By Chris Harrison staff reporter The wind was blowing, and the competition was as good as any that the Horned Frogs have played this season, men's head golf coach Bill Montigel said. The TCU men's golf team shot a total of 913 to finish 12th place at the Morris Williams Intercollegiate in Austin last weekend. "I think we could have done a little better," Montigel said. "We played very poor the first round, but all things considered, I thought we played really well the final two rounds." Brigham Young University led the tournament after the first two rounds and had to face the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in a playoff to win the overall title. Both the Cougars and the Rebels shot an 881. The Fresno State Bulldogs finished third, shooting a total of 886. Brigham Young's Andy Miller and New Mexico's Joel Hendry posted final rounds of 70, but Hendry was able to hold on to his one-stroke lead after the first two rounds to clench the individual title. Sophomore Brett Guetz was the top finisher for the Horned Frogs, shooting a third-round 73 to remain tied for seventh place with a 54-hole total of 220. "I thought I played pretty good golf in the wind and on a hard course," Guetz said. "It was really not the best I have hit the ball, but I managed to shoot some low scores, which helped me finish in the top ten. "The team has been playing some good golf lately. Now we just have to take the tournaments one at a time until we get to regional play." Montigel said he was excited to see Guetz play three good rounds of golf. "He was playing against the top teams in the country, and him finishing in seventh place is really going to help the team out a lot," Montigel said. "He got off to a little bit of a slow start this year after winning the Fort Worth Men's City Amateur and played very well in that but didn't play very well the next three tournaments. "In Hawaii, he played very well in the first two rounds but had a tough time in the third round. This is the first time Brett has really put together three consistently well-played rounds." Behind Guetz, sophomore Andy Doeden jumped from 64th to 51st place with a final round of 73 and a total of 232. Junior Aaron Hickman also had a strong final-round shooting, an even par 72, moving from 77th to 61st place with a total of 234. Freshman Jamie Kellam shot a 78 in the final round and finished in a tie for 67th at 236. Junior Sal Spallone finished the tournament in a tie for 67th place with a three-round total of 240. Montigel said the main thing the team needs to be concentrating on is consistency. "What we want to have is all five guys hitting the ball well and having three consistent rounds of good golf," Montigel said. "If we could just put it all together, we obviously have the capability to be a real good golf team. "We need to have all five guys playing together and not three one tournament, then only one the next tournament. We are a good, young team, but just really inconsistent." The men will be competing in the Chris Schenkel E-Z-Go Invitational at Forest Heights Country Club in Statesboro, Ga., this weekend.
Chris Harrison
By Chris Ray Skiff staff Ranked No. 30 in the latest edition of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association polls, the TCU women's tennis team is riding a current five-match winning streak into this weekend's Fifth Annual University of Texas at El Paso Spring Shoot-out at the El Paso Tennis Club. TCU comes into the tournament boasting a 12-3 overall record on the season, holding an impressive record against ranked opponents with wins over No. 37-ranked Texas, No. 17 South Carolina, No. 69 Oklahoma and No. 56 San Diego. "The girls are playing very well and with great confidence especially against good, solid teams like Texas, Texas A&M and San Diego," head coach Roland Ingram said. "We go out there to win and nothing else, and that's what we have been doing this far. This will help us down the stretch as tournament time approaches." The women also boast three nationally ranked players in freshman Dorrit Huppes, ranked No. 66, senior Lucie Dvorakova, ranked No. 76, and senior Daria Zoldakova, ranked No. 93. TCU's doubles tandem of Zoldakova and Dvorakova continue their dominating play in doubles action with a 21-2 record. The duo is currently ranked No. 9 in the latest ITA polls. The duo also holds a 3-1 record against ranked opponents and are currently riding an eight-match winning streak into this weekend's play. "I am very proud of the team's play, they are coming together well and we look to make a run at the rest of the season," Ingram said. "If we can stay healthy and continue to play well, there is no limit to where this team can go." This weekend's tournament will be a big test for the women's tennis team, as they play a highly ranked team in Washington and a fellow WAC member in UTEP. TCU will face a tough Washington team ranked No. 25 in the ITA polls 11 a.m. Saturday in the UTEP tourney and face unranked UTEP 10 a.m. Sunday. The Frogs picked up a key win over No. 56-ranked San Diego State University along with a win against WAC opponent Hawaii. The Frogs won four of five singles matches and two of three doubles matches en route to the win over San Diego. In doubles, No. 9-ranked Dvorakova and Zoldakova pulled off a big win over No. 1-ranked Zuzana Lesenarove and Katrina Valykova of San Diego, 9-8 (7-2) in a tiebreaker. In singles action, Huppes is currently 24-3 on the season and is riding a 10-match winning streak dating back to early February. Huppes, a native of the Netherlands, was October Player of the Month in the Western Athletic Conference. The freshman is leading the Frogs at an opportune time, with the WAC tournament April 28 to 30 at TCU. "Dorrit has been playing very, very well for the past couple of weeks. She has the skills but most importantly the mental determination to win the match - that's what's important," Ingram said. The Frogs take action this weekend in El Paso, as a warm-up for the home stretch of the season with tournament play one month away.
Chris Ray
By Danny Horne staff reporter With his first full season as head coach of the TCU women's basketball team complete, Jeff Mittie reflects on a season of ups and downs. Q: What were your expectations as first-year head coach of the women's basketball team this season? A: "There are always high expectations early in the season for any team. When I took over this team, there were a lot of unknowns. We had so little time to prepare and get acclimated since I didn't start until the day before classes opened last fall." Q: Talk about the flow of the season and some of the hard times the team faced. A: "We faced and played through adversity all season. Our lack of time to adjust to each other was a key factor in the beginning. On top of that, we had to play through injuries." The Lady Frogs played all but one game without senior forward Shonda Mack, and junior guard Amy Sutton missed 12 games after fracturing her fibula Jan. 15. Sophomore Tricia Payne played through injuries for much of the season. "I think we responded very well to the injuries. It has helped us learn how to play through adversity, which is good, but I would rather not have to do it again."
