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Sports
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PATRIC SCHNEIDER/Tin Battalion
Bfandy Jones hustles after a ball headed out of bounds, while four Arkansas-Pine Bluff players stand and watch.
Bie Aggies dominated the Golden Lionnettes, winning by 30 in their first match in Reed Arena this season.
Women win by 30 over
Arkansas-Pine Bluff
By Brian Ruff
The Battalion
The Texas A&M women’s basketball team opened its
home season at Reed Arena Tuesday night with a 76-46
win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff (0-3). The Aggies (4-1) are
coming off an impressive finish in the Lady Tiger Tour
nament in Memphis this weekend.
The Aggies opened the game strong in the first half,
going on a 12-4 run and opening an 18-point lead mid
way through the first half. A&M was led in the first frame
by forward Jaynetta Saunders, who took all tournament
team honors last weekend in Memphis, averaging 19
points per game.
Saunders and the rest of the Aggies looked to be well
in control of the defensive side of the court, scoring 16
points off 22 turnovers by the Golden Lionettes in the first
20 minutes of play.
Lynn Classen, Sanders and Brandy Jones each had
three steals, giving the Aggies fast break chances through
out the half. With less than a minute left in the first half,
Jones showed the team's extraordinary hustle and creat
ed yet another scoring chance for the Aggies. After a steal,
Jones moved the ball down the court, got her own re
bound, saved the ball from going out of bounds, and then
sunk a three-pointer from the corner of the court. At the
end of the first, the Aggies looked to be well in control
with a 40-22 lead.
In the second half, the Aggies did not let up on the
Arkansas-Pine Bluff squad, and extended their lead over
the Lionettes, not allowing Pine Bluff to score until three
minutes had gone by in the half.
Forward Meg Banahan led the Aggies in the half with
eight points and six rebounds. With nine minutes left in
the game, the Aggies took their biggest lead when guard
Chereny Woodard, one of five true freshman on the squad,
sunk a free throw to give the Aggies a 32-point margin
over the Lionettes.
In the second half, when the Aggies were controlling
the Lionnettes, the bench got some well-needed playing
time and came through with 25 points, including 15
points by the five true freshmen on the team. The Aggies
continued to score easily against the Pine Bluff team, and
the Lionettes did not get closer than the team’s 20-point
halftime deficit.
Despite the 30-point victory, the Aggies shot only 43
percent from the free-throw line, less than the team’s av
erage for the first three games of the year.
PATRIC SCHNEIDER/Tnii Battalion
Toccara Williams had a trio of steals in the Aggies'
76-46 win against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. The win im
proves A&M's record to 4-1 this season.
All but one of the Aggies on the squad had less than
10 minutes of playing time in the game.
“You’ve got to have games like this,” said coach Peg
gie Gillom. “It is really good for the freshman. They get
a lot of experience, a lot more than the games they are on
the bench and we are really glad they are getting to play.”
The team created a Reed Arena record 34 turnovers in
the game.
“As long as we do what they (the coaches) tell us to do,
then we knew we would get our steals,” Saunders said.
The Aggies will take on Texas-San Antonio at Reed
Arena on Friday.
&M men conclude three game homestand
iggies have chance to reclaim .500 record against Morris Brown
|y Jason Lincoln
\he Battalion
Morris Brown bears a striking resemblance to
be Birmingham-Southern team that beat A&M,
■4-54, Sunday night.
I Both are first year Division I programs coming
■ut of the SI AC. The difference is-Morris Brown
Bready has its first two Division I wins, while
Birmingham-Southern did not get a win until play-
fig the Aggies.
But Morris Brown offers A&M the perfect op
portunity to rebound after a performance that near-
brought A&M coach Melvin Watkins to a boil.
A&M shot less than 30 percent in what Watkins
ould later admit was a performance just like
&M’s practices.
The Aggie coaching staff has intensified the
tnactice environment since then. A&M’s injury
voes are no longer an excuse.
Wednesday will be A&M’s first chance to
)rove the new attitude on the court.
“It’s a must-effort performance,” Watkins said.
“Otherwise, we haven’t accomplished anything.
It should be a different basketball team on the
floor come Wednesday night than we saw in our
last outing.”
The Aggies have one player
who is taking over much of the
scoring duties this season —
Carlton Brown.
Brown leads the team with an
average of 14 points per game
this season, and his 5.3 rebounds
are second on the squad.
Sunday, he was the only
starter to score in double figures.
One of two seniors on a squad with just three
upperclassmen, Brown should, without question,
be a leader.
“Carlton is quiet and kind of an introverted per
son,” Watkins said. “We need Carlton to be a little bit
more vocal and bring that type of thing to the team.
“We’re a team without a soul right now. It’s
tough. And every good team that I have been as
sociated with has always had that core player to be
BROWN
the guy. We just don’t have that right now. Carlton
and Aaron Jack are the captains. We need it from
our seniors.”
Jack has recently returned to the court following
a concussion that sidelined him for nearly a month.
