By Danny Horne staff reporter Members of the Lady Frogs basketball team said a letdown against Texas-El Paso tonight is not an option. "We need to step up our game for the rest of the season starting with tonight, so consistency is our only option," junior guard Diamond Jackson said. UTEP (5-16, 2-7 Western Athletic Conference) comes to Fort Worth having lost six of eight and sporting an 0-7 record on the road this season. The Lady Frogs won the first meeting with the Minors Jan. 22 in El Paso 66-59. TCU head coach Jeff Mittie said his team will not look past the Minors, despite UTEP's struggling play. "UTEP has some good players who have proven they can play," Mittie said. "They have had problems with injuries with (freshman forward Heidi) Walker going down, but she is back and playing consistently again, so (UTEP) is a better team since we last played them." Walker has teamed up with freshman center Amy Pack to create a one-two punch for the Minors. Pack (15.9 points) is second in scoring in the WAC this season, and Walker (15.7 points) follows her in third. However, the 32 points they average between them is not too far from the 53 points UTEP averages as a team. The Minors have the lowest scoring offense in the conference, coupled with a seventh-ranked defense that allows 68 points a game. "(UTEP) has had some struggles with scoring this season outside of Pack and Walker, but we cannot just focus on those two players," Mittie said. Mittie said the Lady Frogs want to pressure the guards to help keep them from getting any offensive rhythm. The Minors commit an average of 23 turnovers a game. "We want to make their guards work hard to get the ball up the floor," Jackson said. "We feel that if we can keep the pressure on them, the flow of the game will work out for us." TCU returns home where it owns a 10-5 record. With a win against UTEP, Mittie will tie former women's basketball coach Ken Davis for the most wins by a first-year women's basketball coach at TCU. Junior forward Janice Thomas said the team looks forward to getting its coach the record win and is much more comfortable at home in front of the TCU fans. Thomas said the Lady Frogs are especially glad to be back after the long trip out west. "The trip to Hawaii and San Jose was tiring, but we feel like we are ready to play because we have had good practices, and we enjoy playing at home," Thomas said. Mittie said the team's offense has been more effective at home throughout the season. "We have put up more points on our home court this year, which looks good for us down the stretch, since we play three of our last four at home," Mittie said. The Lady Frogs have averaged 79 points a game at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum, while scoring just 62 points a game on the road. "We really need to step up our game down the stretch, and we play very well at home, so these teams need to be ready to play when they come in here," Jackson said. Jackson leads the Lady Frogs in scoring this season with a 13.3 average. Thomas has six double-doubles this season and is fourth in the WAC in rebounding, averaging 7.7 a game. Junior guard Jill Sutton and sophomore guard Tricia Payne combine to score 20 points a game. "I think we are starting to play our best basketball, and all coaches want their teams playing their best at the end of the season, so I look for us to finish strong in conference," Mittie said. The Lady Frogs will start at 7 p.m. tonight at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.
Danny Horne
By Danny Horne staff reporter First-year TCU women's basketball head coach Jeff Mittie said setting records was not the first thing on his mind when he got to TCU the day before class started last fall. "This season has been gratifying for all of us because we have had so little time to get to know each other," Mittie said. "Usually, you would get this job in the spring and have time to learn everyone, but that was not the case with this. The job opened up late, and I accepted it late, so it has been a challenge getting everyone on the same page." Athletic Director Eric Hyman said he has been pleased with the performance of the women's basketball team under Mittie. "Coach Mittie has done a marvelous job with this team," Hyman said. "It is really more amazing when you think about the time he had to work with and get to know the team." Mittie has guided the Lady Frogs to a 13-12 overall record in his first season as head coach with four conference games remaining before the Western Athletic Conference tournament. The record for wins by a first-year head coach is 14 held by Ken Davis in the 1979-80 season.
