The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 83, No. 19, Ed. 1 Friday, February 16, 1996 Page: 14 of 20
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I
14 FRIDAY. FEBRUARY 16, 1996
THE RIC
' S. 41 .
Steve Gauvain
Staff Writer
It is that time of the year again. Time for the
Rockets to lick their collective wounds and shake
off yet another terrible January. The Rockets
went a typically disappointing 7-8 which included
losing to powerhouses like Chicago and Or-
lando and lowlifes Boston and Washington.
After winning back-to-back championships,
which came during seasons in which they also
had bad Januarys, they are not ready to jump
ship yet. At 31-18, they are still ahead of last
season's record at this point, and their schedule
is much nicer finishing out the season.
The Rocket s have played a league-leading 27
road games of their 49 games and have a very
nice finishing stretch of the regular season where
they play six out of their last seven at home.
The injury bug has
J also been bad for the
Rockets with Clyde
Drexler, Robert Horry,
Mario Elie and Sam
Cassell all sitting out mul-
tiple games. Hakeem
Olajuwon was also off to a
slow start after missing
the entire preseason.
Elie's injury is particu-
larly bad for the Rockets
since he takes away that
pesky defender that can
shut a guy down and also spot up from the
outside when the Rockets get their inside-out-
side game going.
Horry, nagging knees aside, lias just had a
bad year. After having a brilliant NBA finals
performance and giving fans from all over a
tantalizing taste of what his potential is, he lias
failed to live up to it,
The defense is still there, but the intensity is
not. The same goes for Kenny Smith, except that
he is a defensive liability as well an offensive one.
Smith, pulling the best Houdini imperson-
ation in recent history, has been demoted all the
way back to third string. What is worse is that he
is not upset over getting benched and is not
showing any desire to get his starting jobback.
After two championships, the fansof the Rock-
ets expect their team to flourish when their team
is down, and now is the time to start doing it.
Although the Rockets have a lot of home
games left, they have only 33 total games left,
including key game pairs against the Lakers,
Soiiics and Suns.
Also lacking seems to be the Rockets mental-
ity of getting up for the big games. They have
been consistently losing to the premier teams in
the league, including alf six of their games against
Chicago, Orlando and Seattle. The two Magic
games were close losses in which Orlando out-
performed Houston in tb^lutch, • • .
Why does this happen to the Rockets year
after year? Are they trying to lull opponents into
writing them off? Do they really enjoy being the
underdog time and again? If so, they are doing a
great job of rolling over and playing dead.
However, after last year it will be a lot harder
to fool teams.
As tough it will be, here is why I think the
Rockets will make a repeat finals appearance
and win another championship.
Olajuwon — The best ort the planet. After a
slow start, he has really picked up the pace and
is on track to add to his list of phenomenal
seasons. His leadership and ability to pick up the
slack is a huge asset for this team.
Drexler — You can't really mention Hakeem
without putting in a word for Clyde. Is he 33 or
23? He is looking and playing like a kid again,
giving the Rockets a multitude of offensive op-
tions.
Rudy T — Possibly the most underrated
coach in the league. These guys would do any-
thing for him, and they completely believe in his
system. Rudy has an intuition that is almost
unrivaled.
Chemistry — No, not that class that most
freshman take, but the intangible of a team that
works as one. No team is closer, and no team
knows more about each other.
Heart of a Champion — Rudy coined the
phrase, and he and his team live by it every day.
Clever underestimate the heart of a champion.
That's what these guys are, champions.
i'1"
Sports
'■ 1 111
rmm m
Polk provides heroics to break Owls' three-game losing streak
John Fredland
' Siuft Wtiifi
Just when it looked as though the Rice
basketball team would continue its losing
streak, j-.J. Polk came to the rescue.
With the Owls trailing Southern Meth-
odist University by one point Wednesday
night, and 4.2 seconds remaining in the
game, Polk took the inbounds pass, drove
the length of the court and hit a buzzer-
beating runner from the foul line to lift Rice
to a 71-70 victory over the Mustangs in
Dallas.
Polk's heroics followed a Jamal Rich
three-pointer that apparently had killed an
Owl comeback and extended their losing
streak to four consecutive games.
* "It's one of those plays we Work on once
a week in practice, just to refresh guys'
memories," Head Coach Willis Wilson said.
"It's a play designed to get it in to J.J., and,
if he can hit Tommy (McGhee | or Eric
[Singletary) on a move over the top, he
throws it to them.
" If he can't, he just pushes it as deep as
he can, knowing he's going to draw defend-
ers or be isolated one-on-one. He was one-
on-one, and what a shot."
Rice's seventh consecutive victory over
the Mustangs improved the Owls' record
to 12-10 overall, <1-6 in the Southwest Con-
ference. SMU dropped to 6-15, 2-7.
"We just dug in and fought our way
back," Wilson said. "They're a good basket-
ball team. We had some go-to guys that just
stepped up big tonight. I couldn't be hap-
pier to get a win on the road in the,South-
west Conference tonigHt*"
SMU expanded a 31-27 halftime lead to
12 points in the second half, when Rice
started chipping away.