With so much of the team’s performance com
ing from underclassmen, the Aggies are still
searching for leadership.
Another on-court performer has been missing for
most of the season. Sophomore forward Tomas Ress
has been sidelined after developing a staph-infec
tion after an appendectomy earlier this fall. Ress lost
close to 30 pounds while spending close to two
weeks in the hospital. Afterwards he was put on in
travenous antibiotics for another three. But doctors
have cleared him to return to the court this week.
Wednesday, Watkins’ will be looking for
change, just as much as he wants a win.
“What 1 hope will happen is that we will look
back on this and say it was a turning point in this
season. It wouldn’t be a crisis, but something that
we surely got a lot out of and we don’t always want
to lose in order to learn things.”
CODY WAGES/The Battalion
Jamaal Gilchrist played just one half in the Aggies loss to Birmingham-
Southern while the back-up point guard Andy Leatherman took over.
Panel addresses ‘winning first, learning second’ attitude in college
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Joseph Whitt, a former Auburn
wide receiver, says he practiced
football four hours a day during
college and never had a meaning
ful conversation with anyone about
his studies.
In too many powerhouse pro
grams, coaches and players told a
panel Tuesday, the academic goal is
not to earn a degree but to stay eli-
I gible to play.
“They tell you to go to class, to
concentrate on studies,” said Whitt,
a communications and business ma
jor who is heading for a coaching
career instead of the NFL when he
graduates next summer. “When it
comes down to it, it’s just about el
igibility.”
Whitt said he had teammates
who never took a test in high
school, but were sure their athletic
skills would get them into college
and carry them into the pros: “We
owe them more than just four years
of football and basketball.”
He told a panel of college offi
cials: “If you are going to get these
kids to further your career, you
should help them along with their
careers.”
The 28-member Knight Com
mission met for a third time this
year, focusing on the millions of
dollars sports earn for colleges and
the toll that takes on student learn
ing and university reputations.
The commission, created by the
John S. and James L. Knight Foun
dation to find ways to combat prob
lems facing college athletic pro
grams, including cutthroat reemiting,
gambling and questionable courses,
began in 1990. In 1996, the NCAA
adopted a package of reforms it had
recommended.
The panel reconvened in the
summer after the NCAA, college
sports regulators, found they were
unable to reform errant schools.
University presidents, though
given more power to set the rules,
were hindered by trustees and fans
in carrying them out eVen as they
were starting to balk at the tarnish
“They tell you to
go to class, to
concentrate on
studies. When it
comes down to
it, it's just about
eligibility ”
— Joseph Whitt
Former Auburn wide receiver
to their academic reputations.
Figures released last week show
that only 48 percent of college foot
ball players are graduating, the low
est rate in 15 years. Rates for other
sports stayed the same or increased
slightly.
“We’re hearing about Mickey
Mouse courses and majoring in el
igibility,” said panelist Creed
Black, former president of the
Knight Foundation.
College players said Tuesday
they needed tutors, counselors and
freedom from oppressive practice
schedules to make the grade. Oth
erwise, they said, they are left with
out the security of a meaningful de
gree.
“It’s not good enough for ath
letes to just to be on the court, you
have to produce,” said Cathy Joens,
a top-scoring sophomore on the
George Washington women’s bas
ketball team.
A premed major who balances
physics, biology and American lit
erature with three-hour practice
sessions and weekly travel, Joens
said she is missing classes and get
ting lecture notes “second or third
hand from a friend down the hall.”
“It takes away from the learning
process,” she said
Their mentors blamed the situa
tion on market forces that drive out
athletic officials and coaches who
may produce graduates but not win
ning seasons.
“We’re teachers first,” said Gene
Keady, who credits strong universi
ty backing for his long basketball
coaching career at Purdue. “If stu
dent athletes are not at college to get
their education first, they are there
for the wrong reasons.”
With the promise of commercial
contracts and early departures for
pro teams, the pressure on college
athletes is only going to increase,
said Peg Bradley-Doppes, athletic
director of North Carolina-Wilm-
ington.
Re-examining the problem now
is “like a needed timeout,” she said.
“Let’s take a drink of water, take a
deep breath and come out swinging
again.”
Panel members, many of them
college presidents, also lamented
the public pressure to win and pro
duce future athletic stars.
“We shouldn’t be in the business
of being a farm team for the NFL,”
said Iowa president Mary Sue Cole
man, who asked Whitt, one of sev
eral witnesses, whether he ever sat
down with someone at Auburn to
chart his academic career.
“Have you ever had a conversa
tion about your hopes and dreams,
about what you want in life?” she
asked.
“No,” he told her.
Knight Foundation president
Hodding Carter III said the group
would meet early next year before
issuing a final report.
No one is sure yet what the pan
el will recommend.
“At this point we still have a 1
clearer understanding of the prob- ;
lems than we do of the solutions,”
said Stanley Ikenberry, a commis-
sion member and president of the
American Council on Education.