The Lady Frogs have had a winning season since joining Division I. That was last year's 16-12 campaign under Mike Petersen. The transition for players and coaches has also been an issue for the Lady Frogs basketball program this season, Mittie said. "Anytime you have a coaching change, the players must embrace the new style," Mittie said. "The team has been great at embracing it, but the transition has been difficult at times." Junior guard Diamond Jackson said transition was not too bad because most of the team liked the style of play that Mittie brought to TCU. "It was frustrating learning a new style at first," Jackson said. "But his style allows us to play a more freelance style of basketball which is more fun." Jackson compared the transition to a marriage. "When you have a parent who gets remarried, you must adjust to the new parent," Jackson said. "The adjustment we have all had to make has been just like that - probably smoother." Junior forward Janice Thomas came to TCU as a transfer this season and was expecting to play under Petersen. She said she initially had her doubts about a different coach but has since become comfortable with Mittie's style and looks forward to the future. Mittie came to TCU from Missouri Western and Arkansas State. In those eight seasons, Mittie compiled a 151-59 record. However, Mittie said coaching basketball was not the original plan. "When I started at Missouri Western, I was handed my duties, and they included being the assistant women's basketball coach as well as the assistant baseball coach. I wanted to coach baseball, so I was a little surprised to be coaching basketball," Mittie said. "I stepped in as head basketball coach there the next season and have not looked back. I have never been one to look back." Mittie would not speculate on the future success of the program. He said he would rather discuss the success that is ahead for the rest of this season. "As a coach, I look forward to having a normal off-season and pre-season," Mittie said. "I think that will give the whole team a better understanding of what the expectations will be. The focus will always be on getting better as a basketball team." With three games at home in the next two weeks, Mittie could set the record Feb. 19 against Fresno State.
Danny Horne
In the name of science, and possibly in dishonor of Black History Month, Sports Illustrated recently bestowed a glowing review on Jon Entine's book, "TABOO: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We're Afraid to Talk about It." Obviously, the title of the book explains its premise. Sports Illustrated book reviewer S.L. Price referred to the book as a "balanced, well-reasoned and - above all - calm examination" of the supposed black domination of high-profile sports such as basketball, football and Olympic track. Price goes on to say that the relative lack of research on this subject is "almost embarrassing." No, actually it's quite the opposite. Why is this an issue that demands extensive research, and why do black people have to be superior athletes? If black people are naturally gifted athletes, doesn't it stand to reason that they are also presumed to be naturally inferior at certain things? Like intelligence. Don't think so? Read the "Bell Curve." Read up on Darwinism. Read "Mein Kampf." This isn't a new argument, just the same old stuff in new packaging. Alvin Poussaint, faculty associate dean for student affairs at Harvard Medical School, once said, "Throughout the years of discrimination, blacks began to see sport as survival. You do what you've been trained to do. But along the way, the traits which made (them) able to excel at sports - mental acuity, mental concentration, mental toughness, work ethic - the very traits which blacks weren't supposed to have, now those traits are given little or no credence." Indeed. The argument used to be that black people wouldn't work hard enough or have the brain power to excel athletically. Of course, before the second half of the 20th century, athletic success was based strictly on these qualities. Now sports are dominated by black athletes who seemingly can run, jump and tackle minutes removed from the womb, so, accordingly, mental adroitness no longer figures into the computation. I guess Babe Ruth, Joe Montana, Jerry West, Ted Williams, Steve Young, John Stockton, Lance Armstrong, Pete Sampras, Mark Spitz, Dick Butkus, Bruce Jenner and countless others had not a modicum of athletic ability, huh? Or, as writer Ralph Wiley once noted: "Did attitudes change when America noticed most athletic heroes were black?" n I know the recent murder cases involving Ray Lewis and Rae Carruth haven't done much to disavow the theory that high-caliber athletes are somehow more prone to violence, but whatever happened to "innocent before proven guilty"? Carruth's future does look bleak, but since when did you get to be charged with first-degree murder without actually being accused of killing someone? Fulton County (Georgia) law authorities have never come close to accusing Lewis of plunging a knife into anyone. As near as I can tell, Lewis is standing trial for a bad choice of friends. Doesn't that put us all at risk?
Opinion Editor Joel Anderson is a senior news-editorial
journalism major from Missouri City, Texas. |
"I don't really think about that record too much because
I was handed a very talented team," Mittie said. "I got the team
when it was in much better shape than it was for other first-year coaches."| The TCU Daily Skiff © 1998, 1999 Credits |