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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 3, 2002)
__AGGlE[|] •E BaI'; Sports Ri^ht choice, wrong way The Battalion Page 5 • Tuesday, December 3, 2002 ead football coach deserved more respect from Gates, Texas A&M wpular arise ^ his laiesi ’roves hisunir. idge over 'Hun" by Nit nal Jesus" by fcrtul suaesi. iding love, artist doesni to prove lie's® nough medii last note stops -Denisi Dallas iShipp nve spa:; y our oxi) a friend I Texas A&M President Dr. Robert M Gates released a statement Monday announcing he had “reas signed” A&M football coach R.C. locum, relieving him of his head aching duties. No press conference was nounced, he gave the media no cess for questions and no answers as to why he did a 180-degree turn Concerning his support for Slocum. Slocum was bound to be fired after e season finish by the Aggies, but Jiis was not the way he should have ten treated after serving A&M for 30 Ears, the last 14 of which as head potball coach. Gates should not have released a ^liatement that he would wait for the liletic director to fire Slocum in the st place if he thought there was any lance he would have to make the wouldac:: move himself. eds and p Director of University Relations awly diajrs iynthia Lawson said Monday night :ouldturn | a t things had changed since that agisteredfJ |atement and Gates didn't feel it was he sitesfet |j r to the new athletic director to force him to make the move right after [assuming his new position as athletic director. J It isn’t fair to Slocum to claim full |upport one day and less than a month later give him the boot. Dde Island s ready risen Full support means just that: full support. If the situation changed, Gates should have supported Slocum through those changes. Whether Slocum should have been tired is not the issue. Slocum has led A&M to a bowl game in 1 1 of his pre vious 14 seasons and was bowl eligi ble again this season. He is also the sixth winningest active Division I coach, has more wins at A&M than any other coach in school history and has never had a losing season in his 13-year career at A&M. However, what he hasn’t done is deliver a national championship and with the quick successes of Bob Stoops at Oklahoma and Tyrone Willingham at Notre Dame, the heat is on coaches across the nation and Slocum was just the latest one to be fired. While this was a disappointing sea son for all of those involved in the football program, no one has expressed more disappointment than Slocum, who said he could not wait to get back to work and fix the problems the Aggies had this season. “We had a season where we lost several close games that could have gone either way and no one was more disappointed than me with our record,” Slocum said. “Although disappointed with Dr. Gates’ decision, I do rec ognize that the university has the right to decide who coaches the team.” Gates understandably has been under enormous pressure from alumni and donors to do something soon to keep the damage to the football pro gram to a minimum, especially in recruiting. But Slocum has done too much for A&M to be treated in this manner. He has been an excellent example of how to run a program with class and digni ty, even following his dismissal on Monday. Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations Alan Cannon said Monday that Slocum was adamant that he wanted to be the person that told his players the news. In that meeting, Slocum told the team that it is not the bad things that happen in life, but how you handle them. Slocum handled himself with dig nity and grace like he always has. It seems the only reason Gates made a statement at all last month was to get the media and alumni to cease the incredible volume of phone calls and e-mails that flooded his office fol lowing the loss to Oklahoma State. If he needed to release a statement, he should not have said that it would be up to the new athletic director. Gates should have simply said he was not going to make a decision at that time. When a major university such as A&M has a news story that will travel across the national media like this one. Gates has a responsibility to address the public, especially when it was his decision to bring down the ax on Slocum. Gates makes $300,000 a year and owes the public his time to answer questions about arguably his biggest decision yet as A&M’s president. JEFF SMITH • THE BATTALION R.l. (AP)- icent Cianciit to help estaN repositoi). prepares to es appcoiiiij aiser & e is an ant Cianci to ars. Previous sed scholar jdents. is papers vil scholars anil ablic opinion 74,000 ph- ersonal anil his adminis- Aggies take care of business JP BEATO III* THE BATTALION Jonior forward Jesse King reacts after dunking the ball over the Oakland lefense Monday night at Reed Arena. The Aggies won the game 71-65. By True Brown THE BATTALION Antoine Wright scored 21 points as the Texas A&M men’s basketball team came from six points down late in the second half to upend Oakland 71-65 at Reed Arena. Wright, who had 16 first-half points, scored five during the last 4:37 of the game, including two free throws that put the Aggies (3-1) in front for the first time since the 1 1:25 mark. “It was obvious they were going to try and get a guy to stay on me the whole sec ond half,” Wright said. “I expected them to do it, so I had to relax a little bit and tried to control myself.” Wright blistered the Grizzlies’ defense early and often in the opening half, prompting coach Greg Kampe to switch his team from a zone defense to a man-to man scheme. “We had the classic upset going,” Kampe said. “We think we know what you have to do to win in a place like this. Our man defense was outstanding.” Oakland’s plan to play Wright with tight defense worked for most of the sec ond half. Wright was held scoreless early and the Grizzlies chipped away at an 11- point A&M lead. Oakland (2-2) went on an 11-4 run and eventually took their first lead of the half after a basket by guard Mike Helms. Helms led all scorers with 31 points after a 13-of-21 shooting performance. “The last three minutes of the first half were big for us,” Kampe said. “At the five minute mark, we wanted a chance to win this thing and we were up four or five at that point.” Oakland’s bid at a win was almost suc cessful. The Aggies put the Grizzlies on the foul line 17 times in the second half, but Oakland managed to make just nine of its free throws. For the game, the Grizzlies made a lowly 52.2 percent of their foul shots. “They fouled the right guy in Jordan (Sabourin),” Kampe said. “He isn’t a very good free throw shooter. But then we got him out and (Shawn) Hopes, who’s a freshman, missed one and Helms missed one with 14 seconds to go.” Helms’ miss would have cut the Aggies lead to one and allowed Oakland the free dom to put A&M on the line and still have a chance to tie. A few seconds later, A&M guard Bradley Jackson extended A&M’s lead to four after connecting on two free throws. Junior forward Jesse King finished the game off with an emphatic two handed reverse jam after a steal at midcourt. After trading the lead seven times in the last four minutes of the game, guard Bernard King put the Aggies in front by three with 31 seconds left after getting fouled on a spinning, twisting left-handed layup. 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