The Owls finally gained the lead at 65-64
with 1:48 to play when Shaun Igo, who
scored a game-high 33 points in only 25
minutes, hit a pair of free throws.
Rich answered with a three-pointer, one
of his six on the night, to put SMU back in
the lead. He finished with 22 points.
Singletary and McGhee then converted
both ends of their trips to the free-throw
line to give Rice a 69-67 lead with 12.4
seconds to go.
This, however, would only last as long
as Rich's final long-range shot.
Singletary, Polk and McGhee added 10
points apiece.
The Owls dropped a bizarre 63-59 deci-
sion to the-University of Houston at
Hofheinz Pavilion on Saturday night.
Playing a strong half-court delehse, Rice
held the Cougars to one field goal over the
final 7:45 of the game.
This followed a stretch from the end of
the first half to the beginning of the second
when the Owls held Houston without a
basket for 7:44.
The Cougprs, however, picked up the
slack from the free-throw lino. They scored
13 of their final 15 points from the charity
stripe.
R
ority against Houston
aturday night in
ce s
They also succeeded in shutting down
Rice's offense. Stricken with an inability to
finish off scoring opportunities, the Owls
squandered 17 offensive rebounds and fin-
ished with an ugly 31.7 shooting percent-
age.
McGhee led Rice with 18 points, despite
making only six of 20 shots from the floor.
Igo added 16 points and 10 rebounds.
Rice returns home to play Texas A&M
University on Saturday at 7:35 p.m.
This game, and the subsequent contest
with Texas Christian University on Feb, 21,
will be significant for Owl hopes of finish-
ing In the top half of the conference stand-
ings.
Victories will also strengthen Owl
chances for their sixth consecutive win
ning season, which would tie a team record
set from 1939-45.
Texas A&M beat Rice 78-56 in College
Station on Jan. 20,
"It's going to be*a tough basketball
game," Wilson said. "It always is with the
Aggies. The teams play two different tem-
pos. They controlled the tempo at their
place — we've got to get it back.
"I know our guys are going to be hungry
to get a win ^gainst the Aggies. If there's
any basketball team out there that makes
you earn your keep every night, it's the
Texas Aggies. p
"Our guys understand that. We're look-
ing forward to it*"
Women fall short in SMU upset bid
Alex Chapman
Awl Spoili tuhrin
The women's basketball team appeared
to be two different teams this week.
The team that played the University of
Houston Saturday night was composed,
aggresive and functioned as a single, unit.
The result was a 70-57 win.
Wednesday night, Southern Methodist
University played a team that was disorga-
nized, and lacking in offensive.intensity.
The result was a 61-60 SMU victory.
Wednesday night's game at Autry Court
against SMU'was a seCsaw affair,-with 10
lead changes .and eight ties. But the advan-
tage was unquestionably Rice
.The Owls maintained a small lead for
the majority of the first half, but they were
unable to put together a cohesive run to
break the game open. Thirteen first-half
turifbvers led to a 25-25 halftime tie.
The second half started in much the
same way as the first, with Rice either
ahead or tied with the Mustangs.
Hut guard Natf'r Dunn, playing with
four folds, made three jump shots to put the
Mustangs up 50-46 with 5:54 remaining in
the game.
Then Kim Brand! entered the game
Her tangible intensity raised the entire SMU
team a notch.
"The difference was Kim Brandl. She
had the mentality to take over a basketball
game. She decided she wanted to win, and
she did what she had to. We don't have a
player like that right now," Rice Head Coach
Cristy McKinney said.
Before the Owls woke from their sleep-
walk. 'hey found themselves down five with
1:09 remaining in the game. The Owls tried
to come back, but the Mustangs made thefr
free throws and were able to escape with"
the victory.
Rice's Tammy McCallum made a three-
point shot with less than a second remain-
Wig, and the Owls were not able to call a
time-out before the buzzer sounded.
Brandl had 25 points to lead the Mus-
tangs to their 16th victory of the year against
seven losses. The Mustangs improved to
16-7 overall and 6-3 within the Southwest
Conference. Kfm Brungardt had «K?Ven
points Slid11 rgbOUnd for SMU. "
MeCallum's ability to create her own
shots was one of the few bright spots. She
finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds
for the Owls, -
McKinney was unhappy with her
team's inability to take advantage of their
chance to defeat a team thatavas favored
to win the Southwest Conference in tjie
preseason. "We played bad tonight, as
bad as we have in a long time," she said.
Her players were also taking a hard
look at their play in the wake of their
defeat. "What do we. need to do to win
these games? That's a good question,"
she said. "The coach was asking us that
♦after the game."
The superficial difficulties were ap-
parent to all, however. The Owls only
shot 36 percent of the floor.
"Our biggest problem was offensive
intensity. Our defense was OK, but we
couldn't score," McCallum said.
Against Houston on Saturday""aftef-
noon in a nationally televised game, how-
ever, it was a different story. The Owls
defeated Houston using sharp passing
(as evidenced by 17 assists) and an
aggresively collapsing defense.
see INTENSITY PAGt 1 i
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Klein, Charles & Rao, Vivek. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 83, No. 19, Ed. 1 Friday, February 16, 1996, newspaper, February 16, 1996; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246532/m1/14/: accessed June 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.