By Rusty Simmons sports editor New head coach Jeff Mittie's debut against a ranked opponent did not go as planned. The Frogs' main focus was to stop No. 14, No. 13 in ESPN/USA Today coaches' poll and No. 15 Associated Press, California-Santa Barabara's transition game. "Our transition defense is the key to this game," Mittie said in a pre-game interview on KTCU. "We will either attack the outlet pass or keep two players back to cut out transition layups."
UC-SB has only lost 13 home games in the last 12 seasons, and the home-court advantage was visible early. The Gauchos got off to an 8-0 lead in the early minutes of the game. TCU cut the lead to 8-5 with a five-point run of its own. But UC-SB went on an 11-0 spurt to extend the Gauchos lead to 19-5. TCU was shooting less than 20 percent from the field with seven minutes left in the first frame, while UC-SB was shooting close to 50 percent. Down 7-25, the Frogs finally found the shooting touch. Sophomore forward Tricia Payne, junior forward Sally Spencer and senior guard Diamond Jackson hit three straight jump shots. UC-SB turned up the tempo when TCU closed in on the lead. UC-SB scored six straight on transition buckets, to extend the lead to 16-38. The Frogs, led by three-point jumpers by Jackson and Payne, ended the first half with 10 straight points to cut the lead to 26-40. TCU continued the sharp shooting in the second half, including four three-pointers in the half's opening eight minutes. But even the Frogs' shooting from behind the arc could not close in the Gauchos' lead. UC-SB's Erin Buescher, a preseason All-American, added to her 15 first-half points with eight more points in the early-going of the second half to keep the Frogs at a comfortable distance. Buescher ended the game with 25 points and 10 rebounds for the double-double. After TCU out rebounded the Gauchos 21-17 in the first half, UC-SB crashed the glass harder in the second half. The Gauchos, the No. 9 rebounding team in the nation last season, ended with a 43-31 advantage in rebounds. Despite a better shooting performance by the Frogs in the second half, UC-SB used more intensity in rebounding and Buescher's performance for a 25-point victory, 86-61. "(UC-SB) is a good basketball team and an experienced basketball team," Mittie said in a post-game interview on KTCU. "They've been through the war, and we had trouble matching their intensity early. "We'll be a better basketball team for coming out here, but (it) depends on how we react." The Frogs play the Houston Jaguars, a traveling exhibition team, at 7 p.m. Friday at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum, and Mittie thinks his squad's reaction will be positive. "I think I know this team," he said. "I think they'll come back strong on Friday."
Rusty Simmons
By Joel Anderson staff reporter The hues in the sky changed from yellow to orange to red, then finally, purple. Darkness settled over the TCU practice field as the bleary group of football players filed off the field. The air stood still, and the temperature was appropriately mild for a Texas autumn. An observer at practice stated the obvious, "This is a great day for playing football." Robert Wallace, who was lock in step with the other players, feels like any day is a great day for football. Rather, it would be if he could once again join his teammates on the field of play. "I miss the games, the intensity, the whole Saturday atmosphere," Wallace said wistfully. "I miss the challenges, the whole aspect of the game." That would seem an easy enough prospect for the 6-foot-4, 300-pound Wallace, who started four times on the TCU offensive line as a true freshman in 1997. But a multi-level degenerative disc condition in Wallace's back, which was incurred during a weightroom workout, has more than likely ended what once seemed a bright future on the gridiron.
