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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
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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.
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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
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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.
See Basketball on page 7
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