A: "Overall this season, I think we did a lot of good things. The players heard about losing streaks to Southern Methodist and Rice for much of the season, so it was good for us to get at least one out of the way when we beat Rice. They have a talented team, which was proven when they won the conference tournament and upset California-Santa Barbara in the NCAA Tournament." TCU lost twice this season to SMU, extending a losing streak that dates back to 1991. The Lady Frogs did, however, end a 17-game losing streak to Rice after they beat the Lady Owls in Houston 63-62. "I thought the win over St. Mary's was great for this program, and we also got the program's first-ever win over a Big 12 (Conference) team when we beat Kansas State." Q: For next season, what needs to be done differently to improve? A: "Injuries hurt our depth, but we still need to be more consistent. After we lost some of our scorers to injury, our margin for error became small." When Amy Sutton went down, she was averaging 11.4 points a game. She still finished third on the team in steals (33) despite missing 12 games. "There were cases where some of our top scorers might have an off game, and we would struggle overall because we didn't have much experience coming off the bench." Q: What can be done specifically to become a more consistent offensive team? A: "We must improve our scoring depth. We have good young players in (freshmen) Kim Walter and Halisi Johnson. Tricia (Payne) is only a sophomore. We definitely have the talent." Mittie said he expects the five returning seniors (Amy and Jill Sutton, Janice Thomas, Karen Clayton and Sally Spencer) to be a key element in terms of leadership and maturity. He said they provide a stability mechanism that will, in turn, help with depth. "Our recruiting will also help. Talented young players will eventually turn into talented experience." Q: With everything that has happened this season, there must be a level of satisfaction. A: "Yes, there is some satisfaction, but I could never be happy as a coach at 16-14. I've told the players that we have started to climb that hill, but we must understand that the hill gets steeper as you get closer to the top."
Danny Horne
Talk about self-deprecation. What else could you consider the comments from Temple University men's basketball coach John Chaney, who referred to himself as "The Black Knight" in a spirited defense of his colleague and partner in profanity-laced tirades, Indiana coach Bob Knight. Not that Knight needs much defense, mind you. He has a pretty mean chokehold, if we're to believe former Indiana player Neil Reed, who shared some of Knight's "motivational tactics" in a lengthy investigative story by CNN/Sports Illustrated. Knight, who truly puts the "madness" in March, has long been known for more than his three national championships (the most of any active coach), or that he graduates more than 90 percent of his players, or that he once raised $5 million for his university's library, or that in 29 years as Indiana's head coach, his program has never been penalized by the NCAA. Instead, Knight's legacy may be that of tossing a chair across the court in anger at an official's call, punching a cop in Puerto Rico, placing a tampon in a player's locker, saying that if rape inevitable, then "enjoy it," and a list of acts so boorish and profane that it could make even Howard Stern blush. In the CNN/SI report, Reed accused Knight of choking him, which was in addition to the usual round of verbal and physical abuse IU's head man dispenses among his "subjects." Reed also claimed that Knight once emerged from a bathroom, pants around his ankles, and produced a soiled sheet of toilet paper to describe his team's play. But in justifying Knight's behavior to others, Chaney said, "One of the things that I believe sincerely, in what he does and what I do is that I don't buy bad behavior. I don't buy it. And that's what this country is doing: buying bad behavior." Chaney used easy targets to punctuate his example: former Dallas Maverick Dennis Rodman, the Dallas Cowboys' Michael Irvin and the Atlanta Braves' John Rocker. "I think a coach who will not buy bad behavior is a damn good coach, and he's rare," Chaney explained. "Bob Knight is rare. I am rare." Thank god for that. Why do they, particularly Knight, feel they should be exempt from criticism for perpetuating this bad behavior with their equally bad behavior? Do you think either Knight or Chaney would tolerate a player who bullied his other teammates, berated officials, was constantly at odds with media, used profane language (in public arenas) the way most people use verbs and was a constant source of embarrassment to the university? Of course not. That player would be back on the first plane to Terre Haute faster than Indiana was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament. But if there's one thing Knight is particularly adept at (besides coaching basketball), it's his refusal to apologize or admit that maybe, just maybe, he committed a boo-boo (I'm not speaking of his motivational prop here). If Knight was a child (and he acts like one from time to time), psychologists would label him a behavioral problem and prescribe Ritalin. So in a way, Chaney is correct. Too many people are "buying bad behavior." Like the people at Indiana who support, and even encourage, Knight to continue with his barnyard misbehavior. And if there is any justice, the next time Knight gets the urge to choke someone, he should pick on someone his own size. Like Latrell Sprewell. n For the people who constantly harped about the "bad timing" of the CNN/SI's story about Knight, which was conveniently released just days before the start of the NCAA Tournament, I have a question: When was there a better time? When Reed left the team in 1997, he brought the same charges of Knight's abuse to Indiana officials. Three years and a hailstorm of criticism later, Indiana officials thought it was important enough to fully investigate those claims. This was in no small part due to the timing of the story. Besides, Knight's supporters would have had a problem with the story's "timing," no matter when it was released.
Opinion Editor Joel Anderson is a senior news-editorial
journalism major from Missouri City, Texas. |
Q: You finished the season at 16-14. What
can you take into next season as positive?| The TCU Daily Skiff © 1998, 1999 Credits |