Wallace came to TCU with a solid football pedigree. From the nearby fields of Euless Trinity High School, about 30 minutes from TCU, Wallace compiled an impressive career on the offensive line. He was a consensus Texas Top 100 honoree and all-district as a senior at Euless Trinity. Wallace's older brother, Leon, was a star tight end at Notre Dame from 1992-95. Older sister, Vanessa, was a standout basketball player at the University of Texas from 1995-98. So everything seemed to be in place for quite a career, but then the injury shattered Wallace's dreams of glory. "Sometimes I try to remember what it used to be like to play," Wallace said. "During the games it's hard. At first I asked myself, 'Why me?' Finally, I gave it up to the Lord. He has other things in store for me." When most players suffer career-ending injuries, they slowly separate themselves from the team, choosing to avoid day-to-day contact with the sport they once loved. But Wallace dutifully attends every practice, every meeting, every game as if he were still battling in the trenches cloaked in the purple of the Horned Frogs. "I spent 10 years of my life trying to get to this point," Wallace said. "Now I try to help out the other guys, particularly the younger guys. I try to let them know that there's more to them than football." Wallace had to learn that lesson for himself, but fortunately academics has always played an important role in his life. "I'm very glad that I took my studies seriously," said Wallace, who is a dean's list student and a junior computer science major. "Football, athletics, can be taken away from you just like that." TCU offensive line coach Jim Bob Helduser said the constant presence of Wallace is an important influence on the other players. "Robert sets a great leadership example for the guys," Helduser said. "He's such a great student, he's so conscientious, and he's a very responsible young man. He goes the extra mile in everything he's involved in." Wallace still dreams of stepping onto the field again. Barring a medical miracle, the threat of possible paralysis would remain, but Wallace still feels the pangs to rejoin the Frogs. "I just remember what it felt like to be out there in the huddle, sweating it out," Wallace said. "If I got the chance to go back out there, at least just one more time, I would like to cut (block) somebody." Sophomore guard, Victor Payne, a friend and former roommate of Wallace's, understands his friend's situation. "I wouldn't be out here," Payne said. "It would just make it harder on me. But for him, I think it's more important he moves on. Like I've told him, the present isn't as important as the future. I've asked him, 'Do you want to be able to walk and play with your kids when you're 30?' Sometimes he's still hard-headed." For now, Wallace just remembers what it was like to be one of the guys. "I did everything to the best of my ability," he said. "I worked hard at everything I did. And despite the absence of glorious autumn football practices, there always remains the possibility of more great days.
Joel Anderson
Associated Press IRVING, Texas - The grayish scar on Emmitt Smith's right hand starts just below the knuckle of his ring finger and stretches about 3 inches, almost reaching his wrist. There is enough swelling that he can't completely make a fist. He often wears a soft cast, even when he showers. Wrapping his hand in plastic makes it difficult to scrub his left side. But Smith discovered that by putting a washrag over the plastic he could stay clean and keep the cast dry. And, he figures, if he can solve that problem then there's got to be a way for him to be in the backfield Sunday when the Dallas Cowboys play the Arizona Cardinals. "I'm going to be there," a defiant Smith said Wednesday before practicing for the first time since the injury. "I'm taking the trip and I expect to dress. And if I'm in uniform, I expect to play." Wearing a protective glove, he took handoffs and caught the ball with ease and without pain. 'Shoeless Joe' does not belong with other great Induction of Jackson into baseball Hall of Fame would be a disgrace I was in the computer lab Monday when I overheard some guy convincing his friend that Martin Luther King Jr. was as big a womanizer as anybody. King also didn't write many of his speeches, he said. Now, I don't know whether any of that is true or not, but frankly, I don't want to know. I respect Dr. King for the good he did in his lifetime, and I would just as soon keep it that way. It got me thinking about the alarming trend in our society to reach back into history and tear down anybody who is regarded as a hero, from Thomas Jefferson to Abraham Lincoln to John F. Kennedy. The dumbest part of this trend is that they are doing just the opposite for the villains of history. Case in point: "Shoeless Joe" Jackson, the dirtiest baseball player in history, who admitted under oath to agreeing to throw the World Series in 1919. Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives sent a "non-binding resolution" to the Senate for Jackson to be put into baseball's Hall of Fame. First, doesn't Congress have better things to do than worry about whether a guy who has been dead for 50 years is in the Hall of Fame? Second, why on earth would we want to put this guy in the Hall of Fame to begin with? Really, the one and only reason to put him in the Hall of Fame is because his career batting average, .356, ranks third all time. But we must remember that his declining years were cut off because of his involvement in the Black Sox scandal, so we are left with his batting average during his prime. Truthfully, as a baseball player, Jackson ranks with Harry Heilmann, a right fielder from the 1920s who also hit .400 once. He ranks as a much worse player than Tris Speaker, a contemporary to Jackson that doesn't get near the acclaim he does. But Speaker and Heilmann are both legitimate Hall of Famers, you might say. Well, neither one of them threw a World Series for monetary gain either. Those who want to forget this little detail point to several arguments. One argument is posed by Kevin Costner's character in "Field of Dreams:" "If he's supposed to be throwing it, how do you explain the fact that he hit .375 for the Series and didn't commit one error?" Well, the conspirators said they did not try to get swept. They tried to win some games, but eventually lose enough games to lose the best-of-nine series. According to Rob Neyer of ESPN.com, Jackson hit .545 in the games the White Sox won, and .250 with no RBI in the first four that they lost. In the deciding game, he was hitless until they were down 5-0 and hit a two-run double after they were down 10-1. All of this does not prove that he didn't try his best in all eight games, but it doesn't prove that he did, either. But either way, Jackson admitted to knowing about the plan and even took money to participate in the plan. And as the best player on the team, his decision to participate in the conspiracy almost certainly helped the gamblers convince his teammates to go along with it. Some people would argue he was illiterate and didn't know what he was doing. Look, education is not necessarily an indication of intelligence, and his illiteracy does not mean he was so dumb he didn't know why these guys were giving him $5,000, with a promise of $15,000 more once the Series was lost. Jackson gave this testimony under oath: Q: How much did he promise you? A: $20,000 if I would take part. Q: And you said you would? A: Yes, sir. During that trial, the eight White Sox players who were banned from baseball were acquitted on criminal charges, but contrary to widespread perception, they were acquitted of "defrauding the American public," not throwing baseball games. In fact, the jury was specifically instructed that throwing baseball games was not, in itself, a criminal offense. It is interesting to think about who would benefit from Jackson being elected into the Hall of Fame. I guarantee that Shoeless Joe, wherever he is now, couldn't care less whether he has his likeness on a plaque in upstate New York. And Jackson's family is nowhere to be found in this fight. Perhaps the answer can come from Rep. Jim DeMint, the Republican from Jackson's hometown of Greenville, S.C., who authored the resolution. "It is worthy for this body to take a few minutes to stand up for fairness and right an old wrong." In other words, it would bring money to his constituents for Jackson to be in the headlines again. As a superstar player who took money to intentionally lose his sport's championship, Jackson performed possibly the most despicable act in the history of American team sports. So while nobody would benefit from his induction but a few money-grubbers and those, as Neyer puts it, "who get weepy when they watch 'Field of Dreams,'" anybody who respects the integrity of sports would lose. Baseball's foremost researcher Bill James had this to say about the Joe Jackson cult: "The people who want to put Joe Jackson in the Hall of Fame are baseball's answer to those women who show up at murder trials wanting to marry the cute murderer." That says it all.
Stephen Suffron is a senior broadcast journalism major from League City, Texas. Information for this article came from ESPN.com and "Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame" by Bill James. Suffron can be reached at (sdsuffron@delta.is.tcu.edu). |
But the UC-SB Gauchos' 28 fast-break points led to an 86-61
victory over TCU in the Women's National Invitation Tournament quarterfinal
contest Wednesday night. 
"Robert could have been a big help for us," said
TCU football coach Dennis Franchione. "He knew all five positions
on the offensive line. He understands what people are supposed to do and
why they do it. That's very rare in a player."| The TCU Daily Skiff © 1998, 1999 Credits |