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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 14, 2015)
CELEBRATE AGGIE STUDENT EMPLOYEES NATIONAL STUDENT EMPLOYMENT WEEK APRIL 13-17, 2015 SPORTS The Battalion I 4.14.15 Sponsored by the Student Employment Office within Scholarships & Financial Aid, this week-long celebration is dedicated to showing appreciation for the contributions made by Texas A&M student employees to both the University and the surrounding community. Stop by the NSEW tables and visit the Student Employment Staff. We will have games, free promo items, prizes, recognition of the Student Employee of the Year nominees, and the Weirdest Job nominees on display! Play games to WIN PRIZES! Monday, APRIL 13 th from 10am t* 2 pm @ East Side Evans Library Breezeway Tuesday, APRIL 1 4th from 10am to 2pm @ East Side Evans Library Breezeway If you have a job, you will want to register at our tables for HUGE drawings. We have prizes donated by area businesses including free food, gift cards, and more! Drawings will be pulled on Friday and winners will be notified the following week. ) -bn Rec Sports is ■ 'mu;: IRIIN i Applications are available online at recsports,tanm»e<ly Applications will be accepted in Rec Center room 202 throughout Spring and Summer 2015. Applicants must participate in a skills screening on one of the following dates: April 21st at 7pm or April 29th at 7pm (Additional skills screening dates wifi be added as needed) AppSic t > and First Aid for eatptofm currently certified in Uf ie American Rod Cress t FB/AEB for the Proles orsosolo u llfllli l Hill For more details, contact: mu.edu, e mdantism@rec.tamu.edu, choney@rec.tamu.edu or eshannon@rec.tamu.edu FLY RST CLASS /flU vd t Feel the need to speed through some required courses? Sign up for summer classes at any Alamo College - on-campus or online. Tuition's tiny, courses are first class, and credits are fully transferable. Result: you land back at Texas A&M University that much closer to graduation or ready to take more advanced classes in your major. Lots of required courses? Stay an extra semester to learn and save even more. Start now at alamo.edu. ALAMO COLLEGES □are to Dream. Prepare to Lead. NORTHEAST LAKEVIEW COLLEGEi NORTHWEST VISTA COLLEGE ■■■■■ PALO ALTO C O L L E G E SAN ANTONIO COLLEGE ■»«■■■■■■■ ST. PHILIP'S C O L L E G E 11 Deandre Jordan Donald Sloan PROVIDED Khris Middleton Trio of former A&M hoops stars set to take pro basketball’s biggest stage By Carter Karels March Madness may be over, but basketball certainly isn’t. With the NBA playofls starting Saturday, a handful of teams are still battling for a bid, while few have the luxury of coasting and rest ing until the weekend. And though A&M hasn’t made the NCAA tourna ment in recent years, a handful of Aggies could factor into the NBA cham-. pionship hunt — Deandre Jordan (Clippers), Donald Sloan (Pacers) and Khris Middleton (Bucks). Jordan, who played with the Aggies for just one year in the 2007-08 season, is producing his best year, especially on the defensive side. While free throws are his demise, Jordan takes ad vantage with his length and boasts the highest field goal percentage in the NBA at .709, while second place shoots just .575. He ranks fourth in double-doubles, and averages 11.4 points per game while grabbing 14.9 rebounds, which leads the league. The center, who is in a contract season for the Clip pers, the Western Confer ence’s third-seed, has many convinced that he will win the Defensive Player of the Year, including his head coach, Doc Rivers. “If anybody else gets that award, we need to have an investigation,” Rivers said at a press conference. The Pacers (37-43) need ed a point guard to pick up the slack after George Hill and Paul George missed time with injuries, so Sloan saw lots of playing time early in the season. He averages 7.7 points and 3.7 assists. Since George’s return, the Pacers have mustered a run that could very well send them to Atlanta Saturday. The team is tied for eighth place, while the Hawks are the definite 1-seed. In head coach Jason Kidd’s first year with the Bucks (40-40), he already has them set as the 6-seed in the playoffs, and they will most likely face either the Toronto Raptors or the Chicago Bulls. The Bucks (40-40) haven’t won a playoff series since the 2000-2001 sea son, but Middleton could lift them over the hump. Middleton’s contract ends after this year, and he is a hot commodity in the eyes of many NBA teams, including the Bucks. Heads turn at the analytic numbers he posts, as Middleton ranks No. 8 in the NBA in real plus-minus. While it isn’t likely that any Aggies will face each other, there will be a much bigger Texas A&M presence in these playoffs than in re cent years. WALK-UP CONTINUED better I’m certainly all for whatever song they want,” Childress said. Although the players do the bulk of the work in selecting a walk-up song, the pro cess always goes through the public address announcer, Rick Hill, who has the final say. Hill is in his 23rd season as the public ad dress announcer, and said he likes the players to pick a song that motivates them. Hill said he likes all kinds of music, and he takes pride in making sure the songs played will appeal to as many fans as possible. When speaking to the players about what songs they should or should not pick, Hill said he is sure to re mind them that people of all ages come to Aggie baseball games. Hill said junior Matt Kent has been the “music guy” for the team. “Matt Kent and I work really close to gether,” Hill said. “People don’t know this but when they scrimmage in the fall. Matt Kent actually announces and runs the com- For a video montage of Aggie walk- ups, go to TX.AG/BATT36 puter and all that and he actually does a really good job.” Baseball at A&M is surrounded with su perstitions, whethe e rally-cap, bat ting stance rituals or not stepping on the foul line. Childress said walk-up songs play a similar roh. “Baseball, so much of it is superstition and, you know, if they’re playing well and things are going well for them and us you’d probably be hesi tant to change,” Childress said. Hill said it is not uncommon for him to make a change in a player’s song if they are not do ing particularly well, citing an example involving Nottebrok this season. “I actually made the decision on my own this year to go back to [Logan’s] last year’s song,” Hill said. “I think he got a hit that game [too]. Every once and a while I’ll make that call for them just to see if I can shake up the mojo.” The walk-up song is much like any other Aggie baseball tradition — there’s always more to the story. alamo.edu wePrImaJJ cfy&tA/ As you might expect, the people involved in developing new medicines wear lots of different hats. What you might not expect is that one of those hats could be one like you might wear. The professionals at PPD have been working with healthy volunteers - people like you - for almost thirty years. You can be compensated when you participate in a medically supervised research study to help evaluate a new Investigational medication at PPD. So when you volunteer to help create new medications at PPD, everybody wins. Learn how you can benefit while helping to improve life for all of us by volunteering at PPD. Go online or give us a call today for more information. You’ll find studies to fit most any schedule listed here weekly. 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