnes, Rutgers’
Shavvnetta Stewart and Tennessee’s
Kristen Clement are Philly products.
Look for those personal cheering sec
tions to be a little larger and louder than
usual.
“We’ve been talking about it since
the beginning of the year, since last
year,” Garner said. “We knew it was in
Philly and we said we were going back
there. We had a lot of people behind us
thinking we could, too. We appreciate
that support. Philly, here we come.”
Penn State (30-4) will arrive full of
confidence after a dominating 86-65 vic
tory' over Louisiana Tech in the Midwest
Regional final.
The Lady Lions will need that confi
dence and more because they face No. 1 -
ranked Connecticut (34-1) in the nation
al semifinals on Friday night.
Connecticut has overwhelmed one
opponent after another with its depth and
talent, which includes first-team All-
Americans Shea Ralph and Svetlana
Abrosimova. And though LSU staved
with the Huskies for much of the game
before Connecticut prevailed 86-71 in
the East Regional, Tigers coach Sue
Gunter saw enough to declare, “I would
say they would have to be the prohibitive
favorite.”
Connecticut and Penn State have met
once before this season, the Huskies win
ning 87-74 on Dec. 5.
The Tennessee-Rutgers game sends
the coach who has more Final Four ap
pearances and national championships
against the first coach to take three
schools to the Final Four.
Tennessee coach Pat Summitt is in
the Final Four for the 12th time and is
seeking her seventh title. Stringer had Fi
nal Four teams at Cheyney and Iowa be
fore working her magic again at Rutgers,
a school she promised to make the “Jew
el of the East” when she was hired in
July 1995.
“She’s a phenomenal woman,” Rut
gers’ Linda Miles said. “She’s a coach
who gets you to buy into a philosophy of
defense.”
Rutgers (26-7), the West Regional
champion, will show up in Philadelphia
with a pesky matchup zone, which has
put the clamps on its last three oppo
nents. The Scarlet Knights gave up 39
points and then 45 before beating Geor
gia 59-51 to earn the school’s first Final
Four trip.
Tennessee (32-3) hopes it will have
All-American Tamika Catchings at full
strength to crack that zone. Catchings
sprained her right ankle in the Lady Vols’
57-44 Midwest Regional victory over
Texas Tech, and though she returned to
WOMEN'S I
First round Second round Regional* Semifinals
^SKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
National Semifinals Regionals Second round
s an m
man u
sts.
finish with 16 rebounds and six as:
sprains have a way of lingering.
It won’t just fall to Catchings, Sum
mitt said.
“They’ll have to play together,” she
said. “We’ll have to have excellent ball
movement and player movement. That’s
what we’ve been able to do a better job
of since probably late January, early Feb
ruary. We’ve learned to play the game
better together on the offensive end.”
After winning three straight national
titles, Tennessee lost in the regional fi
nals last year. That loss motivated this
team.
“We’re definitely not going to take
unany
fcstions sucl
Jsses should
low do I l oi
In?” “What
i to arrange
I?” and “W1
; can 1 he c
hthis majo
at a loss fo
:ause of un
One does r
\&M very
tmental ad
se faculty a
for granted the opportunity ofk: or knowlei
Philly,” Semeka Randall said. 1 do not ha\
Neither is Connecticut, \vi:« Aggies are
the national championship in l^Mwever, evei
turned to the Final Four in 1996k estions they
now is getting back again. DespiT
10 record over the last fburvears,D!|
rent Connecticut player has appe th teaching
a Final Four.
“You’re just glad when it\wt out various
istrations ar
for them because there are a la
in this country, as there are inottei often expi
tries, who make sacrifices and uotii ademic adv
and don’t get an opportunity to dos StM, it is di
Auriemma said. “So when it v
you’re really, really happy forte
stakes plain
y rely on ai
Upon liste:
Advisers
rience difte
Ificult the ta
Scheduling
hot topic at
NFL meeting
irious probl
Questions
time advise
'e paperworl
tdents. Wha
sers must fil
busy to as:
be helping?
Many dep.
bid administr
PALM BFACH, Fla. (AP)-! lent head. Th
owners have dropped plans for March or be re
games between natural rivals ftl the Uni vers
49ers and Raiders, Giants and Jel'.l
cancers and Dolphins.
The league also is making
progress this week on realigning:;
teams w hen the new Houston ft
joins the NFL for the 2002 seasonl
Realignment has been one o]
league’s thorniest problems. Those
were around for the last major reshi
— the AFL-NFL merger in
call the difficulties.
“The hardest thing I’ve doneij
years in the league,” Baltimore
Art Model I says.
This realignment, which is
to be finished by June 1,2001, mil
be as difficult.
Houston, which lost the Oilerstcfllove Story”
nessee after the 1996 season, will rwe pollution
back in tlie AFC. That will givetheARlt Love Canal
teams, requiring one team to movetat work. Since
I Gore
who s
^.hande
Jrought you
pt, was the pi
puree for the
NFC. Tlie strongest candidate isSeaiii
But the only thing being disc®
this week is the scheduling formatfod
new lineup, which will include;; 3pick up his
four-team divisions.
The most likely plan is one prop®
by Pittsburgh owner Dan Rooney,
!ai upaign firm
Unfortu
tantamount
It would include home-and-te bn a popular
ater to veget
es of camp?
games within each division,
plus four games against teams inac|ui
sion within the conference and It
games against teams in a division^:
other conference.
Some owners wanted the extra:' la jg n f lnancc
games to be natural geographic rival’* (would be hi
which could be played annually,! rack records
there aren’t enough of them to male;: | 0ss j^| v , ;
practical. Wliat AFC team, forexairf nore uj.^
would be a natural rival for Green8?
Rooney said Tuesday the otkii 5.
? or Ph himsel
games probably would be based lasttlu^
-rais
ant ly illegal,
ions during tl
lret he primar
,r usade for re
By now, ml
plans would keep several divisions^ ioq^ 111 ( ' K)r
as they are now. , or a fun
The NFC Fast, for example, mosti
ly will keep Dallas, Philadelphia,fe 4
ington and the New York Giants
schedule strength, similar to thee®*
fonnat. That means the first-places
in a division would play first-placet®
from other divisions, second-placet®
would play second-place teams ands’
As for realignment, the mostpof* 1
dropping Arizona. The Cardinals atf atlons from
happy with that, but that’s to be expee
‘There are going to be hurt feel?
however you do it,” said Tampa? iyna is, which
coach Tony Dungy, whose team & a .
find itself in an NFC Southeast on' J 513 - arranger
with Carolina, New Orleans and AtL
“But you develop new rivalries?
a couple of years when you play W ^d it to the
year and are contending for a title 1 ’; ^ her hard
them. Time changes everything.! ear s in feder;
wouldn’t remember that Cleveland”-
once in the NFC.”
Dungy’s main problem with the? Pfr saying tb
is tiebreakers.
“Under this proposal, you maQ
competing for a wild-card berth'- rea ch” usuall
someone you haven’t played and' 1
hasn’t even played any teams ince
mon. What do you do then?” he ask®
darch 7 depa
Valker (S'
pore—the p<
^ a t fits Gore
*t is “liar.”
If Gore’s a
'nance guru t
la( l taken vov
itowgave $1
lection
i camp
fore illegal tc
Vldl ialsthatai
The coord
lrom agents o
given” to
l w
Gore has c
a jything illeg
“‘ty Outreach
President cou
8'ves
money
Wa y around.
The Wash